Voiceless velar fricative

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

The voiceless velar fricative, informally known as the hard ch, 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 can still be found in some dialects of English.

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

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

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans		goed	[xuˑt]	'well'
Aleut	Atkan dialect	alax	[ɑlɑx]	'two'
Angor		hombo	[xombo]	'to walk'
Arabic		خضراء	[xadˤraːʔ]	'green (f)'	See Arabic phonology
Assamese		অসমীয়া	[ɔxɔmija]	'Assamese'
Avar		чeхь	[tʃex]	'belly'
Azerbaijani		xoş	[xoʃ]	'pleasant'
Bulgarian		тихо	[tixɔ]	'quietly'
Chinese	Mandarin	河/hé	[xɤ˧˥]	'river'	See Standard Mandarin
Croatian		Hrvatski	[xř̩ʋaːtskiː]	'Croatian'
Czech		chlap	[xlap]	'guy'	See Czech phonology
Dutch	Belgian Dutch[1]	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'
Georgian[2]		ჯოხი	[ˈdʒɔxi]	'stick'
German		Kuchen	[kuːxən]	'cake'	See German phonology
Greek		χαρά	[xaˈra]	'joy'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hungarian		sahhal	[ʃɒxːɒl]	'with a shah'	See Hungarian phonology
Hebrew		אוכל	[oxel]	'eat'	See Hebrew phonology
Irish		deoch	[dʲɔ̝̈x]	'drink'	See Irish phonology
Lithuanian		choras	[xoras]	'chorus'	See Lithuanian phonology
Persian		خواهر	[xa:hær]	'sister'	See Persian phonology
Polish[3]		chleb	[xlɛp]	'bread'	Also (in great majority of dialects) represented by <h>. See Polish phonology
Portuguese	Brazilian	rabo	[ˈxabʊ]	'tail'	See Portuguese phonology
Russian[4]		хвост	[xvost]	'tail'	See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		loch	[lɔx]	'lake'
Serbian		храст/hrast	[xrast]	'oak'
Somali		khad	[xad]	'ink'	See Somali phonology
Spanish[5]		ojo	[ˈo̞xo̞]	'eye'	See Spanish phonology
Xhosa		rhoxisa	[xɔkǁiːsa]	'to cancel'
Vietnamese		khê	[xe]	'to be burnt'	See Vietnamese phonology
Welsh		carchar	[kaɾxaɾ]	'jail'	See Welsh phonology
Yaghan		xan	[xan]	'here'

See also

• List of phonetics topics

References

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
• Verhoeven, Jo (2005), "Belgian Standard Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 243-247

v • d • e Consonants List · Table Pulmonics Bila​bial Labio​d. Den​tal Alv. Post. Retro​fl. Pal​a​tal Ve​lar Uvu​lar Pha​ryn. Epi​glot​t. Glot​tal Non-pulmonics and other symbols [edit • talk] 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  Impl.  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  Eject.  pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ sʼ Approxim. ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ  Affr.  p̪͡f t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ t͡ɕ d͡ʑ ʈ͡ʂ ɖ͡ʐ t͡ɬ d͡ɮ Trills ʙ r • ʀ • Other laterals  ɺ • ɫ Flaps / taps ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ ɽ • • Co-art. fricatives  ɕ ʑ ɧ Lateral Fric. ɬ ɮ • • • Co-art. approxim.  ʍ w ɥ Lateral Appr. l ɭ ʎ ʟ Co-articulated stops  k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m This table 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 to be impossible. See also IPA · Vowels

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