Voiceless uvular fricative

The voiceless uvular fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is χ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is X.

It is not to be confused with the voiceless velar fricative (IPA x, X-SAMPA x.)

[edit] 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) against or near the uvula.
Its phonation type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
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.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		хпа	/χpa/	'three'	Contrasts with labialized and palatalized forms
Afrikaans		goed	[χuˑt]	'good'	Some dialects.
Aleut	Atkan dialect	hatix̂	[hɑtiχ]	'ten'
Arabic	Ṣan‘ā’ni^[1]	غني	[ˈχanijjɐ]	'rich'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian		խնդրեմ	[χndɾɛm]	'please'
Avar		орх	[orχ]	'to lift'	Contrasts with a tense form
Chilcotin		?	[ʔælaχ]	'I made it'
Eyak		da^.x̣	[daːχ]	'and'
French		roche	[χɔʃ]	'rock'	Rhotic consonant for some dialects. See French phonology
German		Dach	[daχ]	'roof'	Appears only after certain back vowels in some dialects. See German phonology
Haida		ḵ'aláax̂an	[qʼʌlɑ́χʌn]	'fence'
Kabardian		нэхъ	[nɑχ]	'more'	Contrasts with a labialized form
Kabyle		axxam	[aχχam]	'house'
Klallam		sx̣aʔqʷaʔ	[sχaʔqʷaʔ]	'salmon backbone'
Lezgian		хат	[χatʰ]	'bead'	Contrasts with a labialized form
Oowekyala		[tsʼkʼʷχttɬkʦ]		'the invisible one here with me will be short'
Portuguese	Brazilian	carro	[kaχu]	'car'	Some dialects. See Portuguese phonology
Saanich		WEXES	[wəχəs]	'small frogs, peepers'	Contrasts with a labialized form
Seri		xeecoj	[χɛːkox]	'wolf'	Contrasts with a labialized form
Spanish^[2]		jugar	[χuˈɣaɾ]	'to play'	Allophone of /x/. See Spanish phonology
Tlingit		tlaxh	[tɬʰɐχ]	'very'	Tlingit has four different uvular fricatives
Ubykh		[asfəpχa]		'I need to eat it'	Ubykh has ten different uvular fricatives. See Ubykh phonology

Hess, Wolfgang (2001). "Grundlagen der Phonetik". Institut für Kommunikationsforschung und Phonetik, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität.
Watson, Janet (2002), written at New York, The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, Oxford University Press

Consonants (List, table)