Voiceless velar fricative
x
The voiceless velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. Its manner of articulation is a glottalic fricative. Its place of articulation is velar. The symbol used by the International Phonetic Alphabet to represent this symbol is [x]. The [x] sound does not occur in most varieties of English, but it is the sound at the end of the Scottish word "loch" or the name "Bach" when it is pronounced in the German fashion (English speakers tend to substitute [k] in both of these cases).
The [x] sound is a somewhat common sound cross-linguistically.
| IPA | Description |
|---|---|
| x | plain x |
| x̬ | voiced x |
| xʰ | aspirated x |
| xʷ | labialized x |
| xʲ | palatal x |