Voiceless uvular fricative

IPA Number 142

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Entity (decimal) χ

Unicode (hex) U+03C7

X-SAMPA X

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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 ⟨χ⟩, the Greek chi. The sound is represented by ⟨x̣⟩ (ex with underdot) in Americanist phonetic notation. It is sometimes transcribed with ⟨x⟩ (or ⟨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 [χ] and [ʀ̥]). 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]^[2]^[3]^[4] It can be transcribed as ⟨ʀ̝̊⟩ (a devoiced and raised uvular trill) in IPA. It is found as either the fortis counterpart of /ɣ/ (which itself is voiceless at least in Northern Standard Dutch: [x]) 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 /r/.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11] 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 ⟨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 [ɑʀ̝̊˖t] 'eight' (with a postvelar-uvular fricative trill) with Southern Dutch [ɑxt] or [ɑx̟t], which features a non-trilled fricative articulated at the middle or front of the soft palate.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[9]^[10]^[12]

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

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Transcription

Features

Features of the voiceless uvular 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 uvular, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the uvula.
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 intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans^[13]^[14]		goed	[χut]	'good'	Varies between a fricative and a fricative trill when word-initial.^[13] See Afrikaans phonology.
Arabic^[12]		خضراء ḵaḍrāʾ	[χadˤraːʔ]	'green' (f.)	Fricative trill with velar frication.^[12] May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨x⟩. See Arabic phonology
Armenian		խաղ xaġ	[χɑʁ]	'game'
Chuvash		хăна hăna	[χə'na]	'guest'
Danish	Standard^[15]	pres	[ˈpχæs]	'pressure'	Before /r/, aspiration of /p, t, k/ is realized as devoicing of /r/.^[16] Usually transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʁ⟩. See Danish phonology.
Dutch	Standard Northern^[5]^[6]	acht	[ɑʀ̝̊˖t]	'eight'	Fricative trill with post-velar frication.^[5] May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨x⟩. See Dutch phonology and Hard and soft G in Dutch
Dutch	Belgian^[7]^[8]	brood	[bʀ̝̊oːt]	'bread'	Voiced when following a vowel.^[17] Realization of /r/ varies considerably among dialects. See Dutch phonology
English	Scouse^[18]	clock	[kl̥ɒχ]	'clock'	Possible word-final realization of /k/; varies between a fricative and a fricative trill.^[18]
	Scouse^[18]	neck	[nɛχ]	'neck'
	Welsh^[19]^[20]	Amlwch	[ˈamlʊχ]	'Amlwch'	Occurs only in loanwords from Welsh;^[19] usually transcribed in IPA with ⟨x⟩. See English phonology
	White South African^[14]^[21]	gogga	[ˈχɒχə]	'insect'	Less commonly velar [x], occurs only in loanwords from Afrikaans and Khoisan.^[14] Usually transcribed in IPA with ⟨x⟩. See White South African English phonology and English phonology.
French		très	[t̪χɛ]	'very'	Allophone of /ʁ/ in contact with voiceless consonants. See French phonology
German	Standard^[22]	Dach	[daχ]	'roof'	Appears only after certain back vowels. See Standard German phonology
	Chemnitz dialect^[23]	Rock	[χɔkʰ]	'skirt'	In free variation with [ʁ̞], [ʁ], [ʀ̥] and [q].^[23] Does not occur in coda.^[23]
	Lower Rhine^[24]	Wirte	[ˈvɪχtə]	'hosts'	In free variation with [ɐ] between a vowel and a voiceless coronal consonant.
Hebrew ^[1]		מֶלֶך mélekh	[ˈme̞le̞χ]	'king'	Usually a fricative trill.^[1] See Modern Hebrew phonology.
Limburgish	Some dialects^[9]^[10]^[11]	waor	[β̞ɒ̝ːʀ̝̊]	'was'	Allophone of /r/ that has been variously described as occurring in the syllable coda^[9]^[10] and word-final.^[11] May be only partially devoiced; frication may be uvular or post-velar.^[9]^[10] The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect. See Maastrichtian dialect phonology and Hard and soft G in Dutch
Luxembourgish^[25]		Zuch	[t͡suχ]	'train'	See Luxembourgish phonology.
Low German	Dutch Low Saxon^[5]^[6]	acht	[ɑʀ̝̊˖t]	'eight'	Fricative trill with post-velar frication;^[5] voiceless counterpart of /ɣ/. May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨x⟩. See Hard and soft G in Dutch
Portuguese	General Brazilian^[26]	rompimento	[χompi'mentʊ]	'rupture' (noun)	Some dialects, corresponds to rhotic consonant /ʁ/. See Portuguese phonology.
Ripuarian^[27]^[28]		ach	[ɑχ]	'eight'	Allophone of /x/ after back vowels. Fronted to [ç] or [ʃ] after front vowels and consonants.^[27]^[28] It may be transcribed in IPA with ⟨x⟩. See Colognian phonology, Kerkrade dialect phonology and Hard and soft G in Dutch
Spanish	European^[3]^[4]	ojo	[ˈo̞ʀ̝̊o̞]^ⓘ	'eye'	Fricative trill; frication is velar in Madrid. Occurs in northern and central varieties.^[3]^[4] Most often, it is transcribed with ⟨x⟩ in IPA. See Spanish phonology.
Spanish	Ponce dialect^[29]	perro	[ˈpe̞χo̞]	'dog'	This and [ʀ̥] are the primary realizations of /r/ in this dialect.^[29] See Spanish phonology.
Tlingit		-dáx̱	[dáχ]	'from, out of'	Occurs plain, labialised, ejective, and labialised ejective.
Turkmen		gahar	[ɢɑχɑɾ]	'snow'
Upper Sorbian^[30]		brach	[bʁ̞äʀ̝̊]	'fault'	Fricative trill.^[30]
Welsh		chwech	[χweːχ]^ⓘ	'six'	See Welsh phonology.
West Frisian^[5]^[6]		berch	[bɛrʀ̝̊˖]	'mountain'	Fricative trill with post-velar frication;^[5] voiceless counterpart of /ɣ/. Never occurs in word-initial positions. May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨x⟩. See West Frisian phonology
Wolof^[2]		sax	[sax]		Fricative trill.^[2]
Yiddish^[13]		איך ikh	[iχ]	'I'	See Yiddish phonology.

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c Laufer (1999), p. 98.
^ ^a ^b ^c Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 167.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Castilian Spanish - Madrid by Klaus Kohler".
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Lyons (1981), p. 76.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Collins & Mees (2003:191). Goeman & Van de Velde (2001) have also found that frication is much more commonly in the velar region in dialects and language varieties with "hard G", though they do not distinguish between trilled and non-trilled fricatives in their study.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Gussenhoven (1999), p. 74.
^ ^a ^b Tops (2009), pp. 25, 30–32, 63, 80–88, 97–100, 105, 118, 124–127, 134–135, 137–138, 140–141.
^ ^a ^b Verhoeven (1994:?), cited in Tops (2009:22, 83)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998), p. 108.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999), p. 156.
^ ^a ^b ^c Verhoeven (2007), p. 220.
^ ^a ^b ^c Thelwall & Sa'Addedin (1999), pp. 51, 53.
^ ^a ^b ^c "John Wells's phonetic blog: velar or uvular?". 5 December 2011. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
^ ^a ^b ^c Bowerman (2004:939): "White South African English is one of very few varieties to have a velar fricative phoneme /x/ (see Lass (2002:120)), but this is only in words borrowed from Afrikaans (...) and Khoisan (...). Many speakers use the Afrikaans uvular fricative [χ] rather than the velar."
^ Basbøll (2005), pp. 62, 65–66.
^ Basbøll (2005), pp. 65–66.
^ Tops (2009), p. 83.
^ ^a ^b Wells (1982), pp. 372–373.
^ ^a ^b Wells (1982), p. 389.
^ Tench (1990), p. 132.
^ Wells (1982), p. 619.
^ Hall (1993:100), footnote 7, citing Kohler (1990)
^ ^a ^b ^c Khan & Weise (2013), p. 235.
^ Hall (1993), p. 89.
^ Gilles & Trouvain (2013), p. 68.
^ Barbosa & Albano (2004), pp. 5–6.
^ ^a ^b Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer (1997), p. 17.
^ ^a ^b Bodelier (2011), p. 19.
^ ^a ^b "ProQuest Document View - The Spanish of Ponce, Puerto Rico: A phonetic, phonological, and intonational analysis".
^ ^a ^b Howson (2017), p. 362.

References

Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (2): 227–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756
Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 978-0-203-97876-4
Bodelier, Jorina (2011), Tone and intonation in the Lemiers dialect of Ripuarian (MA General Linguistics Thesis), Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam
Bowerman, Sean (2004), "White South African English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 931–942, ISBN 978-3-11-017532-5
Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2003) [First published 1981], The Phonetics of English and Dutch (5th ed.), Leiden: Brill Publishers, ISBN 978-9004103405
Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013), "Luxembourgish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 67–74, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278
Goeman, Ton; Van de Velde, Hans (2001). "Co-occurrence constraints on /r/ and /ɣ/ in Dutch dialects". In van de Velde, Hans; van Hout, Roeland (eds.). 'r-atics. Brussels: Etudes & Travaux. pp. 91–112. ISSN 0777-3692. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
Gussenhoven, Carlos (1999), "Dutch", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 74–77, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0
Gussenhoven, Carlos; Aarts, Flor (1999), "The dialect of Maastricht" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 29 (2), University of Nijmegen, Centre for Language Studies: 155–166, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006526, S2CID 145782045
Hall, Tracy Alan (1993), "The phonology of German /ʀ/", Phonology, 10 (1): 83–105, doi:10.1017/S0952675700001743, S2CID 195707076
Heijmans, Linda; Gussenhoven, Carlos (1998), "The Dutch dialect of Weert" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 28 (1–2): 107–112, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006307, S2CID 145635698
Howson, Phil (2017), "Upper Sorbian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 47 (3): 359–367, doi:10.1017/S0025100316000414, S2CID 232350142
Hualde, José Ignacio; Ortiz de Urbina, Jon (2003), A Grammar of Basque, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-017683-4
Hess, Wolfgang (2001), "Funktionale Phonetik und Phonologie" (PDF), Grundlagen der Phonetik, Bonn: Institut für Kommunikationsforschung und Phonetik, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, archived from the original (PDF) on 2005-05-04, retrieved 2005-05-07
Khan, Sameer ud Dowla; Weise, Constanze (2013), "Upper Saxon (Chemnitz dialect)" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (2): 231–241, doi:10.1017/S0025100313000145
Kohler, Klaus (1990), "Comment on German", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 20 (2): 44–46, doi:10.1017/S002510030000428X, S2CID 144212850
Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996), The Sounds of the World's Languages, Oxford: Blackwell, ISBN 0-631-19815-6
Lass, Roger (2002), "South African English", in Mesthrie, Rajend (ed.), Language in South Africa, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521791052
Laufer, Asher (1999), "Hebrew", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 96–99, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0
Lyons, John (1981), Language and Linguistics: An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-54088-9
Sjoberg, Andrée F. (1963), Uzbek Structural Grammar, Uralic and Altaic Series, vol. 18, Bloomington: Indiana University
Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer (1997) [1987], Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer (in Dutch) (2nd ed.), Kerkrade: Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer, ISBN 90-70246-34-1
Tench, Paul (1990), "The Pronunciation of English in Abercrave", in Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan Richard (eds.), English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change, Multilingual Matters Ltd., pp. 130–141, ISBN 978-1-85359-032-0
Thelwall, Robin; Sa'Addedin, M. Akram (1999), "Arabic", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 51–54, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
Tops, Evie (2009), Variatie en verandering van de /r/ in Vlaanderen, Brussels: VUBPress, ISBN 9789054874713
Verhoeven, Jo (1994), "Fonetische Eigenschappen van de Limburgse huig-r", Taal en Tongval, 46: 9–21
Verhoeven, Jo (2005), "Belgian Standard Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 35 (2): 243–247, doi:10.1017/S0025100305002173
Verhoeven, Jo (2007), "The Belgian Limburg dialect of Hamont", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (2): 219–225, doi:10.1017/S0025100307002940
Wells, John C. (1982), Accents of English, Vol. 2: The British Isles (pp. i–xx, 279–466), Vol. 3: Beyond the British Isles (pp. i–xx, 467–674), Cambridge University Press, doi:10.1017/CBO9780511611759, 10.1017/CBO9780511611766, ISBN 0-52128540-2 , 0-52128541-0

External links

List of languages with [χ] on PHOIBLE

International Phonetic Alphabet (chart)

IPA topics

IPA	International Phonetic Association History of the alphabet Extensions for disordered speech (extIPA) Voice Quality Symbols (VoQS) Journal of the IPA (JIPA)
Special topics	Cursive forms Case variants Obsolete and nonstandard symbols Naming conventions Sinological extensions World Orthography IPA chart for English dialects
Encodings	ASCII encodings SAMPA X-SAMPA Kirshenbaum TIPA Phonetic symbols in Unicode IPA number IPA Braille

Consonants

Pulmonic consonants

Place →	Labial					Coronal										Dorsal					Laryngeal
Manner ↓	Bilabial		Labiodental		Linguolabial		Dental		Alveolar		Postalveolar		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar		Uvular		Pharyngeal/epiglottal		Glottal
Nasal	m̥	m	ɱ̊	ɱ		n̼			n̥	n			ɳ̊	ɳ	ɲ̊	ɲ	ŋ̊	ŋ	ɴ̥	ɴ
Plosive	p	b	p̪	b̪	t̼	d̼			t	d			ʈ	ɖ	c	ɟ	k	ɡ	q	ɢ	ʡ		ʔ
Sibilant affricate									ts	dz	t̠ʃ	d̠ʒ	tʂ	dʐ	tɕ	dʑ
Non-sibilant affricate	pɸ	bβ	p̪f	b̪v			t̪θ	d̪ð	tɹ̝̊	dɹ̝	t̠ɹ̠̊˔	d̠ɹ̠˔			cç	ɟʝ	kx	ɡɣ	qχ	ɢʁ	ʡʜ	ʡʢ	ʔh
Sibilant fricative									s	z	ʃ	ʒ	ʂ	ʐ	ɕ	ʑ
Non-sibilant fricative	ɸ	β	f	v	θ̼	ð̼	θ	ð	θ̠	ð̠	ɹ̠̊˔	ɹ̠˔	ɻ̊˔	ɻ˔	ç	ʝ	x	ɣ	χ	ʁ	ħ	ʕ	h	ɦ
Approximant				ʋ						ɹ				ɻ		j		ɰ						ʔ̞
Tap/flap		ⱱ̟		ⱱ		ɾ̼			ɾ̥	ɾ			ɽ̊	ɽ						ɢ̆		ʡ̆
Trill	ʙ̥	ʙ							r̥	r			ɽ̊r̥	ɽr					ʀ̥	ʀ	ʜ	ʢ
Lateral affricate									tɬ	dɮ			tꞎ	d𝼅	c𝼆	ɟʎ̝	k𝼄	ɡʟ̝
Lateral fricative									ɬ	ɮ			ꞎ	𝼅	𝼆	ʎ̝	𝼄	ʟ̝
Lateral approximant										l				ɭ		ʎ		ʟ		ʟ̠
Lateral tap/flap									ɺ̥	ɺ			𝼈̥	𝼈		ʎ̆		ʟ̆

Symbols to the right in a cell are voiced, to the left are voiceless. Shaded areas denote articulations judged impossible.

Non-pulmonic consonants

		BL	LD	D	A	PA	RF	P	V	U	EG
Ejective	Stop	pʼ			tʼ		ʈʼ	cʼ	kʼ	qʼ	ʡʼ
	Affricate		p̪fʼ	t̪θʼ	tsʼ	t̠ʃʼ	tʂʼ		kxʼ	qχʼ
	Fricative	ɸʼ	fʼ	θʼ	sʼ	ʃʼ	ʂʼ	ɕʼ	xʼ	χʼ
	Lateral affricate				tɬʼ			c𝼆ʼ	k𝼄ʼ	q𝼄ʼ
	Lateral fricative				ɬʼ
Click (top: velar; bottom: uvular)	Tenuis	kʘ qʘ		kǀ qǀ	kǃ qǃ		k𝼊 q𝼊	kǂ qǂ
	Voiced	ɡʘ ɢʘ		ɡǀ ɢǀ	ɡǃ ɢǃ		ɡ𝼊 ɢ𝼊	ɡǂ ɢǂ
	Nasal	ŋʘ ɴʘ		ŋǀ ɴǀ	ŋǃ ɴǃ		ŋ𝼊 ɴ𝼊	ŋǂ ɴǂ	ʞ
	Tenuis lateral				kǁ qǁ
	Voiced lateral				ɡǁ ɢǁ
	Nasal lateral				ŋǁ ɴǁ
Implosive	Voiced	ɓ			ɗ		ᶑ	ʄ	ɠ	ʛ
Implosive	Voiceless	ɓ̥			ɗ̥		ᶑ̊	ʄ̊	ɠ̊	ʛ̥

Co-articulated consonants

Labial–alveolar

Labial–velar

Fricative/approximant

ɥ̊

Labial–palatal

Labial–velar

Sj-sound (variable)

Lateral approximant

Velarized alveolar

Labial–velar

Labial–alveolar

Other	Nasal labial–velar approximant [w̃] Nasal palatal approximant [j̃] Voiceless bidental fricative [h̪͆] Voiceless bilabially post-trilled dental stop [t̪ʙ̥] Voiceless nasal glottal approximant [h̃]