Voiceless uvular fricative

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 Template:Angbr IPA, the Greek chi. The sound is represented by Template:Angbr (ex with underdot), or sometimes by Template:Angle bracket (ex with caron), in Americanist phonetic notation. It is sometimes transcribed with Template:Angbr IPA (or Template:Angbr IPA, if rhotic) in broad transcription.

Most languages claimed to have a voiceless uvular fricative may actually have a voiceless uvular fricative trill (a simultaneous and Template:IPAblink). 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 studies, 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.Template:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp The fricative-trill can be transcribed as Template:Angbr IPA (a devoiced and raised uvular trill) in IPA. It is found as either the fortis counterpart of (which itself is voiceless at least in Northern Standard Dutch: Template:IPAblink) 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 .Template:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp 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 Template:Angbr IPA (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 'eight' (with a postvelar-uvular fricative trill) with Southern Dutch or , which features a non-trilled fricative articulated at the middle or front of the soft palate.Template:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

For a voiceless pre-uvular fricative (also called post-velar), see voiceless velar fricative.

Features

Features of the voiceless uvular fricative:

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans				'good'	Varies between a fricative and a fricative trill when word-initial. See Afrikaans phonology.
ArabicTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Transliteration		'green' (f.)	Fricative trill with velar frication.Template:Sfnp May be transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA. See Arabic phonology
Armenian		Template:Transliteration		'game'
Azerbaijani				'pin'	Colloquial pronunciation of word-final q.
Breton	Some speakers			'six'
Chuvash		Template:Transliteration		'guest'
Danish	StandardTemplate:Sfnp			'pressure'	Before , aspiration of is realized as devoicing of .Template:Sfnp Usually transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA. See Danish phonology.
Dutch	Standard NorthernTemplate:Sfnp		{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Nl-acht.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'eight'	Fricative trill with post-velar frication. May be transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA. See Dutch phonology and Hard and soft G in Dutch
	BelgianTemplate:Sfnp			'bread'	Voiced when following a vowel.Template:Sfnp Realization of varies considerably among dialects. See Dutch phonology
English	ScouseTemplate:Sfnp			'clock'	Possible word-final realization of ; varies between a fricative and a fricative trill.Template:Sfnp
		neck	[]	'neck'
	WelshTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp			'Amlwch'	Occurs only in loanwords from Welsh;Template:Sfnp usually transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA. See English phonology
	White South AfricanTemplate:Sfnp			'insect'	Less commonly velar Template:IPAblink, occurs only in loanwords from Afrikaans and Khoisan. Usually transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA. See White South African English phonology and English phonology.
French				'very'	Allophone of in contact with voiceless consonants. See French phonology
German	Standard			'roof'	Appears only after certain back vowels. See Standard German phonology
	Chemnitz dialectTemplate:Sfnp			'skirt'	In free variation with Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp Does not occur in coda.Template:Sfnp
	Lower RhineTemplate:Sfnp			'hosts'	In free variation with Template:IPAblink between a vowel and a voiceless coronal consonant.
HebrewTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Transliteration		'king'	Usually a fricative trill.Template:Sfnp See Modern Hebrew phonology.
Limburgish	Some dialectsTemplate:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp			'was'	Allophone of that has been variously described as occurring in the syllable codaTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp and word-final.Template:Sfnp May be only partially devoiced; frication may be uvular or post-velar.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect. See Maastrichtian dialect phonology and Hard and soft G in Dutch
LuxembourgishTemplate:Sfnp				'train'	See Luxembourgish phonology.
Low German	Dutch Low SaxonTemplate:Sfnp			'eight'	Fricative trill with post-velar frication; voiceless counterpart of Template:IPAslink. May be transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA. See Hard and soft G in Dutch
Portuguese	General BrazilianTemplate:Sfnp			'rupture' (noun)	Some dialects, corresponds to rhotic consonant . See Portuguese phonology.
RipuarianTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp				'eight'	Allophone of after back vowels. Fronted to Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink after front vowels and consonants.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp It may be transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA. See Colognian phonology, Kerkrade dialect phonology and Hard and soft G in Dutch
Spanish	EuropeanTemplate:Sfnp		{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Ojo spanish J.wav" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'eye'	Fricative trill; frication is velar in Madrid. Occurs in northern and central varieties.Template:Sfnp Most often, it is transcribed with Template:Angbr IPA in IPA. See Spanish phonology.
	Ponce dialect			'dog'	This and Template:IPAblink are the primary realizations of in this dialect. See Spanish phonology.
Tlingit				'from, out of'	Occurs plain, labialised, ejective, and labialised ejective.
Turkmen				'snow'
Upper SorbianTemplate:Sfnp				'fault'	Fricative trill.Template:Sfnp
Welsh			{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Welsh Chwech CH.wav" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'six'	See Welsh phonology.
West FrisianTemplate:Sfnp				'mountain'	Fricative trill with post-velar frication; voiceless counterpart of Template:IPAslink. Never occurs in word-initial positions. May be transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA. See West Frisian phonology
WolofTemplate:Sfnp		sax			Fricative trill.Template:Sfnp
Yiddish		Template:Transliteration		'I'	See Yiddish phonology.

See also

• Index of phonetics articles
• Voiced uvular fricative

References

• Template:SOWL
• Template:Accents of English

External links

• Template:Phoible