Voiceless velar fricative

Voiceless velar fricative
x
IPA number	140
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	x
Unicode (hex)	U+0078
X-SAMPA	x
Kirshenbaum	x
Braille
Sound
source · help

The voiceless velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It was part of the consonant inventory of Old English and can still be found in some dialects of English, most notably in Scottish English loch.

The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨x⟩.

There is also a voiceless post-velar fricative (also called pre-uvular) in some languages. For voiceless pre-velar fricative (also called post-palatal), see voiceless palatal fricative.

Features

Features of the voiceless velar fricative:

• Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.

• Its place of articulation is velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue at the soft palate.

• Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.

• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.

• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.

• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Varieties

IPA	Description
x	plain velar fricative
xʷ	labialised
xʼ	ejective
xʷʼ	ejective labialised
x̜ʷ	semi-labialised
x̹ʷ	strongly labialised
xʲ	palatalised
xʲʼ	ejective palatalised

Occurrence

The voiceless velar fricative and its labialized variety are traditionally postulated to have occurred in Proto-Germanic, the ancestor of the Germanic languages, as the reflex of the Proto-Indo-European voiceless palatal and velar stops and the labialized voiceless velar stop. Thus Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥nom "horn" and *kʷód "what" became Proto-Germanic *hurnan and *hwat, where *h and *hw were likely to be [x] and [xʷ]. This sound change is part of Grimm's law.

In Modern Greek, the voiceless velar fricative (with its allophone the voiceless palatal fricative [ç], occurring before front vowels) originated from the Ancient Greek voiceless aspirated stop /kʰ/ in a sound change that lenited Greek aspirated stops into fricatives.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abaza		хьзы	[xʲzǝ]	'name'
Adyghe		хы	[xə]	'six'
Afrikaans	Some speakers[1]	goed	[xut]	'good'	Usually uvular [χ] instead.[1] See Afrikaans phonology
Aleut	Atkan dialect	alax	[ɑlɑx]	'two'
Arabic	Modern Standard	خضراء	[xadˤraːʔ]	'green (f)'	May be velar, post-velar or uvular, depending on dialect.[2] See Arabic phonology
Assamese		অসমীয়া/Ôxômiya	[ɔxɔmija]	'Assamese'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		kha	[xaː]	'one'
Avar		чeхь	[tʃex]	'belly'
Azerbaijani		xoş/خوش	[xoʃ]	'pleasant'
Basque	Some speakers[3]	jan	[xän]	'to eat'	Either velar or post-velar.[3] For other speakers it's [j ~ ʝ ~ ɟ].[4]
Breton		hor c'hi	[or xiː]	'our dog'
Bulgarian		тихо/tiho	['tixo]	'quietly'
Chinese	Mandarin	河/hé	[xɤ˧˥]	'river'	See Standard Chinese phonology
Czech		chlap	[xlap]	'guy'	See Czech phonology
Danish	Southern Jutlandic	kage	[ˈkʰæːx]	'cake'	See Sønderjysk dialect
Dutch	Standard Belgian[5][6]	acht	[ɑxt]	'eight'	May be post-palatal [ç̠] instead.[6] See Dutch phonology
	Southern accents[6][7]
	Standard Netherlandic[7]		[ɑx̠t]		Post-velar; may be uvular [χ] instead.[7] Also described as a post-velar trill fricative [ʀ̝̊˖].[8] See Dutch phonology
English	Scottish	loch	[ɫɔx]	'loch'	Younger speakers may merge this sound with /k/.[9][10] See Scottish English phonology
	Scouse[11]	book	[bʉːx]	'book'	A syllable-final allophone of /k/ (lenition).
	Some American speakers	yech	[jɛx]	'yech'	See English phonology
Esperanto		monaĥo	[monaxo]	'monk'	See Esperanto phonology
Eyak		duxł	[tʊxɬ]	'traps'
Finnish[12]		tuhka	[tuxkɑ]	'ash'	Allophone of /h/. See Finnish phonology
French		jota	[xɔta]	'jota'	Occurs only in loanwords (from Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, etc.). See French phonology
Georgian[13]		ჯოხი	[ˈdʒɔxi]	'stick'
German		Buch	[buːx]	'book'	See German phonology
Greek		τέχνη/téchni	[ˈte̞xni]	'art'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hindustani		ख़ुशी/خوشی	[xʊʃiː]	'happiness'	See Hindustani phonology
Hungarian		sahhal	[ʃɒxːɒl]	'with a shah'	See Hungarian phonology
Irish		deoch	[dʲɔ̝̈x]	'drink'	See Irish phonology
Kabardian		дахэ	[daːxa]	'pretty'
Korean		흠집/heumjip	[xɯmd͡ʑip̚]	'flaw'	Allophone of /h/ before /ɯ/. See Korean phonology
Limburgish[14][15][16][17]		loch	[lɔx]	'air'	The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect.
Lithuanian		choras	[ˈxɔrɐs̪]	'choir'	Occurs only in loanwords (usually international words)
Lojban		xatra	[xatra]	'letter'
Luxembourgish[18]		Zuch	[t͡sux]	'train'	Also described as uvular [χ].[19] See Luxembourgish phonology
Macedonian		Охрид/Ohrid	[ˈɔxrit]	'Ohrid'	See Macedonian phonology
Malay		akhir	[a:xir]	'last', 'end'	Most Indonesian Malay speakers pronounce it as [h]
Manx		aashagh	[ˈɛːʒax]	'easy'
Norwegian	Standard Eastern[20]	hat	[xɑːt̻]	'hate'	Possible allophone of /h/ near back vowels; can be voiced [ɣ] between two voiced sounds.[20] See Norwegian phonology
Persian		خواهر	[xɒːhær]	'sister'	See Persian phonology
Polish[21]		chleb	[xlɛp]	'bread'	Also (in great majority of dialects) represented by ⟨h⟩. See Polish phonology
Portuguese	Fluminense	arte	[ˈaxtɕi]	'art'	In free variation with [χ], [ʁ], [ħ] and [h] before voiceless consonants
	General Brazilian[22]	arrasto	[ɐ̞ˈxastu]	'I drag'	Some dialects, corresponds to rhotic consonant /ʁ/. See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi		ਖ਼ਬਰ	[xəbəɾ]	'news'
Romanian		hram	[xräm]	'patron of a church'	Allophone of /h/. See Romanian phonology
Russian[23]		хороший/khoroshiy	[xɐˈr̠ʷo̞ʂɨ̞j]	'good'	See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic[24]		drochaid	[ˈt̪ɾɔxɪtʲ]	'bridge'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatian		храст / hrast	[xrâːst]	'oak'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak		chlap	[xlap]	'guy'
Somali		khad	[xad]	'ink'	See Somali phonology
Spanish[25]	Latin American[26]	ojo	[ˈo̞xo̞]	'eye'	May be glottal instead;[26] in northern and central Spain it is often post-velar[26][27][28] or uvular.[28][29] See Spanish phonology
	Southern Spain[26]
Swedish	Some speakers	sju	[xʷʉː]	'seven'	Occurs in South Swedish dialects. It is also common in some immigrant-influenced sociolects. See Swedish phonology
Turkish[30]		ıhlamur	[ıxlamuɾ]	'linden'	Allophone of /h/.[30] See Turkish phonology
Xhosa		rhoxisa	[xɔkǁiːsa]	'to cancel'
Ukrainian		хлопець	[ˈxɫɔ̝pɛt͡sʲ]	'boy'	See Ukrainian phonology
Uzbek[31]					Post-velar.[31] Occurs in environments different than word-initially and pre-consonantally, otherwise it's pre-velar.[31]
Vietnamese[32]		không	[xəwŋ͡m˧]	'not'	See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian		túch	[tyx]	'dust'	Allophone of /χ/, only occurring after close vowels ([i], [y] and [u])
Yaghan		xan	[xan]	'here'
Yi		ꉾ/he	[xɤ˧]	'good'
Yiddish		איך/ikh	[ix]	'I'	See Yiddish phonology
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[33]	mejor	[mɘxoɾ]	'better'	Used primarily in loanwords from Spanish

See also

• Index of phonetics articles
• Ḥ
• Guttural

References

1. "John Wells's phonetic blog: velar or uvular?". 5 December 2011. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
2. Watson (2002), pp. 17, 19-20, 35-36 and 38.
3. Hualde & Ortiz de Urbina (2003), pp. 16 and 26.
4. Hualde & Ortiz de Urbina (2003), p. 16.
5. Verhoeven (2005:243)
6. Collins & Mees (2003:191)
7. Gussenhoven (1999:74)
8. Collins & Mees (2003:191). The source says that it is a fricative with a "very energetic articulation with considerable scrapiness", i.e. a trill fricative.
9. Annexe 4: Linguistic Variables
10. "University of Essex :: Department of Language and Linguistics :: Welcome". Essex.ac.uk. Retrieved 2013-08-01.
11. Wells (1982:373)
12. http://scripta.kotus.fi visk sisallys.php?p=5
13. Shosted & Chikovani (2006), p. 255.
14. Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999:159)
15. Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998:110)
16. Peters (2006:119)
17. Verhoeven (2007:221)
18. Trouvain & Gilles (2009), p. 75.
19. Gilles & Trouvain (2013), p. 68.
20. Vanvik (1979), p. 40.
21. Jassem (2003), p. 103.
22. Barbosa & Albano (2004), pp. 5–6.
23. Padgett (2003), p. 42.
24. Oftedal, M. (1956) The Gaelic of Leurbost. Oslo. Norsk Tidskrift for Sprogvidenskap.
25. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 255.
26. Chen (2007), p. 13.
27. Hamond (2001:?), cited in Scipione & Sayahi (2005:128)
28. Lyons (1981), p. 76.
29. Harris & Vincent (1988), p. 83.
30. Göksel & Kerslake (2005:6)
31. Sjoberg (1963), pp. 11-12.
32. Thompson (1959), pp. 458–461.
33. Merrill (2008), p. 109.

Bibliography

• Arvaniti, Amalia (2007), "Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art" (PDF), Journal of Greek Linguistics 8: 97–208, doi:10.1075/jgl.8.08arv
• Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 227–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756
• Chen, Yudong (2007), A Comparison of Spanish Produced by Chinese L2 Learners and Native Speakers---an Acoustic Phonetics Approach
• Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2003), The Phonetics of English and Dutch, Fifth Revised Edition (PDF), ISBN 9004103406
• Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013), "Luxembourgish" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43 (1): 67–74, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278
• Göksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005), Turkish: a comprehensive grammar (PDF), Routledge, ISBN 978-0415114943, archived from the original (PDF) on 26 November 2014
• Gussenhoven, Carlos (1999), "Dutch", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 74–77, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
• Gussenhoven, Carlos; Aarts, Flor (1999), "The dialect of Maastricht" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association (University of Nijmegen, Centre for Language Studies) 29: 155–166, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006526
• Hamond, Robert M. (2001), The Sounds of Spanish: Analysis and Application, Cascadilla Press, ISBN 978-1-57473-018-0
• Harris, Martin; Vincent, Nigel (1988), "Spanish", The Romance Languages, pp. 79–130, ISBN 0-415-16417-6
• Heijmans, Linda; Gussenhoven, Carlos (1998), "The Dutch dialect of Weert" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 28: 107–112, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006307
• Hualde, José Ignacio; Ortiz de Urbina, Jon (2003), A Grammar of Basque, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, ISBN 3-11-017683-1
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191
• Lyons, John (1981), Language and Linguistics: An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-54088-9
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
• Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 38 (1): 107–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344
• Padgett, Jaye (2003), "Contrast and Post-Velar Fronting in Russian", Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 21 (1): 39–87, doi:10.1023/A:1021879906505
• Peters, Jörg (2006), "The dialect of Hasselt", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (1): 117–124, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002428
• Scipione, Ruth; Sayahi, Lotfi (2005), "Consonantal Variation of Spanish in Northern Morocco", in Sayahi, Lotfi; Westmoreland, Maurice, Selected Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics (PDF), Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project
• Shosted, Ryan K.; Chikovani, Vakhtang (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255–264, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659
• Sjoberg, Andrée F. (1963), Uzbek Structural Grammar
• Thompson, Laurence (1959), "Saigon phonemics", Language 35 (3): 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232
• Trouvain, Jürgen; Gilles, Peter (2009), PhonLaf - Phonetic Online Material for Luxembourgish as a Foreign Language 1 (PDF), pp. 74–77
• Vanvik, Arne (1979), Norsk fonetik, Oslo: Universitetet i Oslo, ISBN 82-990584-0-6
• Verhoeven, Jo (2005), "Belgian Standard Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35 (2): 243–247, doi:10.1017/S0025100305002173
• Verhoeven, Jo (2007), "The Belgian Limburg dialect of Hamont", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37 (2): 219–225, doi:10.1017/S0025100307002940
• Watson, Kevin (2007), "Liverpool English" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37 (3): 351–360, doi:10.1017/s0025100307003180
• Watson, Janet C. E. (2002), The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, New York: Oxford University Press
• Wells, J.C. (1982), Accents of English 2: The British Isles, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press