The voiceless velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is x, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is x. The [x] sound is rare in, but not completely absent from English. To give English speakers an example of the sound with which they might be familiar, consider the sound represented by "ch" in Scottish loch or Hebrew Chanukah.
Features
Features of the voiceless velar fricative:
Varieties of [x]
Standard English does not have [x], except for a few loan words such as Scottish loch /lɒx/ and Hebrew Chanukah /xanukaː/. Where it occurs, it is nearly always represented by a "ch." Many speakers, especially in the United States, do not (often cannot) make this sound, and are sometimes not even aware of its existence; these speakers replace it with [h] in words such as "chutzpah" or "challah," or [k] in words such as "loch" or "leprechaun." These alternative pronunciations are considered acceptable by most authorities.
Some dialects in England, particularly London and Liverpool, may have [x] where other dialects have [k], as in cat. In London it is a younger, lower-class pronunciation.
In other languages
The [x] sound is a somewhat common sound cross-linguistically and very common in Assamese.
Georgian has unaspirated [x]. It is spelled with ხ.
In some dialects of German, particularly in southern Germany, the voiceless velar fricative is an allophone of voiceless uvular fricative, the sound known in German as Ach-Laut .
See also
