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Voiceless velar fricative
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 letter x. It is also used in broad transcription instead of the symbol ⟨χ⟩, 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 [x̠] or [χ̟]. For voiceless pre-velar fricative (also called post-palatal), see voiceless palatal fricative.
Features[edit]
Features of the voiceless velar fricative:
Template:Fricative Template:Velar Template:Voiceless Template:Oral Template:Central articulation Template:Pulmonic
Varieties[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 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 [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 | / kh'zy | [xʲzə] | 'name' | ||
| Adyghe | / khy |  [xəː] (help·info) |
'six' | ||
| Albanian | [ɟuxɑ] | 'language' | Allophone of /h/. See Albanian phonology | ||
| Aleut | Atkan dialect | [ɑlɑx] | 'two' | ||
| Arabic | Modern Standard | [xadˤraːʔ] | 'green' (f.) | May be velar, post-velar or uvular, depending on dialect.[1] See Arabic phonology | |
| Assamese | [ɔxɔmia] | 'Assamese' | |||
| Assyrian | ܚܡܫܐ | [xεmʃa] | 'five' | ||
| Avar | / | [tʃex] | 'belly' | ||
| Azerbaijani | / / | [xoʃ] | 'pleasant' | ||
| Basque | Some speakers[2] | [xän] | 'to eat' | Either velar or post-velar.[2] For other speakers it's [j ~ ʝ ~ ɟ].[3] | |
| Brahui[4] | ﺧﻦ | [xan] | 'eye' | Corresponds to /x/ in Kurukh and /q/ in Malto. | |
| Breton | [hor xiː] | 'our dog' | |||
| Bulgarian | / | [ˈt̪ixo] (help·info) |
'quietly' | Described as having "only slight friction" ([x̞]).[5] | |
| Catalan | [ˈxɑɾ(d)ʑɐ] | 'kharjah' | Found in loanwords and interjections. See Catalan phonology | ||
| Chechen | / | [xɑːn] | 'time' | ||
| Chinese | Mandarin | / | [xɤ˧˥] | 'river' | See Standard Chinese phonology |
| Czech | [xlap] | 'guy' | See Czech phonology | ||
| Danish | Southern Jutlandic | [ˈkʰaːx] | 'cake' | See Sønderjysk dialect | |
| Dutch | Standard Belgian[6][7] | [ɑxt] | 'eight' | May be post-palatal [ç̠] instead. In dialects spoken above the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Waal the corresponding sound is a postvelar-uvular fricative trill [ʀ̝̊˖].[7] See Dutch phonology and Hard and soft G in Dutch | |
| Southern Netherlands accents[7][8] | |||||
| English | Scottish | loch | [ɫɔx] | 'loch' | Younger speakers may merge this sound with /k/.[9][10] See Scottish English phonology |
| Irish | lough | [lɑx] | 'lough' | Occurs only in Gaelic borrowings. See Irish English phonology | |
| Scouse[11] | book | [bʉːx] | 'book' | A syllable-final allophone of /k/ (lenition). | |
| Esperanto | [moˈnaxo] | 'monk' | See Esperanto phonology | ||
| Estonian | [jɑx] | 'yes' | Allophone of /h/. See Estonian phonology | ||
| Eyak | [tʊxɬ] | 'traps' | |||
| Finnish | [ˈkɑxʋi] | 'coffee' | Allophone of /h/. See Finnish phonology | ||
| French | [xɔta] | 'jota' | Occurs only in loanwords (from Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, etc.). See French phonology | ||
| Georgian[12] | / | [ˈdʒɔxi] | 'stick' | ||
| German | [buːx] (help·info) |
'book' | See Standard German phonology | ||
| Greek | / | [ˈte̞xni] | 'art' | See Modern Greek phonology | |
| Hebrew | Biblical | /micha'el | [mixaʔel] | 'Michael' | See Biblical Hebrew phonology |
| Hindustani | Hindi | /khushii/k͟hushī | [xʊʃiː] | 'happiness' | Occurs only in loanwords. May be replaced in Hindi with /kʰ/. See Hindustani phonology |
| Urdu | /khushii/k͟hushī | ||||
| Hungarian | [ʃɒxːɒl] | 'with a shah' | See Hungarian phonology | ||
| Icelandic | [ˈɔxtoːupɛr̥] | 'October' | See Icelandic phonology | ||
| Indonesian | [xas] | 'typical' | Occurs in Arabic loanwords. Often pronounced as [h] or [k] by some Indonesians. See Indonesian phonology | ||
| Irish | [dʲɔ̝̈x] | 'drink' | See Irish phonology | ||
| Japanese | / | [maxːa] | 'Mach' | Allophone of /h/.[13] See Japanese phonology | |
| Kabardian | / khy | [xəː] (help·info) |
'sea' | ||
| Kazakh | ханзада / | [xanzada] | 'prince' | ||
| Korean | / | [xɯŋd͡ʑʌ̹ŋ] | 'bargaining' | Allophone of /h/ before /ɯ/. See Korean phonology | |
| Kurdish | [xɑːˈniː] | 'house' | See Kurdish phonology | ||
| Kurukh[14] | कुड़ुख़ | [kuɽux] | 'Kurukh' | Corresponds to /x/ in Brahui and /q/ in Malto. | |
| Limburgish[15][16] | [lɔx] | '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 | [xalwɑ] | 'milk' | Generally post-velar |
| Lithuanian | [ˈxɔrɐs̪] | 'choir' | Occurs only in loanwords (usually international words) | ||
| Lojban | [xatra] | 'letter' | |||
| Macedonian | / | [ˈɔxrit] (help·info) |
'Ohrid' | See Macedonian phonology | |
| Malay | اﺧير / | [axir] | 'last', 'end' | Occurs in Arabic loanwords. Often pronounced as [h] or [k]. See Malay phonology | |
| Manx | [ˈɛːʒax] | 'easy' | |||
| Nepali | [ä̃xä] | 'eye' | Allophone of /kʰ/. See Nepali phonology | ||
| Norwegian | Urban East[17] | [xɑːt] | 'hate' | Possible allophone of /h/ near back vowels; can be voiced [ɣ] between two voiced sounds.[17] See Norwegian phonology | |
| Persian | / dokhtar | [dox'tær] | 'daughter' | See Persian phonology | |
| Polish[18] | [xlɛp] | 'bread' | Also (in great majority of dialects) represented orthographically by ⟨h⟩. See Polish phonology | ||
| Portuguese | Fluminense | [ˈaxtɕi] | 'art' | In free variation with [χ], [ʁ], [ħ] and [h] before voiceless consonants | |
| General Brazilian[19] | [ˈxɔzɐ] | 'rose' | Some dialects. An allophone of /ʁ/. See Portuguese phonology | ||
| Punjabi | Gurmukhi | /khabar | [xəbəɾ] | 'news' | |
| Shahmukhi | /khabar | ||||
| Romanian | [xräm] | 'patronal feast of a church' | Allophone of /h/. See Romanian phonology | ||
| Russian[20] | / | [xɐˈr̠ʷo̞ʂɨ̞j] (help·info) |
'good' | See Russian phonology | |
| Scottish Gaelic[21] | [ˈt̪ɾɔxɪtʲ] | 'bridge' | See Scottish Gaelic phonology | ||
| Serbo-Croatian | / | [xrâːst] | 'oak' | See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |
| Slovak | [xɫäp] | 'guy' | |||
| Slovene | Standard | [poˈxlɛ̂p] | 'greed' | See Slovene phonology | |
| Some dialects | [ˈbôːx] | 'god' | Allophone of /ɣ/ before voiceless obstruents or pause. See Slovene phonology | ||
| Somali | [xad] | 'ink' | Occurs in predominantly Arabic loan words. Allophone of /q/. See Somali phonology | ||
| Spanish[22] | Latin American[23] | [ˈo̞xo̞] | 'eye' | May be glottal instead;[23] in northern and central Spain it is often post-velar[23][24][25] or uvular /χ/.[25][26] See Spanish phonology | |
| Southern Spain[23] | |||||
| Sylheti | /khabar | [xɔ́bɔɾ] | 'news' | ||
| Tagalog | [baxit] | 'why' | Allophone of /k/ in intervocalic positions. See Tagalog phonology | ||
| Toda[27] | pax | [pax] | 'smoke' | ||
| Turkish[28] | [ɯxlamuɾ] | 'linden' | Allophone of /h/.[28] See Turkish phonology | ||
| Turkmen | [xiːle] | 'cunning' (noun) | |||
| Tyap | [xam] | 1. 'calabash'; 2. 'prostitute' | |||
| Xhosa | [xɔkǁiːsa] | 'to cancel' | |||
| Ukrainian | / | [ˈxɫɔ̝pɛt͡sʲ] | 'boy' | See Ukrainian phonology | |
| Uzbek[29] | [ɒxirgi] | 'last' | Post-velar. Occurs in environments different from word-initially and pre-consonantally, otherwise it is pre-velar.[29] | ||
| Vietnamese[30] | [xəwŋ͡m˧] | 'no', 'not', 'zero' | See Vietnamese phonology | ||
| Yaghan | [xan] | 'here' | |||
| Yi | / | [xɤ˧] | 'good' | ||
| Zapotec | Tilquiapan[31] | [mɘxoɾ] | 'better' | Used primarily in loanwords from Spanish | |
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ↑ Watson (2002), pp. 17, 19–20, 35–36 and 38.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Hualde & Ortiz de Urbina (2003), pp. 16 and 26.
- ↑ Hualde & Ortiz de Urbina (2003), p. 16.
- ↑ Bhadriraju Krishnamurti (2003), p. 100.
- ↑ Ternes, Elmer; Vladimirova-Buhtz, Tatjana (1999). "Bulgarian". Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge University Press. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-521-63751-0.
- ↑ Verhoeven (2005:243)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Collins & Mees (2003:191)
- ↑ Gussenhoven (1999:74)
- ↑ Annexe 4: Linguistic Variables
- ↑ "University of Essex :: Department of Language and Linguistics :: Welcome". Essex.ac.uk. Retrieved 2013-08-01.
- ↑ Wells (1982:373)
- ↑ Shosted & Chikovani (2006), p. 255.
- ↑ Okada, Hideo (December 1991). "Japanese". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 21 (2): 94–96. doi:10.1017/S002510030000445X. S2CID 242782215. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
- ↑ Bhadriraju Krishnamurti (2003), p. 74.
- ↑ Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999:159)
- ↑ Peters (2006:119)
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Vanvik (1979), p. 40.
- ↑ Jassem (2003), p. 103.
- ↑ Barbosa & Albano (2004), pp. 5–6.
- ↑ Padgett (2003), p. 42.
- ↑ Oftedal, M. (1956) The Gaelic of Leurbost. Oslo. Norsk Tidskrift for Sprogvidenskap.
- ↑ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 255.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 Chen (2007), p. 13.
- ↑ Hamond (2001:?), cited in Scipione & Sayahi (2005:128)
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 Lyons (1981), p. 76.
- ↑ Harris & Vincent (1988), p. 83.
- ↑ Bhadriraju Krishnamurti (2003), p. 149.
- ↑ 28.0 28.1 Göksel & Kerslake (2005:6)
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 Sjoberg (1963), pp. 11–12.
- ↑ Thompson (1959), pp. 458–461.
- ↑ Merrill (2008), p. 109.
References[edit]
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