German has uvular fricatives!

[pne]

Hm, up till now I thought that German /x/ was [x]... but after listening to this page, I'm convinced that it's actually [X] (and that my /r/ is [R], not [G]).

(Also, my attempts at rhotic trills seem to be closer to an [R\] (uvular trill) than to an [r] (alveolar trill). Heh. My trills suck, and I blame my frenulum.)

Comments

[timwi.livejournal.com]

I had this same thought a while back. [x] and [γ] are in the same column ("velar") in the IPA table as [k] and [g]; I suppose this means that [x] and [k] are supposed to be pronounced at approximately the same place in the mouth. Similarly, [χ] is in the same column as [q]; I always pronounced [q] in the same place as my normal "ch". This led me to believe that German "ach" is actually [aχ] and not [ax].

I can also see the difference in the "ch" sound between "ach" and "Buch"; however, I wouldn't consider that difference to be significant enough. I think they're still both [χ]. My [x] (i.e. my attempt at fricativising the [q]) is way further in front than Buch.

And yes, I always knew the German R is [R]. :-) How did you get [G]? That's a plosive.

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

[G] in ASCII IPA is [γ] in normal IPA.