Voiceless velar fricative

A 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 Template:Angbr IPA, the Latin letter x. It is also used in broad transcription instead of the symbol Template:Angbr IPA, the Greek chi, for the voiceless uvular fricative.

There is also a voiceless post-velar fricative (also called pre-uvular) in some languages, which can be transcribed as Template:Angbr IPA or Template:Angbr IPA. For voiceless pre-velar fricative (also called post-palatal), see voiceless palatal fricative.

Features

Voiceless velar fricative (x)

Features of a voiceless velar fricative:

Occurrence

A voiceless velar fricative and its labialized variety are 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 Template:Lang "horn" and Template:Lang "what" became Proto-Germanic *hurnan and *hwat, where *h and *hw were likely Template:IPA and Template:IPA. This sound change is part of Grimm's law.

In Modern Greek, a voiceless velar fricative originated from the Ancient Greek voiceless aspirated stop Template:IPA in a sound change that lenited all Greek aspirated stops to fricatives.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abaza		Template:Lang /xzë	Template:IPA	'name'
Adyghe		Template:Lang /xë	Template:Audio-IPA	'six'
Afrikaans		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'big'
Albanian		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'language'	Allophone of Template:IPA. See Albanian phonology
Aleut	Atkan dialect	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'two'
Arabic	Modern Standard	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'green' (f.)	May be velar, post-velar or uvular, depending on dialect.Template:Sfnp See Arabic phonology
Assamese		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'Assamese'
Assyrian		ܚܡܫܐ Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'five'
Avar		Template:Lang / Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'belly'
Azerbaijani		Template:Lang / Template:Lang/Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'pleasant'
Basque	Some speakersTemplate:Sfnp	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'to eat'	Either velar or post-velar.Template:Sfnp For other speakers it's Template:IPA.Template:Sfnp
Blackfoot<ref name="nlguide2">Template:Cite web</ref>		Template:Lang / Template:Transliteration	Template:IPA	'my grandparents'	Sometimes /x/ becomes allophone /h/ in beginning of words like "hánnia!" Really! Or becomes allphone /ç/ after i/ii like ihkitsika seven.
BrahuiTemplate:Sfnp		ﺧﻦ/xan	Template:IPA	'eye'	Corresponds to /x/ in Kurukh and /q/ in Malto.
Breton		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'our dog'
Bulgarian		Template:Lang / Template:Lang	Template:Audio-IPA	'quietly'	Described as having "only slight friction" (Template:IPA).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Catalan		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'kharja'	Found in loanwords and interjections. See Catalan phonology
Chechen		Template:Lang / Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'time'
Chinese	Mandarin	Template:Lang / Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'river'	See Standard Chinese phonology
Czech		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'guy'	See Czech phonology
Danish	Southern Jutlandic	Template:Lang	[ˈkʰaːx]	'cake'	See Sønderjysk dialect
Dutch	Standard Belgian<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref><ref name="cm">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	Template:Lang	Template:Audio-IPA	'deny'	May be post-palatal Template:IPAblink instead. In dialects spoken above the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Waal the corresponding sound is a postvelar-uvular fricative trill Template:IPAblink.<ref name="cm"/> See Dutch phonology and Hard and soft G in Dutch
	Southern Netherlands accents<ref name="cm"/><ref name="gus">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
English	Scottish	loch	Template:IPA	'loch'	Younger speakers may merge this sound with Template:IPAslink.<ref name=glaswegian>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> See Scottish English phonology
	Irish	lough	Template:IPA	'lough'	Occurs only in Gaelic borrowings. See Irish English phonology
	Scouse<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	book	Template:IPA	'book'	A syllable-final allophone of Template:IPA (lenition).
Esperanto		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'monk'	See Esperanto phonology
Estonian		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'yes'	Allophone of Template:IPA. See Estonian phonology
Eyak		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'traps'
Finnish		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'coffee'	Allophone of Template:IPA. See Finnish phonology
French		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'jota'	Occurs only in loanwords (from Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, etc.). See French phonology
GeorgianTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang / Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'stick'
German		Template:Lang	Template:Audio-IPA	'book'	See Standard German phonology
Greek		Template:Lang / Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'art'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew	Biblical	Template:Lang/Michael	Template:IPA	'Michael'	See Biblical Hebrew phonology
Hindustani	Hindi	Template:Lang/xuśī	Template:IPA	'happiness'	Occurs only in loanwords. May be replaced in Hindi with Template:IPA. Can be retracted. See Hindustani phonology
	Urdu	Template:Lang/xuśī
Hungarian		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'with a shah'	See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'October'	See Icelandic phonology
Indonesian		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'typical'	Occurs in Arabic loanwords. Often pronounced as [h] or [k] by some Indonesians. See Indonesian phonology
Irish		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'drink'	See Irish phonology
Japanese		Template:Lang / Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'Mach'	Allophone of Template:IPA.<ref name="Japanese">Template:Cite journal</ref> See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		Template:Lang / khy	Template:Audio-IPA	'sea'
Kazakh		ханзада / Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'prince'
Korean		Template:Lang / Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'bargaining'	Allophone of Template:IPA before Template:IPA. See Korean phonology
Kurdish		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'house'	See Kurdish phonology
KurukhTemplate:Sfnp		कुँड़ुख़/kũṛux	Template:IPA	'Kurukh'	Corresponds to /x/ in Brahui and /q/ in Malto.
Limburgish<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref><ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'air'	The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect. See Maastrichtian dialect phonology and Hard and soft G in Dutch
Lishan Didan	Urmi Dialect	חלבא / xalwa	Template:IPA	'milk'	Generally post-velar
Lithuanian		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'choir'	Occurs only in loanwords (usually international words)
Lojban		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'letter'
Macedonian		Template:Lang / Template:Lang	Template:Audio-IPA	'Ohrid'	See Macedonian phonology
Malay		اﺧير / Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'last', 'end'	Occurs in Arabic loanwords. Often pronounced as [h] or [k]. See Malay phonology
Manx		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'easy'
Nepali		Template:Lang/ā̃khā	Template:IPA	'eye'	Allophone of Template:IPA. See Nepali phonology
Norwegian	Urban EastTemplate:Sfnp	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'hate'	Possible allophone of Template:IPA near back vowels; can be voiced Template:IPAblink between two voiced sounds.Template:Sfnp See Norwegian phonology
Pashto		Template:Lang / axta	Template:IPA	'occupied'	See Pashto phonology
Persian		Template:Lang / doxtär	Template:IPA	'daughter'	See Persian phonology
PolishTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'bread'	Also (in great majority of dialects) represented orthographically by Template:Angbr. See Polish phonology
Portuguese	Fluminense	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'art'	In free variation with Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink before voiceless consonants
	General BrazilianTemplate:Sfnp	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'rose'	Some dialects. An allophone of Template:IPA. See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi	Gurmukhi	Template:Lang/xabar	Template:IPA	'news'	Less frequent and may merge with /kʰ/ in Gurmukhi varieties.
	Shahmukhi	Template:Lang/xabar
Romanian		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'patronal feast of a church'	Allophone of Template:IPA. See Romanian phonology
RussianTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang / Template:Lang	Template:Audio-IPA	'good'	See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic<ref>Oftedal, M. (1956) The Gaelic of Leurbost. Oslo. Norsk Tidskrift for Sprogvidenskap.</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'bridge'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatian		Template:Lang / Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'oak'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'guy'
Slovene	Standard	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'greed'	See Slovene phonology
	Some dialects	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'god'	Allophone of Template:IPA before voiceless obstruents or pause. See Slovene phonology
Somali		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'ink'	Also occurs allophone of /q/ in Arabic loan words. See Somali phonology
SpanishTemplate:Sfnp	Latin AmericanTemplate:Sfnp	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'eye'	May be glottal instead;Template:Sfnp in northern and central Spain it is often post-velarTemplate:Sfnp<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt, cited in Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>Template:Sfnp or uvular /χ/.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp See Spanish phonology
	Southern SpainTemplate:Sfnp
Sylheti		Template:Lang/xobor	Template:IPA	'news'
Tachelhit		ixf	[ixf]	'head'
Taqbaylit		axaṭar	[ɑχɑtˤɑr]	'because'
Tagalog		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'why'	Allophone of Template:IPA in intervocalic positions. See Tagalog phonology
Tamil	Brahmin Tamil, Sri Lankan Tamil (non-standard)	பகை/pakai	Template:IPA	'hate'	Intervocalic singular /k/ has debuccalized for most except in Brahmin and Sri Lankan Tamil. In total it can be [kʰ x ɡ ɣ ɣʰ h]<ref> Template:Cite book</ref>
TodaTemplate:Sfnp		pax	Template:IPA	'smoke'
Turkish<ref name="gk6">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'linden'	Allophone of Template:IPA.<ref name="gk6"/> See Turkish phonology
Turkmen		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'cunning' (noun)
Tyap		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	1. 'calabash'; 2. 'prostitute'
Xhosa		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'to cancel'
Ukrainian		Template:Lang / Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'boy'	See Ukrainian phonology
UzbekTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'last'	Post-velar. Occurs in environments different from word-initially and pre-consonantally, otherwise it is pre-velar.Template:Sfnp
VietnameseTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'no', 'not', 'zero'	See Vietnamese phonology
Yaghan		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'here'
Yi		Template:Lang / Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'good'
Zapotec	TilquiapanTemplate:Sfnp	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'better'	Used primarily in loanwords from Spanish

See also

• Guttural
• Index of phonetics articles

References

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External links

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