Voiceless uvular fricative

Voiceless uvular fricative
χ
Image
IPA number	142
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	χ
Unicode (hex)	U+03C7
X-SAMPA	X
Kirshenbaum	X
Sound

The voiceless uvular fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨χ⟩, or in broad transcription ⟨x⟩. The sound is represented by ⟨x̣⟩ (ex with underdot) in Americanist phonetic notation.

Features

Features of the 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 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.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		пхъэ	[bχe]	'wood'
Abkhaz		хпа	[χpa]	'three'	Contrasts with labialized and palatalized forms. See Abkhaz phonology
Afrikaans		goed	[χuˑt]	'good'	Some dialects.
Aleut	Atkan dialect	hatix̂	[hɑtiχ]	'ten'
Armenian		խոտ	[χot]	‘grass’
Avar		орх	[orχ]	'to lift'	Contrasts with a tense form
Berber	Kabyle	axxam	[aχχam]	'house'
Chilcotin		?	[ʔælaχ]	'I made it'
Dutch	Northern dialects	Scheveningen	[ˈsχeɪ̯vəˌnɪŋə(n)]	'Scheveningen'	See Dutch phonology
Eyak		da.x̣	[daːχ]	'and'
French		proche	[pχɔʃ]	'nearby'	Allophone of /ʁ/ before or after voiceless obstruent. See French phonology
German	Standard	Dach	[daχ]	'roof'	Appears only after certain back vowels. See German phonology
	Lower Rhine	Wirte	[ˈvɪχtə]	'hosts'	In free variation with [ɐ] between a vowel and a voiceless coronal consonant.
Haida		ḵ'aláax̂an	[qʼʌlɑ́χʌn]	'fence'
Hebrew		אוכל	[oχel]	'food'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Kabardian		нэхъ	[nɑχ]	'more'	Contrasts with a labialized form
Klallam		sx̣aʔqʷaʔ	[sχaʔqʷaʔ]	'salmon backbone'
Lakota		ȟóta	[ˈχota]	'gray'
Lezgian		хат	[χatʰ]	'bead'	Contrasts with a labialized form
Ongota		[χibiɾi]		'bat'
Oowekyala		[tsʼkʼʷχttɬkt͡s]		'the invisible one here with me will be short'
Nez Perce		[ˈχəχɑˑt͡s]		'grizzly bear'
Portuguese	Brazilian	carro	[kaχu]	'car'	Some dialects. See Portuguese phonology
Saanich		wexes	[wəχəs]	'small frogs'	Contrasts with a labialized form
Scots		nicht	[nɪχt]	'night'
Seri		xeecoj	[χɛːkox]	'wolf'	Contrasts with a labialized form
Spanish		jugar	[χuˈɣaɾ]	'to play'	Allophone of /x/. See Spanish phonology
Tlingit		tlaxh	[tɬʰɐχ]	'very'	Tlingit has four different uvular fricatives
Ubykh		[asfəpχa]		'I need to eat it'	Ubykh has ten different uvular fricatives. See Ubykh phonology
Uyghur		یاخشی/yaxshi	[jɑχʃi]	'good'
West Frisian		berch	[bɛrχ]	'mountain'	Never occurs in word-initial positions.
Yiddish		בוך	[bʊχ]	'book'	See Yiddish phonology

See also

• List of phonetics topics

Bibliography

• Hall, Tracy Alan (1993). "The phonology of German /ʀ/". Phonology 10 (1): 83–105. doi:10.1017/S0952675700001743 
• Hess, Wolfgang (2001). "Funktionale Phonetik und Phonologie". Grundlagen der Phonetik. Bonn: Institut für Kommunikationsforschung und Phonetik, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität. http://www.oefai.at/~hannes/esslli03/hess_signalproc_kap3.pdf. 
• Kohler, Klaus (1990). "Comment on German". Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20 (02): 44–46. doi:10.1017/S002510030000428X 
• Watson, Janet (2002). The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic. New York: Oxford University Press.