Voiceless uvular fricative

Voiceless uvular fricative
χ
IPA number	142
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	χ
Unicode (hex)	U+03C7
X-SAMPA	X
Kirshenbaum	X
Braille
Image
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⟩ although the latter technically represents a velar pronunciation. The sound is represented by ⟨x̣⟩ (ex with underdot) in Americanist phonetic notation.

Features [edit]

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 [edit]

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		хпа	[χpa]	'three'	Contrasts with labialized and palatalized forms. See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe		пхъэ	[pχa] (help·info)	'wood'
Archi		хол	[χol]	'arm'
Afrikaans		goed	[χut]	'good'	Some dialects.
Aleut	Atkan dialect	hatix̂	[hɑtiχ]	'ten'
Arabic	Standard	خبز	[χʊbz]	'bread'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern[1]	խոտ	[χot] (help·info)	‘grass’
Avar		орх	[orχ]	'to lift'	Contrasts with a tense form
Bashkir		хат	[χɑt]	'letter'
Berber	Kabyle	axxam	[aχχam]	'house'
Chilcotin		?	[ʔælaχ]	'I made it'
Dutch	Netherlandic	Scheveningen	[ˈsχeɪ̯vənɪŋə(n)] (help·info)	'Scheveningen'	Many central and western dialects. Corresponds to /ɣ/ and /x/ in standard Netherlandic Dutch. See Dutch phonology
	The Hague	standaard	[ˈstɑndaːχt]	'standard'	Traditional allophone of /ʀ/, occurring after vowels before consonants.
Eyak		da.x̣	[daːχ]	'and'
French		proche	[pχɔʃ]	'nearby'	Allophone of /ʁ/ before or after voiceless obstruent. See French phonology
German	Lower Rhine[2]	Wirte	[ˈvɪχtə]	'hosts'	In free variation with [ɐ] between a vowel and a voiceless coronal consonant.
	Standard[3]	Dach	[daχ]	'roof'	Appears only after certain back vowels. See German phonology
	Swiss	mich	[mɪχ]	'me' (acc.)	Some speakers, for others it's velar [x]. Swiss German makes no distinction between /x/ and /ç/.
Haida		ḵ'aláax̂an	[qʼʌlɑ́χʌn]	'fence'
Hebrew		אוכל	[oχel]	'food'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Kabardian		хъарзынэ	[χaːrzəna]	'well'
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	Fluminense	anarquia	[ɐ̃nɐ̞χˈki.ɐ]	'anarchy'	In free variation with [x], [ʁ ~ ʀ], [ħ] and [h] before voiceless consonants.
	General Brazilian[4]	marrom	[mɐ̞ˈχõː]	'the color brown'	Some dialects, corresponds to rhotic consonant /ʁ/. 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[5]		jugar	[χuˈɣaɾ]	'to play'	Allophone of /x/. See Spanish phonology
Swedish	Southern	sjuk	[χʉːk]	'sick'	Variation of /ɧ/ used in areas influenced by languages like Arabic and Kurdish. See Swedish phonology
Tlingit		tlaxh	[tɬʰɐχ]	'very'	Contrasts with labialized, ejective and labialized ejective form
Ubykh		[asfəpχa]		'I need to eat it'	Ubykh has ten different uvular fricatives. See Ubykh phonology
Uyghur		یاخشی yaxshi	[jɑχʃi]	'good'
Welsh		carchar	[karχar]	'jail'	See Welsh phonology
West Frisian		berch	[bɛrχ]	'mountain'	Never occurs in word-initial positions.
Yiddish		בוך	[bʊχ]	'book'	See Yiddish phonology

See also [edit]

• Index of phonetics articles

References [edit]

Bibliography [edit]

• Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company 
• 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. 
• 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. 
• Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 227–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756 

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