| Ipa Symbol: | χ |
| Ipa Number: | 142 |
| Decimal1: | 967 |
| X-Sampa: | X |
| Kirshenbaum: | X |
| Braille: | 46 |
| Braille2: | 12346 |
| Imagefile: | IPA Unicode 0x03C7.svg |
The voiceless uvular fricative is a type of consonantal sound that is used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is (IPA|χ), the Greek chi. The sound is represented by (x̣) (ex with underdot) in Americanist phonetic notation. It is sometimes transcribed with (IPA|x) (or (IPA|r), if rhotic) in broad transcription.
Most languages claimed to have a voiceless uvular fricative may actually have a voiceless uvular fricative trill (a simultaneous pronounced as /[χ]/ and pronounced as /link/). Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996) note that there is "a complication in the case of uvular fricatives in that the shape of the vocal tract may be such that the uvula vibrates."
Although they are not normally differentiated in study, languages in which they have been (Hebrew, Wolof, as well as the northern and central varieties of European Spanish) have been found to specifically possess the fricative trill.[1] It can be transcribed as (IPA|ʀ̝̊) (a devoiced and raised uvular trill) in IPA. It is found as either the fortis counterpart of pronounced as //ɣ// (which itself is voiceless at least in Northern Standard Dutch: pronounced as /link/) or the sole dorsal fricative in Northern SD and regional dialects and languages of the Netherlands (Dutch Low Saxon and West Frisian) spoken above the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Waal (sometimes termed the Rotterdam–Nijmegen Line). A plain fricative that is articulated slightly further front, as either medio-velar or post-palatal is typical of dialects spoken south of the rivers (mainly Brabantian and Limburgish but excluding Ripuarian and the dialect of Bergen op Zoom), including Belgian SD. In those dialects, the voiceless uvular fricative trill is one of the possible realizations of the phoneme pronounced as //r//.[2] [3] See Hard and soft G in Dutch for more details.
The frication in the fricative trill variant sometimes occurs at the middle or the back of the soft palate (termed velar or mediovelar and post-velar, respectively), rather than the uvula itself. This is the case in Northern Standard Dutch as well as some varieties of Arabic, Limburgish and Madrid Spanish. It may thus be appropriate to call those variants voiceless (post)velar-uvular fricative trill as the trill component is always uvular (velar trills are not physically possible). The corresponding IPA symbol is (IPA|ʀ̝̊˖) (a devoiced, raised and advanced uvular trill, where the "advanced" diacritic applies only to the fricative portion of the sound). Thus, in cases where a dialectal variation between voiceless uvular and velar fricatives is claimed the main difference between the two may be the trilling of the uvula as frication can be velar in both cases - compare Northern Dutch acht pronounced as /[ɑʀ̝̊˖t]/ 'eight' (with a postvelar-uvular fricative trill) with Southern Dutch pronounced as /[ɑxt]/ or pronounced as /[ɑx̟t]/, which features a non-trilled fricative articulated at the middle or front of the soft palate.[1] [2]
For a voiceless pre-uvular fricative (also called post-velar), see voiceless velar fricative.
Features of the voiceless uvular fricative:
| Language | Word | Meaning | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans[4] [5] | Afrikaans: [[Afrikaans alphabet|'''g'''oed]] | pronounced as /[χut]/ | 'good' | Varies between a fricative and a fricative trill when word-initial. See Afrikaans phonology. | ||
| Arabic | Arabic: [[Arabic alphabet|خضراء]]|rtl=yes | pronounced as /[χadˤraːʔ]/ | 'green' (f.) | Fricative trill with velar frication. May be transcribed in IPA with (IPA|x). See Arabic phonology | ||
| Armenian | Armenian: [[Armenian alphabet|'''խ'''աղ]] | pronounced as /[χɑʁ]/ | 'game' | |||
| Some speakers | Breton: '''c'h'''we'''c'h'''|italic=yes | pronounced as /[χwɛχ]/ | 'six' | |||
| Chuvash | Chuvash: [[Chuvash language#Writing systems|'''х'''ăна]] | pronounced as /[χə'na]/ | 'guest' | |||
| Danish | Standard | Danish: [[Danish alphabet|p'''r'''es]] | pronounced as /[ˈpχæs]/ | 'pressure' | Before pronounced as //r//, aspiration of pronounced as //p, t, k// is realized as devoicing of pronounced as //r//. Usually transcribed in IPA with (IPA|ʁ). See Danish phonology. | |
| Dutch | Standard Northern | Dutch; Flemish: [[Dutch orthography|a'''ch'''t]] | pronounced as /[ɑʀ̝̊˖t]/ | 'eight' | Fricative trill with post-velar frication. May be transcribed in IPA with (IPA|x). See Dutch phonology and Hard and soft G in Dutch | |
| Belgian | Dutch; Flemish: [[Dutch orthography|b'''r'''ood]] | pronounced as /[bʀ̝̊oːt]/ | 'bread' | Voiced when following a vowel. Realization of pronounced as //r// varies considerably among dialects. See Dutch phonology | ||
| English | Scouse | English: [[English orthography|clo'''ck''']]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[kl̥ɒχ]/ | 'clock' | Possible word-final realization of pronounced as //k//; varies between a fricative and a fricative trill. | |
| neck | [{{IPA|nɛχ}}] | 'neck' | ||||
| Welsh | English: [[English orthography|Amlw'''ch''']]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈamlʊχ]/ | 'Amlwch' | Occurs only in loanwords from Welsh; usually transcribed in IPA with (IPA|x). See English phonology | ||
| White South African | English: [[English orthography|'''g'''o'''gg'''a]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈχɒχə]/ | 'insect' | Less commonly velar pronounced as /link/, occurs only in loanwords from Afrikaans and Khoisan. Usually transcribed in IPA with (IPA|x). See White South African English phonology and English phonology. | ||
| French | French: [[French orthography|t'''r'''ès]] | pronounced as /[t̪χɛ]/ | 'very' | Allophone of pronounced as //ʁ// in contact with voiceless consonants. See French phonology | ||
| German | Standard[6] | German: [[German orthography|Da'''ch''']] | pronounced as /[daχ]/ | 'roof' | Appears only after certain back vowels. See Standard German phonology | |
| Chemnitz dialect | German: [[German orthography|'''R'''ock]] | pronounced as /[χɔkʰ]/ | 'skirt' | In free variation with pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/. Does not occur in coda. | ||
| Lower Rhine | German: [[German orthography|Wi'''r'''te]] | pronounced as /[ˈvɪχtə]/ | 'hosts' | In free variation with pronounced as /link/ between a vowel and a voiceless coronal consonant. | ||
| Hebrew: [[Hebrew alphabet|מֶלֶךְ]]|rtl=yes | pronounced as /[ˈme̞le̞χ]/ | 'king' | Usually a fricative trill. See Modern Hebrew phonology. | |||
| Limburgish | Some dialects | Limburgan; Limburger; Limburgish: [[Limburgish#Orthography|wao'''r''']] | pronounced as /[β̞ɒ̝ːʀ̝̊]/ | 'was' | Allophone of pronounced as //r// that has been variously described as occurring in the syllable coda and word-final. May be only partially devoiced; frication may be uvular or post-velar. The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect. See Maastrichtian dialect phonology and Hard and soft G in Dutch | |
| Luxembourgish | Luxembourgish; Letzeburgesch: [[Luxembourgish#Writing|Zu'''ch''']] | pronounced as /[t͡suχ]/ | 'train' | See Luxembourgish phonology. | ||
| Low German | Dutch Low Saxon | Low German; Low Saxon; German, Low; Saxon, Low: [[Low German#Writing system|a'''ch'''t]] | pronounced as /[ɑʀ̝̊˖t]/ | 'eight' | Fricative trill with post-velar frication; voiceless counterpart of pronounced as /link/. May be transcribed in IPA with (IPA|x). See Hard and soft G in Dutch | |
| Portuguese | General Brazilian | Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|'''r'''ompimento]] | pronounced as /[χõpiˈmẽtʊ]/ | 'rupture' (noun) | Some dialects, corresponds to rhotic consonant pronounced as //ʁ//. See Portuguese phonology. | |
| Ripuarian | a'''ch''' | pronounced as /[ɑχ]/ | 'eight' | Allophone of pronounced as //x// after back vowels. Fronted to pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ after front vowels and consonants. It may be transcribed in IPA with (IPA|x). See Colognian phonology, Kerkrade dialect phonology and Hard and soft G in Dutch | ||
| Spanish | European | Spanish; Castilian: [[Spanish orthography|o'''j'''o]] | 'eye' | Fricative trill; frication is velar in Madrid. Occurs in northern and central varieties. Most often, it is transcribed with (IPA|x) in IPA. See Spanish phonology. | ||
| Ponce dialect[7] | Spanish; Castilian: [[Spanish orthography|pe'''rr'''o]] | pronounced as /[ˈpe̞χo̞]/ | 'dog' | This and pronounced as /link/ are the primary realizations of pronounced as //r// in this dialect. See Spanish phonology. | ||
| Tlingit | Tlingit: [[Tlingit alphabet|-dá'''x̱''']] | pronounced as /[dáχ]/ | 'from, out of' | Occurs plain, labialised, ejective, and labialised ejective. | ||
| Turkmen | Turkmen: [[Turkmen alphabet|ga'''h'''ar]] | pronounced as /[ɢɑχɑɾ]/ | 'snow' | |||
| Upper Sorbian | Upper Sorbian: [[Sorbian alphabet|bra'''ch''']] | pronounced as /[bʁ̞äʀ̝̊]/ | 'fault' | Fricative trill. | ||
| Welsh | Welsh: [[Welsh orthography|'''ch'''we'''ch''']] | 'six' | See Welsh phonology. | |||
| West Frisian | Western Frisian: [[West Frisian alphabet|ber'''ch''']] | pronounced as /[bɛrʀ̝̊˖]/ | 'mountain' | Fricative trill with post-velar frication; voiceless counterpart of pronounced as /link/. Never occurs in word-initial positions. May be transcribed in IPA with (IPA|x). See West Frisian phonology | ||
| Wolof | sax | pronounced as /[sax]/ | Fricative trill. | |||
| Yiddish | Yiddish: [[Yiddish orthography|איך]]|rtl=yes | pronounced as /[iχ]/ | 'I' | See Yiddish phonology. | ||
| Nearby Fricatives | Velar | Uvular | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless | x | χ | ħ | |
| Voiced | ɣ | ʁ | ʕ |
pronounced as /navigation/
"White South African English is one of very few varieties to have a velar fricative phoneme pronounced as //x// (see), but this is only in words borrowed from Afrikaans (...) and Khoisan (...). Many speakers use the Afrikaans uvular fricative pronounced as /[χ]/ rather than the velar."