Voiceless velar fricative

A 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 modern dialects of English, most notably in Scottish English, for example in loch, broch, and saugh (willow).

Voiceless velar fricative
x
IPA number	140
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	x
Unicode (hex)	U+0078
X-SAMPA	x
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The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨x⟩, the Latin letter x. It is also used in broad transcription instead of the symbol ⟨χ⟩, 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 ⟨x̠⟩ or ⟨χ᫈⟩. For a voiceless pre-velar fricative (also called post-palatal), see voiceless palatal fricative § Post-palatal.

Features

Sagittal section of a voiceless velar fricative

Features of a 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 of the tongue (the dorsum) at the soft palate.
• 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 that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
• It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

A 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 *ḱr̥nom "horn" and *kʷód "what" became Proto-Germanic *hurnan and *hwat, where *h and *hw were likely [x] and [xʷ]. This sound change is part of Grimm's law.

In Modern Greek, a voiceless velar fricative originated from the Ancient Greek voiceless aspirated stop /kʰ/ in a sound change that lenited all Greek aspirated stops to fricatives.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abaza		хьзы / xzë	[xʲzə]	'name'
Adyghe		хы / xë	[xəː]ⓘ	'six'
Afrikaans		groot	[xrʊət]	'big'	More often realized as uvular [χ ~ ʀ̥]. See Afrikaans phonology
Albanian		gjuha	[ɟuxɑ]	'language'	Allophone of /h/. See Albanian phonology
Aleut	Atkan dialect	alax	[ɑlɑx]	'two'
Arabic	Modern Standard	خ‍‍ض‍راء	[xɑdˤˈrɑːʔ]	'green' (f.)	May be velar, post-velar or uvular, depending on dialect. See Arabic phonology
Assamese		অসমীয়া / oxomia	[ɔxɔmia]	'Assamese'
Assyrian		ܚܡܫܐ / xemša	[xεmʃa]	'five'
Avar		чeхь / čex	[tʃex]	'belly'
Azerbaijani		xoş / хош / ﺧﻮش	[xoʃ]	'pleasant'
Basque	Some speakers	jan	[xän]	'to eat'	Either velar or post-velar. For other speakers it's [j ~ ʝ ~ ɟ].
Blackfoot		ᖻᖳᐦᓱᖽᐧ / naaáhsiksi	[naːáxsik͡si̥]	'my grandparents'	Sometimes /x/ becomes allophone /h/ in beginning of words like "hánnia!" Really! Or becomes allphone /ç/ after i/ii like ihkitsika seven.
Brahui		ﺧ‍ﻦ / xan	[xan]	'eye'	Corresponds to /x/ in Kurukh and /q/ in Malto.
Breton		hor c'hi	[hor xiː]	'our dog'
Bulgarian		тихо / tiho	[ˈt̪ixo]ⓘ	'quietly'	Described as having "only slight friction" ([x̞]).
Bengali		খ়ারিজ	[xɐɹidʒ]	ˈcancel'	Only occurs in loanwords. See Bengali phonology
Catalan		kharja	[ˈxɑɾ(d)ʑə]	'kharja'	Found in loanwords and interjections. See Catalan phonology
Chechen		хан / xan	[xɑːn]	'time'
Chinese	Mandarin	河 / hé	[xɤ˧˥]	'river'	See Standard Chinese phonology
Czech		Čech	[t͡ʃɛx]ⓘ	'a Czech'	See Czech phonology
Danish	Southern Jutlandic	kage	[ˈkʰaːx]	'cake'	See Sønderjysk dialect
Dutch	Standard Belgian	loochen	[ˈloː.xən]ⓘ	'deny'	May be post-palatal [ç̠] instead. In dialects spoken above the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Waal the corresponding sound is a postvelar-uvular fricative trill [ʀ̝̊˖]. See Dutch phonology and Hard and soft G in Dutch
	Southern Netherlands accents
English	Scottish	loch	[ɫɔx]	'loch'	Younger speakers may merge this sound with /k/. See Scottish English phonology
	Irish	lough	[lɑx]	'lough'	Occurs only in Gaelic borrowings. See Irish English phonology
	Scouse	book	[bʉːx]	'book'	A syllable-final allophone of /k/ (lenition).
Esperanto		monaĥo	[moˈnaxo]	'monk'	See Esperanto phonology
Estonian		jah	[jɑx]	'yes'	Allophone of /h/. See Estonian phonology
Eyak		duxł	[tʊxɬ]	'traps'
Finnish		kahvi	[ˈkɑxʋi]	'coffee'	Allophone of /h/. See Finnish phonology
French		jota	[xɔta]	'jota'	Occurs only in loanwords (from Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, etc.). See French phonology
Georgian		ჯოხი / joxi	[ˈdʒɔxi]	'stick'
German		Buch	[buːx]ⓘ	'book'	See Standard German phonology
Greek		τέχνη / téchnî	[ˈte̞xni]	'art'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew	Biblical	מִיכָאֵל / Mîḵāʾēl	[mixaˈʔel]	'Michael'	See Biblical Hebrew phonology
	Sephardic
Hindustani	Hindi	ख़ुशी / xuśī	[xʊʃiː]	'happiness'	Occurs only in loanwords. May be replaced in Hindi with /kʰ/. Can be retracted. See Hindustani phonology
	Urdu	ﺧ‍وشی / xuśī
Hungarian		sahhal	[ʃɒxːɒl]	'with a shah'	See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic		október	[ˈɔxtoːupɛr̥]	'October'	See Icelandic phonology
Indonesian		khas	[xas]	'typical'	Occurs in Arabic loanwords. Often pronounced as [h] or [k] by some Indonesians. See Indonesian phonology
Irish		deoch	[dʲɔ̝̈x]	'drink'	See Irish phonology
Japanese		マッハ / mahha	[maxːa]	'Mach'	Allophone of /h/. See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		хы / khy	[xəː]ⓘ	'sea'
Kazakh		ханзада / hanzada	[xanzada]	'prince'
Korean		흥정 / heungjeong	[xɯŋd͡ʑʌ̹ŋ]	'bargaining'	Allophone of /h/ before /ɯ/. See Korean phonology
Kurdish		xanî	[xɑːˈniː]	'house'	See Kurdish phonology
Kurukh		कुँड़ुख़/kũṛux	[kũɽux]	'Kurukh'	Corresponds to /x/ in Brahui and /q/ in Malto.
Limburgish		loch	[lɔx]	'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	[xalwɑ]	'milk'	Generally post-velar
Lithuanian		choras	[ˈxɔrɐs̪]	'choir'	Occurs only in loanwords (usually international words)
Lojban		xatra	[xatra]	'letter'
Macedonian		Охрид / Ohrid	[ˈɔxrit]ⓘ	'Ohrid'	See Macedonian phonology
Malay		اﺧ‍ير / akhir	[axir]	'last', 'end'	Occurs in Arabic loanwords. Often pronounced as [h] or [k]. See Malay phonology
		khidmat	[xid̪maʔ]	'service'	Allophone of /kʰ/. See Malay phonology
Manx		aashagh	[ˈɛːʒax]	'easy'
Munsee		naxk	[nəxk]	'hand'
Nepali		आँखा / ā̃khā	[ä̃xä]	'eye'	Allophone of /kʰ/. See Nepali phonology
Norwegian	Urban East	hat	[xɑːt]	'hate'	Possible allophone of /h/ near back vowels; can be voiced [ɣ] between two voiced sounds. See Norwegian phonology
Pashto		اخ‍‍ته / axta	[ax.t̪a]	'occupied'	See Pashto phonology
Persian		دُخ‍‍تَر / doxtär	[doxˈtær]	'daughter'	See Persian phonology
Polish		chleb	[xlɛp]	'bread'	Also (in great majority of dialects) represented orthographically by ⟨h⟩. See Polish phonology
Portuguese	Fluminense	arte	[ˈaxtɕi]	'art'	In free variation with [χ], [ʁ], [ħ] and [h] before voiceless consonants
	General Brazilian	rosa	[ˈxɔzɐ]	'rose'	Some dialects. An allophone of /ʁ/. See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi	Gurmukhi	ਖ਼ਬਰ / xabar	[xəbəɾ]	'news'	Less frequent and may merge with /kʰ/ in Gurmukhi varieties.
	Shahmukhi	خ‍‍بر / xabar
Romanian		hram	[xräm]	'patronal feast of a church'	Allophone of /h/. See Romanian phonology
Russian		хороший / horošij	[xɐˈr̠ʷo̞ʂɨ̞j]ⓘ	'good'	See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		drochaid	[ˈt̪ɾɔxɪtʲ]	'bridge'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatian		храст / hrast	[xrâːst]	'oak'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak		chlap	[xɫäp]	'guy'
Slovene	Standard	pohlep	[poˈxlɛ̂p]	'greed'	See Slovene phonology
	Some dialects	bog	[ˈbôːx]	'god'	Allophone of /ɣ/ before voiceless obstruents or pause. See Slovene phonology
Somali		khad	[xad]	'ink'	Also occurs allophone of /q/ in Arabic loan words. See Somali phonology
Spanish	Latin American	ojo	[ˈo̞xo̞]	'eye'	May be glottal instead; in northern and central Spain it is often post-velar or uvular /χ/. See Spanish phonology
	Southern Spain
Swedish	Southern dialects	sjö	[xøː]	'lake'	See Swedish phonology
Sylheti		ꠈꠛꠞ / xobor	[xɔ́bɔɾ]	'news'
Tachelhit		ixf	[ixf]	'head'
Taqbaylit		axaṭar	[ɑχɑtˤɑr]	'because'
Tagalog		bakit	[baxit]	'why'	Allophone of /k/ in intervocalic positions. See Tagalog phonology
Tamil	Brahmin Tamil, Sri Lankan Tamil (non-standard)	பகை/pakai	[pɐxɛ(i̯)]	'hate'	Intervocalic singular /k/ has debuccalized for most except in Brahmin and Sri Lankan Tamil. In total it can be [kʰ x ɡ ɣ ɣʰ h]
Toda		pax	[pax]	'smoke'
Turkish		ıhlamur	[ɯxlämuɾ]	'linden'	Allophone of /h/. See Turkish phonology
Turkmen		hile	[xiːle]	'cunning' (noun)
Tyap		kham	[xam]	1. 'calabash'; 2. 'prostitute'
Xhosa		rhoxisa	[xɔkǁiːsa]	'to cancel'
Ukrainian		хлопець / hlopeć	[ˈxɫɔ̝pɛt͡sʲ]ⓘ	'boy'	See Ukrainian phonology
Unami		skixkwe	[skiːxkwe]	'young woman'
Uzbek		oxirgi	[ɒxirgi]	'last'	Post-velar. Occurs in environments different from word-initially and pre-consonantally, otherwise it is pre-velar.
Vietnamese		không	[xəwŋ͡m˧]	'no', 'not', 'zero'	See Vietnamese phonology
Yaghan		xan	[xan]	'here'
Yi		ꉾ / he	[xɤ˧]	'good'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan	mejor	[mɘxoɾ]	'better'	Used primarily in loanwords from Spanish

See also

• Guttural
• Index of phonetics articles

References

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External links

• List of languages with [x] on PHOIBLE