Voiceless velar fricative

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IPA – number	140
IPA – text	x
IPA – image	Image:Xsampa-x.png
entity	x
X-SAMPA	x
Kirshenbaum	x
Sound sample ▶(?)

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 x, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is x. The [x] 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 or Hebrew Chanukah.

Contents 1 Features 2 Varieties of [x] 3 In English 4 In other languages 4.1 Armenian 4.2 Czech 4.3 Dutch 4.4 Esperanto 4.5 Georgian 4.6 German 4.7 Polish 4.8 Russian 4.9 Welsh 5 See also

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 [x]

IPA	Description
x	plain velar fricative
xʷ	labialized
x’	ejective
xʷ’	ejective labialized
x̜ʷ	semi-labialized
x̹ʷ	strongly labialized

In English

Standard English does not have [x], except for a few loan words such as Scottish loch /lɒx/ and Hebrew Chanukah /xanukaː/. Where it occurs, it is nearly always represented by a "ch." Many speakers, especially in the United States, do not (often cannot) make this sound, and are sometimes not even aware of its existence; these speakers replace it with [h] in words such as "chutzpah" or "challah," or [k] 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 [x] where other dialects have [k], as in cat. In London it is a younger, lower-class pronunciation.

In other languages

The [x] sound is a somewhat common sound cross-linguistically and very common in Assamese.

Armenian

In Armenian, [x] is spelled Խ.

Czech

In Czech, as in other slavic languages using the roman alphabet, "ch" is pronunced as voiceless velar fricative. Unlike in Polish, the difference between the sound of "ch" and the sound of regular "h" are still being clearly differentiated. In some words, the difference in the pronounciation of "ch" and "h" is even crucial for the identification of the word (e.g. Czech "vrch" and "vrh", meaning "(the) top", "(a) throw", respectively).

Dutch

Standard Dutch has no g-sound as in "garden". They use a voiceless velar fricative or a voiced velar fricative instead. The word for "laugh" in both German and Dutch is "lachen", with ch to be pronounced as /x/.

Esperanto

Esperanto has an [x], spelled Ĥ.

Georgian

Georgian has an [x], spelled ხ.

German

German has the voiceless velar fricative and it is spelled with "ch", as in ach [ax] (the interjection Oh!). The Germans call this sound ach-Laut. This is the sound represented by "ch" when it follows "a", "o", "u", or the diphthong "au". The sound represented by "ch" following "e", "i", "ä", "ö", "ü", the diphthongs "eu" or "äu", or the consonants "l", "n" or "r" is a different consonant, the voiceless palatal fricative. The sounds are allophones that are just starting to become separate phonemes, a rather interesting situation. See German phonology.

Polish

In Polish, as in other slavic languages using the roman alphabet, "ch" is pronunced as voiceless velar fricative, though in modern Polish the sound of "ch" blends with the sound of regular "h".

Russian

Russian uses the cyrillic letter Kha (Х, х) for the voiceless velar fricative.

Welsh

Welsh represents the voiceless velar fricative with "ch".

See also

• List of phonetics topics

Consonants (List, table)	See also: IPA, Vowels
Pulmonics Bilabial Lab'den. Dental Alveolar Postalv. Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn. Epiglottal Glottal   Non-pulmonics and other symbols Plosives p b t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ  Clicks  ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ Nasals m ɱ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ  Implo­sives  ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ Trills ʙ r • ʀ •  Ejec­tives  pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ sʼ Flaps & Taps • • ɾ ɽ • Other laterals  ɺ ɫ Fricatives ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Co-articulated approximants  ʍ w ɥ Lat. Fricatives ɬ ɮ • • • Other fricatives  ɕ ʑ ɧ    Approximants    β̞ ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Affricates  ʦ ʣ ʧ ʤ Lat. Appr'mants l ɭ ʎ ʟ Co-articulated stops  kp ɡb ŋm
This page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged impossible.