Voiceless velar fricative
The voiceless velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is x. The sound is rare in, but not completely absent from, English. To give English speakers an example of the sound with which they might be familiar, consider the sound represented by "ch" in Scottish loch.
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 part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the velum).
- Its phonation type is voiceless, which means the vocal cords are not vibrating during the articulation.
- It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
- It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
- The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.
Varieties of
| IPA | Description |
|---|---|
| plain velar fricative | |
| labialized | |
| ejective | |
| ejective labialized | |
| semi-labialized | |
| strongly labialized |
In English
Most dialects of English do not have , except for a few loan words such as Scottish loch and Hebrew Chanukah . Where it occurs, it is usually represented by a "ch", but often in terms from more foreign languages shows up as "kh"; terms from a very few languages even use "x" for it. Many speakers, especially in the United States, do not make this sound, and are sometimes not even aware of its existence; these speakers replace it with in words such as "chutzpah" or "challah," or in words such as "loch" or "leprechaun." These alternative pronunciations are considered acceptable by most authorities.Some dialects in England, particularly London and Liverpool, may have where other dialects have , as in cat. In London it is a younger, lower-class pronunciation.
In other languages
The sound is a somewhat common sound cross-linguistically.Afrikaans
In Afrikaans, is represented to by the letter g. An Afrikaans word with three of the sounds in it is geglimlag (smiled).Armenian
In Armenian, is spelled Խ.Assamese
In Assamese, is spelled শ, ষ or স.Avar
In Avar, a distinction is made between the voiceless velar fricative , which is spelled as х, and the voiceless uvular fricative , spelled хь.Azeri
Azeri uses x to represent this sound.Breton
C'h represents the sound in Breton, as in merc'hetaer.Bulgarian
In Bulgarian х represents the sound, as in хора (people).Czech, Slovak
In Czech (and also in Slovak), as in other Slavic languages using the Roman alphabet, "ch" represents a voiceless velar fricative. Unlike in Polish, the sound of "ch" and the sound of regular "h" (a Voiced glottal fricative) are still being clearly differentiated. In some words, the difference in the pronunciation of "ch" and "h" is even crucial for the identification of the word, e. g. in Czech hodit (to throw) and chodit (to walk) or hlad (hunger) and chlad (coolness).
is also a voiceless realisation of "h" at the end of the word or next to a voiceless consonant, e. g. in Czech vrch ((the) top) and vrh ((a) throw), both words are pronounced , although and are not a real voiceless-voiced pair.