Velar ejective fricative

The velar ejective fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨xʼ⟩.

Features

Features of the velar ejective fricative:

Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
Its place of articulation is velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the soft palate.
Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
The airstream mechanism is ejective (glottalic egressive), which means the air is forced out by pumping the glottis upward.

Occurrence of [xʼ] in several languages
Language	Word	IPA	Meaning
Tlingit	xʼáaxʼ	[xʼáːxʼ]^ⓘ	'apple'
Chiwere	x^aⁿ	[xʼã]	'life'
Winnebago	x'ooke	[xʼoːkɛ]	'parents