Voiceless velar fricative

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IPA – number	140
IPA – text	x
IPA – image
Entity	x
X-SAMPA	x
Kirshenbaum	x
Sound sample (help·info)

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 was part of the consonant inventory of Old English and is still present in some dialects of English.

Contents 1 Features 2 Varieties of [x] 3 Occurrence 4 See also 5 References 6 Bibliography

[edit] 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.

[edit] Varieties of [x]

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

[edit] Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans		goed	[xuˑt]	'well'
Aleut	Atkan dialect	alax	[ɑlɑx]	'two'
Angor		hombo	[xombo]	'to walk'
Arabic		خضرة	[xadˤrɐ]	'green (f)'	See Arabic phonology
Assamese		অসমীয়া	[ɔxɔmija]	'Assamese'
Avar		чeхь	[tʃex]	'belly'
Azerbaijani		xoş	[xoʃ]	'pleasant'
Bulgarian		тихом	[tixɔm]	'quietly'
Chinese	Mandarin	河/hé	[xɤ˧˥]	'river'	See Standard Mandarin
Coptic		ϧⲉⲗⲗⲟ	[xello]	'elder'
Croatian		Hrvatski	[xrʋatski]	'Croatian'
Czech		chlap	[xlap]	'guy'	See Czech phonology
Dutch		acht	[ɑxt]	'eight'	See Dutch phonology
English	Scottish	loch	[lɔx]	'loch'	See English phonology
Esperanto		monaĥo	[monaxo]	'monk'	See Esperanto phonology
Eyak		duxł	[tʊxɬ]	'traps'
Finnish		tuhka	[tuxkɑ]	'ash'	See Finnish phonology
Georgian[1]		ჯოხი	[ˈdʒɔxi]	'stick'
German		Kuchen	[kuːxən]	'cake'	See German phonology
Greek		χαρά	[xaˈra]	'joy'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hungarian		méhhel	[meːxːɛl]	'with a bee'	Some dialects. See Hungarian phonology
Hebrew		אוכל	[oxel]	'eat'	See Hebrew phonology
Irish		deoch	[dʲɔ̝̈x]	'drink'	See Irish phonology
Polish[2]		chleb	[xlɛp]	'bread'	Also (in great majority of dialects) represented by <h>. See Polish phonology
Portuguese	Brazilian	rabo	[ˈxabu]	'tail'	See Portuguese phonology
Russian[3]		хвост	[xvost]	'tail'	See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		loch	[lɔx]	'lake'
Serbian		храст /hrast	[xrast]	'oak'
Somali		khad	[xad]	'ink'	See Somali phonology
Spanish[4]		ojo	[ˈo̞xo̞]	'eye'	See Spanish phonology
Xhosa		rhoxisa	[xɔkǁiːsa]	'to cancel'
Vietnamese		khê	[xe]	'to be burnt'	See Vietnamese phonology
Yaghan		xan	[xan]	'here'

[edit] See also

• List of phonetics topics

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103-107
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Ana Ma. Fernández-Planas & Josefina Carrera-Sabaté (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255-259
• Padgett, Jaye (2003), "Contrast and Post-Velar Fronting in Russian", Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 21 (1): 39-87
• Shosted, Ryan K. & Chikovani Vakhtang (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255-264

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 Nasals m ɱ n̪ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ Clicks  ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ Plosives p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Implo­­sives  ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ 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 Ejec­­tives  pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ sʼ Approximants  ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Affricates  t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ t͡ɕ d͡ʑ t͡ʂ d͡ʐ t͡ɬ Trills ʙ r • ʀ • Other laterals  ɺ ɫ Flaps & Taps • ѵ ɾ ɽ • Co-articulated fricatives  ɕ ʑ ɧ Lat. Fricatives ɬ ɮ • • • Co-articulated approximants  ʍ w ɥ Lat. Appr'mants l ɭ ʎ ʟ Co-articulated stops  k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m
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.