Voiceless velar fricative
| Voiceless velar fricative | |
|---|---|
| x | |
| IPA number | 140 |
| Encoding | |
| Entity (decimal) |
x |
| Unicode (hex) | U+0078 |
| X-SAMPA |
x |
| Kirshenbaum |
x |
| Braille |
 |
| Sound | |
 source · help | |
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⟩.
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 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.
- The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.
Varieties of [x]
| 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 |  [xə] | 'six' | |||
| Afrikaans | Some speakers[1] | goed | [xut] | 'good' | Usually uvular [χ] instead.[1] See Afrikaans phonology | |
| Aleut | Atkan dialect | alax | [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 | [ɔxɔmija] | 'Assamese' | |||
| Assyrian Neo-Aramaic | [xaː] | 'one' | ||||
| Avar | чeхь | [tʃex] | 'belly' | |||
| Azerbaijani | xoş/خوش | [xoʃ] | 'pleasant' | |||
| Basque | Some speakers[3] | jan | [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 | ['tixo] | 'quietly' | |||
| Chinese | Mandarin | 河 hé | [xɤ˧˥] | 'river' | See Standard Chinese | |
| Czech | chlap | [xlap] | 'guy' | See Czech phonology | ||
| Dutch | Belgian Dutch[5] | acht | [ˈɑxt] | 'eight' | See Dutch phonology | |
| Northern dialects[6] | ||||||
| English | Scottish | loch | [lɔx] | 'loch' | Younger speakers may merge this sound with /k/.[7][8] See Scottish English phonology | |
| Some American speakers | yech | [jɛx] | 'yech' | See English phonology | ||
| Scouse[9] | book | [bʉːx] | 'book' | A syllable-final allophone of /k/ (lenition). | ||
| Esperanto | monaĥo | [monaxo] | 'monk' | See Esperanto phonology | ||
| Eyak | duxł | [tʊxɬ] | 'traps' | |||
| Finnish[10] | tuhka | [tuxkɑ] | 'ash' | Allophone of /h/. See Finnish phonology | ||
| French | jota | [xɔta] | 'jota' | Occurs only loanwords (from Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, etc.). See French phonology | ||
| Georgian[11] | ჯოხი | [ˈdʒɔxi] | 'stick' | |||
| German | Buch | [buːx] | 'book' | See German phonology | ||
| Greek | τέχνη téchni | [ˈte̞xni] | 'art' | See Modern Greek phonology | ||
| Hindustani | ख़ुशी/خوشی | [xʊʃiː] | 'happiness' | See Hindustani phonology | ||
| Hungarian | sahhal | [ʃɒxːɒl] | 'with a shah' | See Hungarian phonology | ||
| Irish | deoch | [dʲɔ̝̈x] | 'drink' | See Irish phonology | ||
| Kabardian | дахэ | [daːxa] | 'pretty' | |||
| Korean | 흠집 heumjip | [xɯmd͡ʑip̚] | 'flaw' | Occurs only before /ɯ/. See Korean phonology | ||
| Limburgish | Weert dialect[12] | lache | [ˈlɑ̟xə] | 'to laugh' | Pre-velar before and after front vowels.[13] | |
| Lithuanian | choras | [ˈxɔrɐs̪] | 'choir' | Occurs only in loanwords (usually international words) | ||
| Lojban | xatra | [xatra] | 'letter' | |||
| Macedonian | Охрид Ohrid | [ˈɔxrit] | 'Ohrid' | See Macedonian phonology | ||
| Malay | akhir | [a:xir] | 'last' | can also be pronounced [h] | ||
| Manx | aashagh | [ˈɛːʒax] | 'easy' | |||
| Old English | wealh | [wæɑlx] | 'foreigner', 'slave' | See Old English phonology | ||
| Persian | خواهر | [xɒːhær] | 'sister' | See Persian phonology | ||
| Polish[14] | chleb | [xlɛp] | 'bread' | Also (in great majority of dialects) represented by ⟨h⟩. See Polish phonology | ||
| Portuguese | Fluminense | arte | [ˈaxtɕi] | 'art' | In free variation with [χ], [ʁ], [ħ] and [h] before voiceless consonants | |
| General Brazilian[15] | arrasto | [ɐ̞ˈxastu] | 'I drag' | Some dialects, corresponds to rhotic consonant /ʁ/. See Portuguese phonology | ||
| Punjabi | ਖ਼ਬਰ | [xəbəɾ] | 'news' | |||
| Romanian | hram | [xräm] | 'patron of a church' | Allophone of /h/. See Romanian phonology | ||
| Russian[16] | хороший khoroshiy | [xɐˈr̠ʷo̞ʂɨ̞j] | 'good' | See Russian phonology | ||
| Scottish Gaelic[17] | drochaid | [ˈt̪ɾɔxɪtʲ] | 'bridge' | See Scottish Gaelic phonology | ||
| Serbo-Croatian | храст / hrast | [xrâːst] | 'oak' | See Serbo-Croatian phonology | ||
| Slovak | chlap | [xlap] | 'guy' | |||
| Somali | khad | [xad] | 'ink' | See Somali phonology | ||
| Spanish[18] | Latin American[19] | ojo | [ˈo̞xo̞] | 'eye' | May be glottal instead;[19] in northern and central Spain it iss often post-velar[19][20][21] or uvular.[21][22] See Spanish phonology | |
| Southern Spain[19] | ||||||
| Northern Moroccan[23] | Either velar or post-velar.[23] See Spanish phonology | |||||
| Swedish | Some speakers | sju | [xʷʉː] | 'seven' | Occurs in South Swedish dialects. It is also common in some immigrant-influenced sociolects. See Swedish phonology | |
| Xhosa | rhoxisa | [xɔkǁiːsa] | 'to cancel' | |||
| Ukrainian | хлопець | [ˈxɫɔ̝pɛt͡sʲ] | 'boy' | See Ukrainian phonology | ||
| Uzbek[24] | Post-velar.[24] Occurs in environments different than word-initially and pre-consonantally, otherwise it's pre-velar.[24] | |||||
| Vietnamese[25] | không | [xəwŋ͡m˧] | 'not' | See Vietnamese phonology | ||
| West Frisian | túch | [tyx] | 'dust' | Allophone of /χ/, only occurring after close vowels ([i], [y] and [u]) | ||
| Yaghan | xan | [xan] | 'here' | |||
| Yi | ꉾ he | [xɤ˧] | 'good' | |||
| Yiddish | איך ikh | [ix] | 'I' | See Yiddish phonology | ||
| Zapotec | Tilquiapan[26] | mejor | [mɘxoɾ] | 'better' | Used primarily in loanwords from Spanish | |
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "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.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Hualde & Ortiz de Urbina (2003), pp. 16 and 26.
- ↑ Hualde & Ortiz de Urbina (2003), p. 16.
- ↑ Verhoeven (2005), p. 243.
- ↑ van Reenen & Huijs (2000), p. ?.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998), pp. 107-108.
- ↑ Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998), p. 108.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 Chen (2007), p. 13.
- ↑ Hamond (2001:?), cited in Scipione & Sayahi (2005:128)
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Lyons (1981), p. 76.
- ↑ Harris & Vincent (1988), p. 83.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 Scipione & Sayahi (2005), p. 128.
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 Sjoberg (1963), pp. 11-12.
- ↑ Thompson (1959), pp. 458–461.
- ↑ Merrill (2008), p. 109.
Bibliography
- Arvaniti, Amalia (2007), "Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art" (PDF), Journal of Greek Linguistics 8: 97–208, doi:10.1075/jgl.8.08arv
- Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 227–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756
- Chen, Yudong (2007), A Comparison of Spanish Produced by Chinese L2 Learners and Native Speakers---an Acoustic Phonetics Approach
- Hamond, Robert M. (2001), The Sounds of Spanish: Analysis and Application, Cascadilla Press, ISBN 978-1-57473-018-0
- Harris, Martin; Vincent, Nigel (1988), "Spanish", The Romance Languages, pp. 79–130, ISBN 0-415-16417-6
- Heijmans, Linda; Gussenhoven, Carlos (1998), "The Dutch dialect of Weert" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 28: 107–112, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006307
- Hualde, José Ignacio; Ortiz de Urbina, Jon (2003), A Grammar of Basque, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, ISBN 3-11-017683-1
- Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191
- Lyons, John (1981), Language and Linguistics: An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-54088-9
- Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
- Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 38 (1): 107–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344
- Padgett, Jaye (2003), "Contrast and Post-Velar Fronting in Russian", Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 21 (1): 39–87, doi:10.1023/A:1021879906505
- van Reenen, Pieter; Huijs, Nanette (2000), "De harde en de zachte g, de spelling gh versus g voor voorklinker in het veertiende-eeuwse Middelnederlands" (PDF), Taal en Tongval (in Dutch) 52: 159–181
- Scipione, Ruth; Sayahi, Lotfi (2005), "Consonantal Variation of Spanish in Northern Morocco", in Sayahi, Lotfi; Westmoreland, Maurice, Selected Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics (PDF), Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project
- Shosted, Ryan K.; Chikovani, Vakhtang (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255–264, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659
- Sjoberg, Andrée F. (1963), Uzbek Structural Grammar
- Thompson, Laurence (1959), "Saigon phonemics", Language 35 (3): 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232
- Verhoeven, Jo (2005), "Belgian Standard Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35 (2): 243–247, doi:10.1017/s0025100305002173
- Watson, Kevin (2007), "Liverpool English" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37 (3): 351–360, doi:10.1017/s0025100307003180
- Watson, Janet C. E. (2002), The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, New York: Oxford University Press
- Wells, J.C. (1982), Accents of English 2: The British Isles, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
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