Voiceless velar fricative

Voiceless velar fricative
x
IPA number 140
Encoding
Entity (decimal) x
Unicode (hex) U+0078
X-SAMPA x
Kirshenbaum x
Braille ⠭ (braille pattern dots-1346) 
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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, e.g. in loch, broch or saugh (willow).

The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨x⟩, the Latin and English letter x. It is also used in broad transcription instead of the symbol ⟨χ⟩, the Greek chi, (or, more properly, ⟨ꭓ⟩, the Latin chi) for the voiceless uvular fricative.

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 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.

Varieties

IPADescription
xplain velar fricative
xʷlabialised
xʼejective
xʷʼejective labialised
x̜ʷsemi-labialised
x̹ʷstrongly labialised
xʲpalatalised
xʲʼejective 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.

LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
Abazaхьзы[xʲzə]'name'
Adygheхы [xəː] 'six'
AfrikaansSome speakers[1]goed[xut]'good'Usually uvular [χ] instead.[1] See Afrikaans phonology
AleutAtkan dialectalax[ɑlɑx]'two'
ArabicModern Standardخضراء‎[xadˤraːʔ]'green' (f.)May be velar, post-velar or uvular, depending on dialect.[2] See Arabic phonology
Assameseঅসমীয়া[ɔxɔmia]'Assamese'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaickha‎[xaː]'one'
Avarчeхь / ҫeẋ[tʃex]'belly'
Azerbaijanixoş / хош/خوش[xoʃ]'pleasant'
AlbanianAlbanian: gjuha[ɟuxɑ]'language'Allophone of /h/. See Albanian phonology
BasqueSome speakers[3]jan[xän]'to eat'Either velar or post-velar.[3] For other speakers it's [j ~ ʝ ~ ɟ].[4]
Bretonhor c'hi[or xiː]'our dog'
Bulgarianтихо / tiho [ˈt̪ixo] 'quietly'Described as having "only slight friction" ([x̞]).[5]
BurmeseBurmese: ဟုတ်[xɔu̯ʔ]'yes'See Burmese phonology
ChineseMandarin河 / hé[xɤ˧˥]'river'See Standard Chinese phonology
Czechchlap[xlap]'guy'See Czech phonology
DanishSouthern Jutlandickage[ˈkʰæːx]'cake'See Sønderjysk dialect
DutchStandard Belgian[6][7]acht[ɑxt]'eight'May be post-palatal [ç̠] instead.[7] See Dutch phonology
Southern Netherlands accents[7][8]
Standard Northern[8][ɑx̠t]Post-velar; may be uvular [χ] instead.[8] Also described as a post-velar trill fricative [ʀ̝̊˖].[9] See Dutch phonology
EnglishScottishloch[ɫɔx]'loch'Younger speakers may merge this sound with /k/.[10][11] See Scottish English phonology
Scouse[12]book[bʉːx]'book'A syllable-final allophone of /k/ (lenition).
Some American speakersugh[ʊx] or [ɯx]'ugh'See English phonology
Esperantomonaĥo[monaxo]'monk'See Esperanto phonology
Eyakduxł[tʊxɬ]'traps'
Frenchjota[xɔta]'jota'Occurs only in loanwords (from Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, etc.). See French phonology
Georgian[13]ჯოხი / joxi[ˈdʒɔxi]'stick'
GermanBuch [buːx] 'book'See Standard German phonology
Greekτέχνη / téchnî[ˈte̞xni]'art'See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrewמִיכָאֵל‎[mixaʔel]'Michael'See Ancient Hebrew phonology
Hindustaniख़ुशी / خوشی‬‎[xʊʃiː]'happiness'See Hindustani phonology
Hungariansahhal[ʃɒxːɒl]'with a shah'See Hungarian phonology
Irishdeoch[dʲɔ̝̈x]'drink'See Irish phonology
Japanese発表 / happyō[xɑppʲɔː]'announcement'Allophone of /h/. See Japanese phonology
Kabardianхы [xəː] 'sea'
Korean흔들바위 / heundeulbawi[xɯndɯlbɐy]'logan stone'Allophone of /h/ before /ɯ/. See Korean phonology
Limburgish[14][15]loch[lɔx]'air'The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect.
Lithuanianchoras[ˈxɔrɐs̪]'choir'Occurs only in loanwords (usually international words)
Lojbanxatra[xatra]'letter'
MacedonianОхрид / Ohrid [ˈɔxrit] 'Ohrid'See Macedonian phonology
Malayakhir[a:xir]'last', 'end'Occurs in Arabic loanwords. Often mispronounced as [h] or [k] by some Indonesians.
Manxaashagh[ˈɛːʒax]'easy'
NorwegianUrban East[16]hat[xɑːt]'hate'Possible allophone of /h/ near back vowels; can be voiced [ɣ] between two voiced sounds.[16] See Norwegian phonology
Persianخواهر‎[xɒːhær]'sister'See Persian phonology
Polish[17]chleb[xlɛp]'bread'Also (in great majority of dialects) represented by ⟨h⟩. See Polish phonology
PortugueseFluminensearte[ˈaxtɕi]'art'In free variation with [χ], [ʁ], [ħ] and [h] before voiceless consonants
General Brazilian[18]arrasto[ɐ̞ˈxastu]'I drag'Some dialects, corresponds to rhotic consonant /ʁ/. See Portuguese phonology
Punjabiਖ਼ਬਰ[xəbəɾ]'news'
Romanianhram[xräm]'patronal feast of a church'Allophone of /h/. See Romanian phonology
Russian[19]хороший / khorošij [xɐˈr̠ʷo̞ʂɨ̞j] 'good'See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic[20]drochaid[ˈt̪ɾɔxɪtʲ]'bridge'See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatianхраст / hrast[xrâːst]'oak'See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovakchlap[xɫäp]'guy'
Somalikhad[xad]'ink'See Somali phonology
Spanish[21]Latin American[22]ojo[ˈo̞xo̞]'eye'May be glottal instead;[22] in northern and central Spain it is often post-velar[22][23][24] or uvular.[24][25] See Spanish phonology
Southern Spain[22]
Sylhetiꠈꠛꠞ[xɔ́bɔɾ]'news'
Tagalogbakit[baxit]'why'Allophone of /k/ in intervocalic positions. See Tagalog phonology
Turkish[26]ıhlamur[ɯxlamuɾ]'linden'Allophone of /h/.[26] See Turkish phonology
Xhosarhoxisa[xɔkǁiːsa]'to cancel'
Ukrainianхлопець / chlopeć[ˈxɫɔ̝pɛt͡sʲ]'boy'See Ukrainian phonology
Uzbek[27]xoma[xɔma]'date palm'Post-velar.[27] Occurs in environments different than word-initially and pre-consonantally, otherwise it's pre-velar.[27]
Vietnamese[28]không[xəwŋ͡m˧]'no', 'not', 'zero'See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisiantúch[tyx]'dust'Allophone of /χ/, only occurring after close vowels ([i], [y] and [u])
Yaghanxan[xan]'here'
Yiꉾ / he[xɤ˧]'good'
Yiddishאיך / ikh[ix]'I'See Yiddish phonology
ZapotecTilquiapan[29]mejor[mɘxoɾ]'better'Used primarily in loanwords from Spanish

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 "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. 1 2 Hualde & Ortiz de Urbina (2003), pp. 16 and 26.
  4. ↑ Hualde & Ortiz de Urbina (2003), p. 16.
  5. ↑ Ternes, Elmer; Vladimirova-Buhtz, Tatjana (1999). "Bulgarian". Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge University Press. p. 55. ISBN 0-521-63751-1.
  6. ↑ Verhoeven (2005:243)
  7. 1 2 3 Collins & Mees (2003:191)
  8. 1 2 3 Gussenhoven (1999:74)
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ Annexe 4: Linguistic Variables
  11. ↑ "University of Essex :: Department of Language and Linguistics :: Welcome". Essex.ac.uk. Retrieved 2013-08-01.
  12. ↑ Wells (1982:373)
  13. ↑ Shosted & Chikovani (2006), p. 255.
  14. ↑ Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999:159)
  15. ↑ Peters (2006:119)
  16. 1 2 Vanvik (1979), p. 40.
  17. ↑ Jassem (2003), p. 103.
  18. ↑ Barbosa & Albano (2004), pp. 5–6.
  19. ↑ Padgett (2003), p. 42.
  20. ↑ Oftedal, M. (1956) The Gaelic of Leurbost. Oslo. Norsk Tidskrift for Sprogvidenskap.
  21. ↑ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 255.
  22. 1 2 3 4 Chen (2007), p. 13.
  23. ↑ Hamond (2001:?), cited in Scipione & Sayahi (2005:128)
  24. 1 2 Lyons (1981), p. 76.
  25. ↑ Harris & Vincent (1988), p. 83.
  26. 1 2 Göksel & Kerslake (2005:6)
  27. 1 2 3 Sjoberg (1963), pp. 11–12.
  28. ↑ Thompson (1959), pp. 458–461.
  29. ↑ Merrill (2008), p. 109.

References

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  • 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
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  • Göksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005), Turkish: a comprehensive grammar (PDF), Routledge, ISBN 978-0415114943, archived from the original (PDF) on 26 November 2014
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  • Hamond, Robert M. (2001), The Sounds of Spanish: Analysis and Application, Cascadilla Press, ISBN 978-1-57473-018-0
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  • Hualde, José Ignacio; Ortiz de Urbina, Jon (2003), A Grammar of Basque, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, ISBN 3-11-017683-1
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