Voiceless uvular fricative

A voiceless uvular fricative is a type of consonantal sound that is used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is either a Latin or Greek-style chi, ⟨χ⟩. The historical IPA symbol for this sound was ⟨ᴚ⟩, a turned small capital R, and was officially changed to ⟨χ⟩ in 1928.^[1] In Americanist phonetic notation the sound is represented by ⟨x̣⟩ (ex with underdot), or sometimes by ⟨x̌⟩ (ex with caron). In broad transcription it may be transcribed ⟨x⟩, or ⟨r⟩ if rhotic.

IPA number142

Entity (decimal)χ

Unicode (hex)U+03C7

X-SAMPAX

Quick facts χ, ꭓ ...

Voiceless uvular fricative

χ

ꭓ

IPA number 142

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Entity (decimal) χ

Unicode (hex) U+03C7

X-SAMPA X

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Many languages claimed to have a voiceless uvular fricative may actually have a voiceless uvular fricative trill.

Features

Features of a voiceless uvular 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 uvular, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the uvula.
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 that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

More information Language, Word ...

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans^[2]^[3]		goed	[χut]	'good'	Varies between a fricative and a fricative trill when word-initial.^[2] See Afrikaans phonology.
Armenian		խաղ / xaġ	[χɑʁ]	'game'
Azerbaijani^{[citation needed]}		sancaq	[sɑndʒɑχ]	'pin'	Colloquial pronunciation of word-final q.
Blackfoot	Some speakers	ᖳᐠᐦᖽ / Aohkíí	[ɔχkíː]	'water'	Most speakers always pronounced 'h' as /x/ in central and back vowels.
Breton	Some speakers	c'hwec'h	[χwɛχ]	'six'
Chuvash		хăна / hăna	[χəˈna]	'guest'
Danish	Standard^[4]	pres	[ˈpχæs]	'pressure'	Before /r/, aspiration of /p, t, k/ is realized as devoicing of /r/.^[5] Usually transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʁ⟩. See Danish phonology.
English	Scouse^[6]	clock	[kl̥ɒχ]	'clock'	Possible word-final realization of /k/; varies between a fricative and a fricative trill.^[6]
	Scouse^[6]	neck	[nɛχ]	'neck'
	Welsh^[7]^[8]	Amlwch	[ˈamlʊχ]	'Amlwch'	Occurs only in loanwords from Welsh;^[7] usually transcribed in IPA with ⟨x⟩. See English phonology
	White South African^[3]^[9]	gogga	[ˈχɒχə]	'insect'	Less commonly velar [x], occurs only in loanwords from Afrikaans and Khoisan.^[3] Usually transcribed in IPA with ⟨x⟩. See White South African English phonology and English phonology.
French		très	[t̪χɛ]	'very'	Allophone of /ʁ/ in contact with voiceless consonants. See French phonology
German	Standard^[10]	Dach	[daχ]	'roof'	Appears only after certain back vowels. See Standard German phonology
	Chemnitz dialect^[11]	Rock	[χɔkʰ]	'skirt'	In free variation with [ʁ̞], [ʁ], [ʀ̥] and [q].^[11] Does not occur in coda.^[11]
	Lower Rhine^[12]	Wirte	[ˈvɪχtə]	'hosts'	In free variation with [ɐ] between a vowel and a voiceless coronal consonant.
Hebrew^[13]		מֶלֶךְ / mélekh	[ˈme̞le̞χ]	'king'	Usually a fricative trill.^[13] See Modern Hebrew phonology.
Luxembourgish^[14]		Zuch	[t͡suχ]	'train'	See Luxembourgish phonology.
Portuguese	General Brazilian^[15]	rompimento	[χõpiˈmẽtʊ]	'rupture' (noun)	Some dialects, corresponds to rhotic consonant /ʁ/. See Portuguese phonology.
Ripuarian^[16]^[17]		ach	[ɑχ]	'eight'	Allophone of /x/ after back vowels. Fronted to [ç] or [ʃ] after front vowels and consonants.^[16]^[17] It may be transcribed in IPA with ⟨x⟩. See Colognian phonology, Kerkrade dialect phonology and Hard and soft G in Dutch
Spanish	Ponce dialect^[18]	perro	[ˈpe̞χo̞]	'dog'	This and [ʀ̥] are the primary realizations of /r/ in this dialect.^[18] See Spanish phonology.
Tlingit		-dáx̱	[dáχ]	'from, out of'	Occurs plain, labialised, ejective, and labialised ejective.
Turkmen		gahar	[ɢɑχɑɾ]	'snow'
Welsh		chwech	[χweːχ]^ⓘ	'six'	See Welsh phonology.
Yiddish^[2]		איך / ikh	[iχ]	'I'	See Yiddish phonology.

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References

Association Phonétique Internationale (1928), "desizjɔ̃ ofisjɛl", Le Maître Phonétique, Troisième Série, 6 (23): 51–53, JSTOR 44704266
Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (2): 227–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756
Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 0-203-97876-5
Bodelier, Jorina (2011), Tone and intonation in the Lemiers dialect of Ripuarian (MA General Linguistics Thesis), Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam
Bowerman, Sean (2004), "White South African English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 931–942, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013), "Luxembourgish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 67–74, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278
Hall, Tracy Alan (1993), "The phonology of German /ʀ/", Phonology, 10 (1): 83–105, doi:10.1017/S0952675700001743, S2CID 195707076
Hualde, José Ignacio; Ortiz de Urbina, Jon (2003), A Grammar of Basque, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, ISBN 3-11-017683-1
Hess, Wolfgang (2001), "Funktionale Phonetik und Phonologie" (PDF), Grundlagen der Phonetik, Bonn: Institut für Kommunikationsforschung und Phonetik, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, archived from the original (PDF) on 2005-05-04, retrieved 2005-05-07
Khan, Sameer ud Dowla; Weise, Constanze (2013), "Upper Saxon (Chemnitz dialect)" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (2): 231–241, doi:10.1017/S0025100313000145
Kohler, Klaus (1990), "Comment on German", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 20 (2): 44–46, doi:10.1017/S002510030000428X, S2CID 144212850
Lass, Roger (2002), "South African English", in Mesthrie, Rajend (ed.), Language in South Africa, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-79105-7
Laufer, Asher (1999), "Hebrew", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 96–99, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
Sjoberg, Andrée F. (1963), Uzbek Structural Grammar, Uralic and Altaic Series, vol. 18, Bloomington: Indiana University
Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer (1997) [1987], Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer (in Dutch) (2nd ed.), Kerkrade: Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer, ISBN 90-70246-34-1
Tench, Paul (1990), "The Pronunciation of English in Abercrave", in Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan Richard (eds.), English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change, Multilingual Matters, pp. 130–141, ISBN 1-85359-032-0
Verhoeven, Jo (2005), "Belgian Standard Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 35 (2): 243–247, doi:10.1017/S0025100305002173
Wells, John C. (1982), Accents of English, Vol. 2: The British Isles (pp. i–xx, 279–466), Vol. 3: Beyond the British Isles (pp. i–xx, 467–674), Cambridge University Press, doi:10.1017/CBO9780511611759, doi:10.1017/CBO9780511611766, ISBN 0-52128540-2, 0-52128541-0

Voiceless uvular fricative

Features

Occurrence

See also

Notes

References

External links

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