The voiceless velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spokenlanguages. It was part of the consonant inventory of Old English and can still be found in some dialects of English, most notably in Scottish English, e.g. in loch, broch or saugh (willow).
There is also a voiceless post-velar fricative (also called pre-uvular) in some languages, which can be transcribed as [x̠] or [χ̟]. For voiceless pre-velar fricative (also called post-palatal), see voiceless palatal fricative.
Some scholars also posit the voiceless velar approximant distinct from the fricative, used in some spokenlanguages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɰ̊⟩, but this symbol is not suitable in case of the voiceless velar approximant that is unspecified for rounding (the sound represented by the symbol ⟨ɰ̊⟩ is specified as unrounded), which is best transcribed as ⟨x̞⟩, ⟨ɣ̞̊⟩ or ⟨ɣ̊˕⟩ - see voiced velar approximant. The velar approximant can in many cases be considered the semivocalic equivalent of the voiceless variant of the close back unrounded vowel ⟨ɯ̊⟩.
Features
Voiceless velar fricative (x)
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 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 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, the voiceless velar fricative (with its allophone, the voiceless palatal fricative [ç], occurring before front vowels) originated from the Ancient Greek voiceless aspirated stop /kʰ/ in a sound change that lenited Greek aspirated stops into fricatives.
^ a bHualde & Ortiz de Urbina (2003), pp. 16 and 26.
^Hualde & Ortiz de Urbina (2003), p. 16.
^"Blackfoot Pronunciation and Spelling Guide". Native-Languages.org. Retrieved 2007-04-10.
^Bhadriraju Krishnamurti (2003), p. 100.
^Ternes, Elmer; Vladimirova-Buhtz, Tatjana (1999). "Bulgarian". Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge University Press. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-521-63751-0.
^Verhoeven (2005:243)
^ a b cCollins & Mees (2003:191)
^Gussenhoven (1999:74)
^"Annexe 4: Linguistic Variables". Archived from the original on 2021-02-25. Retrieved 2014-12-03.
^"University of Essex :: Department of Language and Linguistics :: Welcome". Essex.ac.uk. Retrieved 2013-08-01.
^Wells (1982:373)
^Shosted & Chikovani (2006), p. 255.
^Okada, Hideo (December 1991). "Japanese". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 21 (2): 94–96. doi:10.1017/S002510030000445X. S2CID 242782215. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
^Bhadriraju Krishnamurti (2003), p. 74.
^Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999:159)
^Peters (2006:119)
^ a bVanvik (1979), p. 40.
^ a b c d e f g h i j"Nordavinden og sola: Opptak og transkripsjoner av norske dialekter". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
^Jassem (2003), p. 103.
^Barbosa & Albano (2004), pp. 5–6.
^Padgett (2003), p. 42.
^Oftedal, M. (1956) The Gaelic of Leurbost. Oslo. Norsk Tidskrift for Sprogvidenskap.
^Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 255.
^ a b c dChen (2007), p. 13.
^Hamond (2001:?), cited in Scipione & Sayahi (2005:128)
^ a bLyons (1981), p. 76.
^Harris & Vincent (1988), p. 83.
^ a bWetzels & Mascaró (2001), p. 224.
^Bhadriraju Krishnamurti (2003), p. 149.
^ a bGöksel & Kerslake (2005:6)
^ a bSjoberg (1963), pp. 11–12.
^Thompson (1959), pp. 458–461.
^Merrill (2008), p. 109.
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