Gheada

  Gheada

  No gheada

Gheada in the Galician language is the debuccalization of the phoneme /g/ (voiced velar stop) resulting in one of the following variations:

• [ħ] voiceless pharyngeal fricative
• [h] voiceless glottal fricative like the "h" in English "house"

At times, the sound is also articulated as [x] voiceless velar fricative like in some Peninsular Spanish pronunciations of "jamón".

Gheada is predominant in Spain's Galician-speaking region and attested throughout its western half: in the provinces of A Coruña, Pontevedra, the westernmost part of Lugo, and the western half of Ourense. In the last two provinces, however, gheada is declining.

Orthographic representation

In Galician or Spanish dialogue, this pronunciation is represented by the digraph gh.

Examples:

• "gato" ['gato] (cat) --> "ghato" ['ħato]
• "pago" ['paɣo] (payment) --> "pagho" ['paħo]

See also

• Seseo

External links

• Map of gheada and seseo use in Galician-speaking areas
• The Use of Gheada in Three Generations of Women from Carballo, A Coruña by Juan Antonio Thomas, the University at Albany