Voiceless_uvular_fricative

Voiceless uvular fricative

Voiceless uvular fricative

Consonantal sound represented by ⟨χ⟩ in IPA

The 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 ⟨χ⟩, the Greek chi. The sound is represented by ⟨x̣⟩ (ex with underdot) in Americanist phonetic notation. It is sometimes transcribed with ⟨x⟩ (or ⟨r⟩, if rhotic) in broad transcription.

Quick Facts χ, IPA Number ...

Most languages claimed to have a voiceless uvular fricative may actually have a voiceless uvular fricative trill (a simultaneous [χ] and [ʀ̥]). Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996) note that there is "a complication in the case of uvular fricatives in that the shape of the vocal tract may be such that the uvula vibrates."

Although they are not normally differentiated in study, languages in which they have been (Hebrew, Wolof, as well as the northern and central varieties of European Spanish) have been found to specifically possess the fricative trill.[1][2][3][4] It can be transcribed as ⟨ʀ̝̊⟩ (a devoiced and raised uvular trill) in IPA. It is found as either the fortis counterpart of /ɣ/ (which itself is voiceless at least in Northern Standard Dutch: [x]) or the sole dorsal fricative in Northern SD and regional dialects and languages of the Netherlands (Dutch Low Saxon and West Frisian) spoken above the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Waal (sometimes termed the Rotterdam–Nijmegen Line). A plain fricative that is articulated slightly further front, as either medio-velar or post-palatal is typical of dialects spoken south of the rivers (mainly Brabantian and Limburgish but excluding Ripuarian and the dialect of Bergen op Zoom), including Belgian SD. In those dialects, the voiceless uvular fricative trill is one of the possible realizations of the phoneme /r/.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11] See Hard and soft G in Dutch for more details.

The frication in the fricative trill variant sometimes occurs at the middle or the back of the soft palate (termed velar or mediovelar and post-velar, respectively), rather than the uvula itself. This is the case in Northern Standard Dutch as well as some varieties of Arabic, Limburgish and Madrid Spanish. It may thus be appropriate to call those variants voiceless (post)velar-uvular fricative trill as the trill component is always uvular (velar trills are not physically possible). The corresponding IPA symbol is ⟨ʀ̝̊˖⟩ (a devoiced, raised and advanced uvular trill, where the "advanced" diacritic applies only to the fricative portion of the sound). Thus, in cases where a dialectal variation between voiceless uvular and velar fricatives is claimed the main difference between the two may be the trilling of the uvula as frication can be velar in both cases - compare Northern Dutch acht [ɑʀ̝̊˖t] 'eight' (with a postvelar-uvular fricative trill) with Southern Dutch [ɑxt] or [ɑx̟t], which features a non-trilled fricative articulated at the middle or front of the soft palate.[3][4][5][9][10][12]

For a voiceless pre-uvular fricative (also called post-velar), see voiceless velar fricative.

Features

Features of the voiceless uvular 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 uvular, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the uvula.
  • 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 airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

More information Language, Word ...

See also

Notes

  1. [1]
    Laufer (1999), p. 98.
  2. [2]
    Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 167.
  3. [3]
    "Castilian Spanish - Madrid by Klaus Kohler".
  4. [4]
    Lyons (1981), p. 76.
  5. [5]
    Collins & Mees (2003:191). Goeman & Van de Velde (2001) have also found that frication is much more commonly in the velar region in dialects and language varieties with "hard G", though they do not distinguish between trilled and non-trilled fricatives in their study.
  6. [6]
    Gussenhoven (1999), p. 74.
  7. [7]
    Tops (2009), pp. 25, 30–32, 63, 80–88, 97–100, 105, 118, 124–127, 134–135, 137–138, 140–141.
  8. [8]
    Verhoeven (1994:?), cited in Tops (2009:22, 83)
  9. [9]
    Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998), p. 108.
  10. [10]
    Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999), p. 156.
  11. [11]
    Verhoeven (2007), p. 220.
  12. [12]
    Thelwall & Sa'Addedin (1999), pp. 51, 53.
  13. [13]
    "John Wells's phonetic blog: velar or uvular?". 5 December 2011. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
  14. [14]
    Bowerman (2004:939): "White South African English is one of very few varieties to have a velar fricative phoneme /x/ (see Lass (2002:120)), but this is only in words borrowed from Afrikaans (...) and Khoisan (...). Many speakers use the Afrikaans uvular fricative [χ] rather than the velar."
  15. [15]
    Basbøll (2005), pp. 62, 65–66.
  16. [16]
    Basbøll (2005), pp. 65–66.
  17. [17]
    Tops (2009), p. 83.
  18. [18]
    Wells (1982), pp. 372–373.
  19. [19]
    Wells (1982), p. 389.
  20. [20]
    Tench (1990), p. 132.
  21. [21]
    Wells (1982), p. 619.
  22. [22]
    Hall (1993:100), footnote 7, citing Kohler (1990)
  23. [23]
    Khan & Weise (2013), p. 235.
  24. [24]
    Hall (1993), p. 89.
  25. [25]
    Gilles & Trouvain (2013), p. 68.
  26. [26]
    Barbosa & Albano (2004), pp. 5–6.
  27. [27]
    Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer (1997), p. 17.
  28. [28]
    Bodelier (2011), p. 19.
  29. [29]
    "ProQuest Document View - The Spanish of Ponce, Puerto Rico: A phonetic, phonological, and intonational analysis".
  30. [30]
    Howson (2017), p. 362.

References
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