Voiceless velar fricative
| Voiceless velar fricative | |
|---|---|
| x | |
| IPA Number | 140 |
| Audio sample | |
| Encoding | |
| Entity (decimal) | x |
| Unicode (hex) | U+0078 |
| X-SAMPA | x |
| Braille |  |
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⟩, the Latin and English letter x. It is also used in broad transcription instead of the symbol ⟨χ⟩, the Greek chi, (or, more properly, ⟨ꭓ⟩, the Latin chi) for the voiceless uvular fricative.
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
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 (the dorsum) 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.
- Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.
Varieties
| 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
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 lenited Greek aspirated stops into fricatives.
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abaza | хьзы | [xʲzǝ] | 'name' | |||
| Adyghe | хы | 'six' | ||||
| Afrikaans | Some speakers[1] | [goed] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [xut] | 'good' | Usually uvular [χ] instead.[1] See Afrikaans phonology | |
| Aleut | Atkan dialect | [alax] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [ɑlɑx] | 'two' | ||
| Arabic | Modern Standard | خضراء | [xadˤraːʔ] | 'green' (f.) | May be velar, post-velar or uvular, depending on dialect.[2] See Arabic phonology | |
| Assamese | অসমীয়া/Ôxômiya | [ɔxɔmija] | 'Assamese' | |||
| Assyrian Neo-Aramaic | [[[Syriac alphabet|kha]]] Error: {{Lang}}: unrecognized language tag: syrc (help) | [xaː] | 'one' | |||
| Avar | чeхь/ҫeẋ | [tʃex] | 'belly' | |||
| Azerbaijani | [[[Azeri alphabet|xoş]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)/хош/خوش | [xoʃ] | 'pleasant' | |||
| Basque | Some speakers[3] | [jan] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [xän] | 'to eat' | Either velar or post-velar.[3] For other speakers it's [j ~ ʝ ~ ɟ].[4] | |
| Breton | hor c'hi | [or xiː] | 'our dog' | |||
| Bulgarian | тихо/tiho | 'quietly' | ||||
| Chinese | Mandarin | [[[Chinese characters|河]]] Error: {{Lang}}: unrecognized language tag: zh-cmn-Hani (help)/[[[Hanyu Pinyin|hé]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [xɤ˧˥] | 'river' | See Standard Chinese phonology | |
| Czech | [[[Czech orthography|chlap]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [xlap] | 'guy' | See Czech phonology | ||
| Danish | Southern Jutlandic | [kage] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [ˈkʰæːx] | 'cake' | See Sønderjysk dialect | |
| Dutch | Standard Belgian[5][6] | [acht] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [ɑxt] | 'eight' | May be post-palatal [ç̠] instead.[6] See Dutch phonology | |
| Southern accents[6][7] | ||||||
| Standard Netherlandic[7] | [ɑx̠t] | Post-velar; may be uvular [χ] instead.[7] Also described as a post-velar trill fricative [ʀ̝̊˖].[8] See Dutch phonology | ||||
| English | Scottish | [[[English orthography|loch]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [ɫɔx] | 'loch' | Younger speakers may merge this sound with /k/.[9][10] See Scottish English phonology | |
| Scouse[11] | [[[English orthography|book]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [bʉːx] | 'book' | A syllable-final allophone of /k/ (lenition). | ||
| Some American speakers | yech | [jɛx] | 'yech' | See English phonology | ||
| Esperanto | [monaĥo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [monaxo] | 'monk' | See Esperanto phonology | ||
| Eyak | [duxł] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [tʊxɬ] | 'traps' | |||
| Finnish[12] | [tuhka] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [tuxkɑ] | 'ash' | Allophone of /h/. See Finnish phonology | ||
| French | [[[French alphabet|jota]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [xɔta] | 'jota' | Occurs only in loanwords (from Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, etc.). See French phonology | ||
| Georgian[13] | ჯოხი/joxi | [ˈdʒɔxi] | 'stick' | |||
| German | [Buch] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | 'book' | See German phonology | |||
| Greek | τέχνη/téchnî | [ˈte̞xni] | 'art' | See Modern Greek phonology | ||
| Hindustani | ख़ुशी/خوشی | [xʊʃiː] | 'happiness' | See Hindustani phonology | ||
| Hungarian | [sahhal] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [ʃɒxːɒl] | 'with a shah' | See Hungarian phonology | ||
| Irish | [[[Irish orthography|deoch]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [dʲɔ̝̈x] | 'drink' | See Irish phonology | ||
| Kabardian | дахэ | 'pretty' | ||||
| Korean | [[[Hangul|흠집]]] Error: {{Lang}}: unrecognized script: kang for code: ko (help)/[[[Revised Romanization of Korean|heumjip]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [xɯmd͡ʑip̚] | 'flaw' | Allophone of /h/ before /ɯ/. See Korean phonology | ||
| Limburgish[14][15][16][17] | [loch] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [lɔx] | 'air' | The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect. | ||
| Lithuanian | [choras] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [ˈxɔrɐs̪] | 'choir' | Occurs only in loanwords (usually international words) | ||
| Lojban | [[[Lojban grammar#Orthography|xatra]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [xatra] | 'letter' | |||
| Luxembourgish[18] | [Zuch] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [t͡sux] | 'train' | Also described as uvular [χ].[19] See Luxembourgish phonology | ||
| Macedonian | Охрид/Ohrid | 'Ohrid' | See Macedonian phonology | |||
| Malay | [akhir] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [a:xir] | 'last', 'end' | Often mispronounced as [h] by some Indonesians. | ||
| Manx | [aashagh] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [ˈɛːʒax] | 'easy' | |||
| Norwegian | Standard Eastern[20] | [hat] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [xɑːt̻] | 'hate' | Possible allophone of /h/ near back vowels; can be voiced [ɣ] between two voiced sounds.[20] See Norwegian phonology | |
| Polish[21] | [[[Polish orthography|chleb]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [xlɛp] | 'bread' | Also (in great majority of dialects) represented by ⟨h⟩. See Polish phonology | ||
| Portuguese | Fluminense | [arte] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [ˈaxtɕi] | 'art' | In free variation with [χ], [ʁ], [ħ] and [h] before voiceless consonants | |
| General Brazilian[22] | [arrasto] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [ɐ̞ˈxastu] | 'I drag' | Some dialects, corresponds to rhotic consonant /ʁ/. See Portuguese phonology | ||
| Punjabi | ਖ਼ਬਰ | [xəbəɾ] | 'news' | |||
| Romanian | [[[Romanian alphabet|hram]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [xräm] | 'church' | Allophone of /h/. See Romanian phonology | ||
| Russian[23] | хороший/chorošij | 'good' | See Russian phonology | |||
| Scottish Gaelic[24] | [drochaid] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [ˈt̪ɾɔxɪtʲ] | 'bridge' | See Scottish Gaelic phonology | ||
| Serbo-Croatian | храст / [[[Gaj's Latin alphabet|hrast]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [xrâːst] | 'oak' | See Serbo-Croatian phonology | ||
| Slovak | [[[Slovak alphabet|chlap]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [xlap] | 'guy' | |||
| Somali | [khad] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [xad] | 'ink' | See Somali phonology | ||
| Spanish[25] | Latin American[26] | [ojo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [ˈo̞xo̞] | 'eye' | May be glottal instead;[26] in northern and central Spain it is often post-velar[26][27][28] or uvular.[28][29] See Spanish phonology | |
| Southern Spain[26] | ||||||
| Swedish | sju | [xʷʉː] | 'seven' | Standard central Swedish pronunciation of the sj sound. | ||
| Turkish[30] | [ıhlamur] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [ɯxlamuɾ] | 'linden' | Allophone of /h/.[30] See Turkish phonology | ||
| Xhosa | [rhoxisa] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [xɔkǁiːsa] | 'to cancel' | |||
| Ukrainian | хлопець/chlopeć | [ˈxɫɔ̝pɛt͡sʲ] | 'boy' | See Ukrainian phonology | ||
| Uzbek[31] | [example needed] | Post-velar.[31] Occurs in environments different than word-initially and pre-consonantally, otherwise it's pre-velar.[31] | ||||
| Vietnamese[32] | [[[Vietnamese alphabet|không]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [xəwŋ͡m˧] | 'not' | See Vietnamese phonology | ||
| West Frisian | [túch] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [tyx] | 'dust' | Allophone of /χ/, only occurring after close vowels ([i], [y] and [u]) | ||
| Yaghan | xan | [xan] | 'here' | |||
| Yi | ꉾ/[[[Yi script|he]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [xɤ˧] | 'good' | |||
| Yiddish | איך/ikh | [ix] | 'I' | See Yiddish phonology | ||
| Zapotec | Tilquiapan[33] | mejor | [mɘxoɾ] | 'better' | Used primarily in loanwords from Spanish | |
See also
References
- ^ a b "John Wells's phonetic blog: velar or uvular?". 5 December 2011. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
- ^ Watson (2002), pp. 17, 19–20, 35-36 and 38.
- ^ a b Hualde & Ortiz de Urbina (2003), pp. 16 and 26.
- ^ Hualde & Ortiz de Urbina (2003), p. 16.
- ^ Verhoeven (2005:243)
- ^ a b c Collins & Mees (2003:191)
- ^ a b c Gussenhoven (1999:74)
- ^ Collins & Mees (2003:191). The source says that it is a fricative with a "very energetic articulation with considerable scrapiness", i.e. a trill fricative.
- ^ Annexe 4: Linguistic Variables
- ^ "University of Essex :: Department of Language and Linguistics :: Welcome". Essex.ac.uk. Retrieved 2013-08-01.
- ^ Wells (1982:373)
- ^ http://scripta.kotus.fi visk sisallys.php?p=5
- ^ Shosted & Chikovani (2006), p. 255.
- ^ Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999:159)
- ^ Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998:110)
- ^ Peters (2006:119)
- ^ Verhoeven (2007:221)
- ^ Trouvain & Gilles (2009), p. 75.
- ^ Gilles & Trouvain (2013), p. 68.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ a b c d Chen (2007), p. 13.
- ^ Hamond (2001:?), cited in Scipione & Sayahi (2005:128)
- ^ a b Lyons (1981), p. 76.
- ^ Harris & Vincent (1988), p. 83.
- ^ a b Göksel & Kerslake (2005:6)
- ^ a b c Sjoberg (1963), pp. 11–12.
- ^ Thompson (1959), pp. 458–461.
- ^ Merrill (2008), p. 109.
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