A voiceless uvular fricative is a type of consonantal sound that is used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is either a Latin or Greek-style chi, . The historical IPA symbol for this sound was , a turned small capital R, and was officially changed to in 1928. In Americanist phonetic notation the sound is represented by (ex with underdot), or sometimes by (ex with caron). In broad transcription it may be transcribed , or if rhotic.
Many languages claimed to have a voiceless uvular fricative may actually have a voiceless uvular fricative trill.
Features Features of a voiceless uvular fricative:
Occurrence Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Afrikaans: "White South African English is one of very few varieties to have a velar fricative phoneme (see ), but this is only in words borrowed from Afrikaans (...) and Khoisan (...). Many speakers use the Afrikaans uvular fricative rather than the velar." 'good' Varies between a fricative and a fricative trill when word-initial. See Afrikaans phonology. Armenian / 'game' Azerbaijani 'pin' Colloquial pronunciation of word-final q. Blackfoot Some speakers / 'water' Most speakers always pronounced 'h' as /x/ in central and back vowels. Breton Some speakers 'six' Chuvash / 'guest' Danish Standard 'pressure' Before , aspiration of is realized as devoicing of . Usually transcribed in IPA with . See Danish phonology. English Scouse 'clock' Possible word-final realization of ; varies between a fricative and a fricative trill. neck 'neck' Welsh 'Amlwch' Occurs only in loanwords from Welsh; usually transcribed in IPA with . See English phonology White South African 'insect' Less commonly velar , occurs only in loanwords from Afrikaans and Khoisan. Usually transcribed in IPA with . See White South African English phonology and English phonology. French 'very' Allophone of in contact with voiceless consonants. See French phonology German Standard, footnote 7, citing 'roof' Appears only after certain back vowels. See Standard German phonology Chemnitz dialect 'skirt' In free variation with , , and . Does not occur in coda. Lower Rhine 'hosts' In free variation with between a vowel and a voiceless coronal consonant. Hebrew / 'king' Usually a fricative trill. See Modern Hebrew phonology. Luxembourgish 'train' See Luxembourgish phonology. Nuxalk 'fat, grease' Contrasts with . Persian Standard xâk 'soil' In some eastern dialects (e.g., Dari), it is realized as a velar .Haghshenas, Ali-Mohammad. Phonetics. Chapter 4. See Persian phonology. Portuguese General Brazilian 'rupture' (noun) Some dialects, corresponds to rhotic consonant . See Portuguese phonology. Ripuarian 'eight' Allophone of after back vowels. Fronted to or after front vowels and consonants. It may be transcribed in IPA with . See Colognian phonology, Kerkrade dialect phonology and Hard and soft G in Dutch Spanish Ponce dialect 'dog' This and are the primary realizations of in this dialect. See Spanish phonology. Tlingit 'from, out of' Occurs plain, labialised, ejective, and labialised ejective. Turkmen 'snow'Welsh 'six' See Welsh phonology. Yiddish / 'I' See Yiddish phonology.
See also Index of phonetics articles Voiced uvular fricative
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