This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: "Voiceless uvular affricate" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Voiceless uvular affricate
Audio sample
Encoding
X-SAMPAq_X

The 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, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is q_X. The tie bar may be omitted, yielding in the IPA and qX in X-SAMPA.

There is also the voiceless pre-uvular affricate[1] in some languages, which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the 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 q͡χ˖ (both symbols denote an advanced q͡χ) or k̠͡x̠ (retracted k͡x). The equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are q_+_X_+ and k_-_x_-, respectively.

Features

Features of the voiceless uvular affricate:

Occurrence

Uvular

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Alemannic Most High and Highest Alemannic dialects Gschänk [ˈkʃæɴq͡χ] 'present' Velar [k͡x] in other dialects.
Adyghe Natukhai кхъэ [q͡χa] 'grave' Dialectal. Corresponds to [qʰ] in other dialects.
Avar хъарахъ [q͡χʰːaˈraq͡χʰː] 'bush' Contrasts with the ejective [q͡χʼː].
English Scouse[2] clock [kl̥ɒq͡χ] 'clock' Possible word-final realization of /k/.[2]
Kabardian кхъэ [q͡χa] 'grave'
Persian Some dialects ﻔل [q͡χofl] 'lock' Fortition of word-initial /q/.

Pre-uvular

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Uzbek[3] quruq [q̟uɾ̪uq̟͡χ̟] 'dry' Allophone of /q/ in word-final and preconsonantal positions.[3]

See also

Notes

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

References

  • Sjoberg, Andrée F. (1963). Uzbek Structural Grammar. Uralic and Altaic Series. Vol. 18. Bloomington: Indiana University. LCCN 63-62530. OCLC 4241028.
  • Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Vol. 2: The British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511611759. ISBN 0-521-24224-X. OCLC 419896703.