Voiceless velar fricative

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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)
Sound

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[edit]

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 of [x][edit]

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[edit]

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 turned Greek aspirated stops into fricatives.

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Abaza хьзы [xʲzǝ] 'name'
Adyghe хы About this sound [xə] (help·info) 'six'
Afrikaans goed [xuˑt] 'well'
Aleut Atkan dialect alax [ɑlɑx] 'two'
Arabic Modern Standard خضراء [xadˤraːʔ] 'green (f)' May be velar, post-velar or uvular, depending on dialect.[1] See Arabic phonology
Assamese অসমীয়া [ɔxɔmija] 'Assamese'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic [xaː] 'one'
Avar чeхь [tʃex] 'belly'
Azerbaijani xoş/خوش [xoʃ] 'pleasant'
Basque Some speakers[2] jan [xän] 'to eat' Either velar or post-velar.[2] For other speakers it's [j ~ ʝ ~ ɟ].[3]
Breton hor c'hi [or xiː] 'our dog'
Bulgarian тихо tiho About this sound ['tixo] (help·info) 'quietly'
Chinese Mandarin 河 hé [xɤ˧˥] 'river' See Standard Chinese
Czech chlap [xlap] 'guy' See Czech phonology
Dutch Belgian Dutch[4] acht About this sound [ˈɑxt] (help·info) 'eight' See Dutch phonology
Northern dialects[5]
English Scottish loch [lɔx] 'loch' Younger speakers may merge this sound with /k/.[6][7] See Scottish English phonology
Some American speakers yech [jɛx] 'yech' See English phonology
Esperanto monaĥo [monaxo] 'monk' See Esperanto phonology
Eyak duxł [tʊxɬ] 'traps'
Finnish[8] tuhka [tuxkɑ] 'ash' Allophone of /h/. See Finnish phonology
French jota [xɔta] 'jota' Occurs only loanwords (from Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, etc.). See French phonology
Georgian[9] ჯოხი [ˈdʒɔxi] 'stick'
German Kuchen [kuːxən] 'cake' See German phonology
Greek χαρά chará [xaˈra] 'joy' 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 About this sound [daːxa] (help·info) 'pretty'
Korean 흠집 heumjip [xɯmd͡ʑip̚] 'flaw' Occurs only before /ɯ/. See Korean phonology
Limburgish Weert dialect[10] lache [ˈlɑ̟xə] 'to laugh' Pre-velar before and after front vowels.[11]
Lithuanian choras [ˈxɔrɐs̪] 'chorus'
Lojban xatra [xatra] 'letter'
Macedonian Охрид Ohrid About this sound [ˈɔxrit] (help·info) 'Ohrid' See Macedonian phonology
Malay akhir [a:xir] 'last' can also be pronounced [h]
Manx aashagh [ˈɛːʒax] 'easy'
Old English wealh [wæɑlx] 'foreigner', 'slave' See Old English phonology
Persian خواهر [xɒːhær] 'sister' See Persian phonology
Polish[12] 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[13] 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[14] хороший khoroshiy About this sound [xɐˈr̠ʷo̞ʂɨ̞j] (help·info) 'good' See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic[15] 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[16] Latin American[17] ojo [ˈo̞xo̞] 'eye' May be glottal instead;[17] in northern and central Spain it iss often post-velar[17][18][19] or uvular.[19][20] See Spanish phonology
Southern Spain[17]
Northern Moroccan[21] Either velar or post-velar.[21] See Spanish phonology
Swedish Occurs in South Swedish dialects and common in some immigrant-influenced sociolects, sju [xʷʉː] 'seven' See Swedish phonology
Xhosa rhoxisa [xɔkǁiːsa] 'to cancel'
Ukrainian хлопець [ˈxɫɔ̝pɛt͡sʲ] 'boy' See Ukrainian phonology
Uzbek[22] [example needed] Post-velar.[22] Occurs in environments different than word-initially and pre-consonantally, otherwise it's pre-velar.[22]
Vietnamese[23] 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[24] mejor [mɘxoɾ] 'better' Used primarily in loanwords from Spanish

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Watson (2002), pp. 17, 19-20, 35-36 and 38.
  2. ^ a b Hualde & Ortiz de Urbina (2003), pp. 16 and 26.
  3. ^ Hualde & Ortiz de Urbina (2003), p. 16.
  4. ^ Verhoeven (2005), p. 243.
  5. ^ van Reenen & Huijs (2000), p. ?.
  6. ^ Annexe 4: Linguistic Variables
  7. ^ "University of Essex :: Department of Language and Linguistics :: Welcome". Essex.ac.uk. Retrieved 2013-08-01. 
  8. ^ http://scripta.kotus.fi visk sisallys.php?p=5
  9. ^ Shosted & Chikovani (2006), p. 255.
  10. ^ Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998), pp. 107-108.
  11. ^ Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998), p. 108.
  12. ^ Jassem (2003), p. 103.
  13. ^ Barbosa & Albano (2004), pp. 5–6.
  14. ^ Padgett (2003), p. 42.
  15. ^ Oftedal, M. (1956) The Gaelic of Leurbost. Oslo. Norsk Tidskrift for Sprogvidenskap.
  16. ^ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 255.
  17. ^ a b c d Chen (2007), p. 13.
  18. ^ Hamond (2001:?), cited in Scipione & Sayahi (2005:128)
  19. ^ a b Lyons (1981), p. 76.
  20. ^ Harris & Vincent (1988), p. 83.
  21. ^ a b Scipione & Sayahi (2005), p. 128.
  22. ^ a b c Sjoberg (1963), pp. 11-12.
  23. ^ Thompson (1959), pp. 458–461.
  24. ^ Merrill (2008), p. 109.

Bibliography[edit]

 
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