Voiceless uvular fricative

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A voiceless uvular fricative is a consonant sound used in some languages. It’s made with the back of the tongue near the uvula at the back of the mouth and, unlike a vowel, it does not use vocal cord vibration.

Key points
- IPA symbol: χ. The symbol ᴚ was used in the past, but χ is the standard today. In some notations it can appear as x̣ or x̌.
- Variants: Some languages have a plain voiceless fricative, while others have a fricative trill, which combines a fricative sound with a uvular trill. The trill version is written as ʀ̝̊ in IPA.
- Dialect variation: In Dutch and related dialects, the sound can be realized in different ways, sometimes as a strong version of another sound, and sometimes as a slightly more forward-fricative near the middle or front of the soft palate. The exact articulation can vary by region.
- Where it can occur: This sound appears in several languages and dialects, including some forms of Hebrew, Wolof, and Spanish, as well as various Dutch dialects.
- How the sound can differ: Sometimes the frication happens further back or in front of the palate, which leads to terms like post-velar or velar-uvular variants. The important point is that the uvula may or may not vibrate, depending on the dialect.

In short, the voiceless uvular fricative is a back-of-the-mouth, voiceless sound with several dialectal realizations, including a plain fricative and a fricative-trill combination.