Voiceless uvular affricate

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 ⟨qχ⟩ in the IPA and qX in X-SAMPA.

Voiceless uvular affricate
qχ
Audio sample
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Encoding
X-SAMPA	q_X

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:

• 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 exclusively allowed to escape through the mouth.

• 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.
• Its 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

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/څ‍ﺎراڅ	[q͡χʰːaˈraq͡χʰː]ⓘ	'bush'	Contrasts with the ejective [q͡χʼː].
Chukchi		ӈирэӄ/ňirèḳ	[ŋireq͡χ]	'two'	Allophone of [q].
English	Scouse[2]	clock	[kl̥ɒq͡χ]	'clock'	Possible word-final realization of /k/.[2]
Georgian	Some dialects	აფხაზეთი	[apʰq͡χazetʰi]	'Abkhazia'	Only after bilabial stops. Otherwise [x].
Kabardian		кхъэ/ٯّ‍‍ە	[q͡χa]ⓘ	'grave'
Persian	Some dialects	ﻗﻔﻞ	[q͡χofl]	'lock'	Fortition of word-initial /q/.
Rendille		munkhet	[munq͡χet]	'forgotten'	Only after nasal consonants. Otherwise [x].

Pre-uvular

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

See also

• Index of phonetics articles