Voiceless velar fricative

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, e.g. in loch, broch or saugh (willow).

The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is Template:Angbr IPA, the Latin letter x. It is also used in broad transcription instead of the symbol Template:Angbr IPA, the Greek chi, for the voiceless uvular fricative.

There is also a voiceless post-velar fricative (also called pre-uvular) in some languages, which can be transcribed as Template:Angbr IPA or Template:Angbr IPA. For voiceless pre-velar fricative (also called post-palatal), see voiceless palatal fricative.

Some scholars also posit the voiceless velar approximant distinct from the fricative, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is Template:Angbr IPA, but this symbol is not suitable in case of the voiceless velar approximant that is unspecified for rounding (the sound represented by the symbol Template:Angbr IPA is specified as unrounded), which is best transcribed as Template:Angbr IPA, Template:Angbr IPA or Template:Angbr IPA - see voiced velar approximant. The velar approximant can in many cases be considered the semivocalic equivalent of the voiceless variant of the close back unrounded vowel Template:Angbr IPA.

Features

File:Voiceless velar fricative articulation.svg

Voiceless velar fricative (x)

Features of the voiceless velar fricative:

Varieties

IPA	Description
	plain velar fricative
	labialised
	ejective
	ejective labialised
	semi-labialised
	strongly labialised
	palatalised
	ejective palatalised

Occurrence

The voiceless velar fricative and its labialized variety are 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 "horn" and "what" became Proto-Germanic *hurnan and *hwat, where *h and *hw were likely and . This sound change is part of Grimm's law.

In Modern Greek, the voiceless velar fricative (with its allophone, the voiceless palatal fricative Template:IPAblink, occurring before front vowels) originated from the Ancient Greek voiceless aspirated stop in a sound change that lenited Greek aspirated stops into fricatives.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abaza		/xzë		'name'
Adyghe		/xë	{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Ady-6.oga" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'six'
Afrikaans				'big'
Albanian				'language'	Allophone of . See Albanian phonology
Aleut	Atkan dialect			'two'
Arabic	Modern Standard			'green' (f.)	May be velar, post-velar or uvular, depending on dialect.Template:Sfnp See Arabic phonology
Armenian				'brave'
Assamese				'Assamese'
Assyrian		ܚܡܫܐ		'five'
Avar		/		'belly'
Azerbaijani		/ /		'pleasant'
Basque	Some speakersTemplate:Sfnp			'to eat'	Either velar or post-velar.Template:Sfnp For other speakers it's .Template:Sfnp
Blackfoot		/ Template:Transliteration		'my grandparents'	Sometimes /x/ becomes allophone /h/ in beginning of words like "hánnia!" Really! Or becomes allphone /ç/ after i/ii like ihkitsika seven.
BrahuiTemplate:Sfnp		ﺧﻦ		'eye'	Corresponds to /x/ in Kurukh and /q/ in Malto.
Breton				'our dog'
Bulgarian		/	{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Tiho.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'quietly'	Described as having "only slight friction" ().
Catalan				'kharja'	Found in loanwords and interjections. See Catalan phonology
Chechen		/		'time'
Chinese	Mandarin	/		'river'	See Standard Chinese phonology
Czech				'guy'	See Czech phonology
Danish	Southern Jutlandic		[ˈkʰaːx]	'cake'	See Sønderjysk dialect
Dutch	Standard Belgian		{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Nl-loochen (Belgium).ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'deny'	May be post-palatal Template:IPAblink instead. In dialects spoken above the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Waal the corresponding sound is a postvelar-uvular fricative trill Template:IPAblink. See Dutch phonology and Hard and soft G in Dutch
	Southern Netherlands accents
English	Scottish	loch		'loch'	Younger speakers may merge this sound with Template:IPAslink. See Scottish English phonology
	Irish	lough		'lough'	Occurs only in Gaelic borrowings. See Irish English phonology
	Scouse	book		'book'	A syllable-final allophone of (lenition).
Esperanto				'monk'	See Esperanto phonology
Estonian				'yes'	Allophone of . See Estonian phonology
Eyak				'traps'
Finnish				'coffee'	Allophone of . See Finnish phonology
French				'jota'	Occurs only in loanwords (from Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, etc.). See French phonology
GeorgianTemplate:Sfnp		/		'stick'
German			{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "De-Buch.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'book'	See Standard German phonology
Greek		/		'art'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew	Biblical	/Michael		'Michael'	See Biblical Hebrew phonology
Hindustani	Hindi	/xuší		'happiness'	Occurs only in loanwords. May be replaced in Hindi with . See Hindustani phonology
	Urdu	/xuşi
Hungarian				'with a shah'	See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic				'October'	See Icelandic phonology
Indonesian				'typical'	Occurs in Arabic loanwords. Often pronounced as [h] or [k] by some Indonesians. See Indonesian phonology
Irish				'drink'	See Irish phonology
Japanese		/		'Mach'	Allophone of . See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		/ khy	{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Хы.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'sea'
Kazakh		ханзада /		'prince'
Korean		/		'bargaining'	Allophone of before . See Korean phonology
Kurdish				'house'	See Kurdish phonology
KurukhTemplate:Sfnp		कुड़ुख़		'Kurukh'	Corresponds to /x/ in Brahui and /q/ in Malto.
Limburgish				'air'	The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect. See Maastrichtian dialect phonology and Hard and soft G in Dutch
Lishan Didan	Urmi Dialect	חלבא / xalwa		'milk'	Generally post-velar
Lithuanian				'choir'	Occurs only in loanwords (usually international words)
Lojban				'letter'
Macedonian		/	{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Mk-Ohrid.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'Ohrid'	See Macedonian phonology
Malay		اﺧير /		'last', 'end'	Occurs in Arabic loanwords. Often pronounced as [h] or [k]. See Malay phonology
Manx				'easy'
Nepali				'eye'	Allophone of . See Nepali phonology
Norwegian
	Urban EastTemplate:Sfnp			'hate'	Possible allophone of near back vowels; can be voiced Template:IPAblink between two voiced sounds.Template:Sfnp See Norwegian phonology
	Brekke dialect			'oneself'	Also described as an approximant. Coda allophone of ; reported to occur only in this word. See Norwegian phonology
	Kaldfarnes dialect
	Sørkjosen dialect
	Undheim dialect
	Bryne dialect	,		'strongest'	Also described as an approximant. Allophone of when it is in contact with voiceless consonants. Exact distribution may differ between dialects. In the Hafrsfjord dialect, may also occur in the word seg. See Norwegian phonology
	Hafrsfjord dialect
	Raundalen dialect
	Stanghelle dialect
	Fyllingsdalen dialect
Pashto		/ axta		'occupied'	See Pashto phonology
Persian		/ doxtär		'daughter'	See Persian phonology
PolishTemplate:Sfnp				'bread'	Also (in great majority of dialects) represented orthographically by Template:Angbr. See Polish phonology
Portuguese	Fluminense			'art'	In free variation with Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink before voiceless consonants
	General BrazilianTemplate:Sfnp			'rose'	Some dialects. An allophone of . See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi	Gurmukhi	/xabar		'news'	Less frequent and may merge with /kʰ/ in Gurmukhi varieties.
	Shahmukhi	/xabar
Romanian				'patronal feast of a church'	Allophone of . See Romanian phonology
RussianTemplate:Sfnp		/	{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Ru-хороший.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'good'	See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic				'bridge'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatian		/		'oak'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak				'guy'
Slovene	Standard			'greed'	See Slovene phonology
	Some dialects			'god'	Allophone of before voiceless obstruents or pause. See Slovene phonology
Somali				'ink'	Also occurs allophone of /q/ in Arabic loan words. See Somali phonology
SpanishTemplate:Sfnp	Latin AmericanTemplate:Sfnp			'eye'	May be glottal instead;Template:Sfnp in northern and central Spain it is often post-velarTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp or uvular /χ/.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp See Spanish phonology
	Southern SpainTemplate:Sfnp
Sylheti		/xobor		'news'
Tachelhit		ixf	[ixf]	'head'
Taqbaylit		axaṭar	[ɑχɑtˤɑr]	'because'
Tagalog				'why'	Allophone of in intervocalic positions. See Tagalog phonology
TodaTemplate:Sfnp		pax		'smoke'
Turkish				'linden'	Allophone of . See Turkish phonology
Turkmen				'cunning' (noun)
Tyap				1. 'calabash'; 2. 'prostitute'
Xhosa				'to cancel'
Ukrainian		/		'boy'	See Ukrainian phonology
UzbekTemplate:Sfnp				'last'	Post-velar. Occurs in environments different from word-initially and pre-consonantally, otherwise it is pre-velar.Template:Sfnp
VietnameseTemplate:Sfnp				'no', 'not', 'zero'	See Vietnamese phonology
Yaghan				'here'
Yi		/		'good'
Zapotec	TilquiapanTemplate:Sfnp			'better'	Used primarily in loanwords from Spanish

See also

• Guttural
• Index of phonetics articles

External links

• Template:Phoible