Voiceless pre-uvular affricate

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Voiceless uvular affricate
qχ
qꭓ
Audio sample
Encoding
X-SAMPAq_X

A voiceless uvular affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represent this sound are ⟨q͡χ⟩ and ⟨q͜χ⟩. The tie bar may be omitted, yielding ⟨qχ⟩.

Features

Features of a voiceless uvular affricate:

  • Its manner of articulation is affricate, which means it is produced by first stopping the airflow entirely, then allowing air flow through a constricted 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 that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
  • It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
  • Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Uvular

LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
AlemannicMost High and Highest Alemannic dialectsGschänk[ˈkʃæɴq͡χ]'present'Velar [k͡x] in other dialects.
AdygheNatukhaiкхъэ[q͡χa]'grave'Dialectal. Corresponds to [qʰ] in other dialects.
Avarхъарахъ / څ‍ﺎراڅ[q͡χʰːaˈraq͡χʰː]'bush'Contrasts with the ejective [q͡χʼː].
Chechenкхаара / qaara / قآآرآ[q͡χaʔara]'Wednesday'
Chukchiӈирэӄ / ňirèḳ[ŋireq͡χ]'two'Allophone of [q].
EnglishScouse[1]clock[kl̥ɒq͡χ]'clock'Possible word-final realization of /k/.[1]
Georgian Some dialects აფხაზეთი [apʰq͡χazetʰi] 'Abkhazia' Only after bilabial stops. Otherwise [x].
Kabardianкхъэ / ٯّ‍‍ە[q͡χa]'grave'
PersianSome dialectsﻗﻔﻞ[q͡χofl]'lock'Lenition of word-initial /q/.
Rendillemunkhet[munq͡χet]'forgotten'Only after nasal consonants. Otherwise [x].

Pre-uvular

There is also a voiceless pre-uvular affricate[2] reported for Uzbek, which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of a prototypical voiceless uvular affricate, though not as front as the prototypical voiceless velar affricate. The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, though it can be transcribed as ⟨q̟͡χ̟⟩ or ⟨q᫈͜ꭓ᫈⟩ (both symbols denote an advanced ⟨q͡χ⟩) or ⟨k̠͡x̠⟩ (retracted ⟨k͡x⟩).

LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
Uzbek[3]quruq / قوروق[q᫈uɾ̪uq᫈͜ꭓ᫈]'dry'Allophone of /q/ in word-final and preconsonantal positions.[3]

See also

Notes

  1. Wells (1982), pp. 372–373.
  2. Instead of "pre-uvular", it may be called "advanced uvular", "fronted uvular", "post-velar", "retracted velar" or "backed velar". For simplicity, this article uses the term "pre-uvular".
  3. Sjoberg (1963), p. 11.

References