/χ/ – Voiceless Uvular Fricative
Notes:
Features:
- Place of Articulation: Uvular
- Manner of Articulation: Fricative
- Phonation: Voiceless
Video Library:
trois [tχwɑ], proche [pχɔʃ], crois [kχwa], travaille [tχa.vaj], presque [pχɛsk], crise [kχiz], etre [ɛtχ], apres [a.pχɛ]
Part 1: Uvular "Awareness" Drills
Step 1: Find the "Uvula"
The first step to mastering a new motor movement is to develop a physical awareness of it. The two things you want to focus on are location and movement in your mouth.
On this page, you will use a series of drills to learn how to make uvular consonant sounds. Study the visual diagrams and do the exercises. By the end of this section, you should know what a uvular consonant sounds and feels like.
The uvula is the dangly thingy at the back of your mouth (no need to get technical here). You articulate these 'r' sounds at the Uvula. You make these sounds by raising the back-most part of the tongue UP to the uvula to restrict air flow.
Even though the sound is "uvular," your tongue is actually the only active agent. Your goal is to build an awareness of the back-most part of your tongue and learn how to adjust it so that it comes in contact with the uvula.
Building awareness of the uvular consonant can be tricky. Again, we don't use this in English so it will be new for you. Below I give you some examples of uvular sounds and walk you through the process of how to make it. It will take you some time, but you'll eventually get it.
Step 2: Find the "Velum"
Since the uvular sounds aren't apart of English language, let's first try to find the next closest thing. This is the velum (also called the soft palette). You create the uvular sound by raising the back of your tongue to the uvula. In the same way, you create the velar sound by raising the back of your tongue to the velum.
Looking at the two diagrams below, you see that the velum is above the uvula. Since the back of the tongue is already nearby, it doesn't need to move much to approach the velum or uvula.
In the audio file below I repeat the two velar/k/. To create this sound, you first raise the back of the tongue up to the velum and block air to build up pressure. Then you lower your tongue and release the pressure in a burst of air. Try to follow along with me in the audio below:
- Do exactly as I do to articulate the /k/ sound. Your goal is to pinpoint the single muscle feeling that creates this sound.
- Do not move on until you think you have a good physical sense of where the velum is.
- Do not move on until you think you have a good physical sense of what it feels like to move the back of the tongue.
Step 3: Change Direction
Before moving on, we must review three key points from the last step:
- Velar consonants are created by raising the back of the tongue to the velum
- Uvular consonants are created by raising the back of the tongue to the uvula
- The uvula is located directly below the velum
Therefore: The only difference between a velar consonant and an uvular consonant is the direction in which you move the back of your tongue.
So, you create the velar consonant with an diagonal-backward motion of the tongue (red arrow). You create the uvular consonant with only a straight-backward motion.
It will probably take you some time to feel out this straight-back motion and find your uvular consonant sweet spot, but at least now you know which general direction you need to go.
In the audio below, I go back and forth between the velar fricative (doesn't exist in English) and the uvular fricative. You can try to repeat if you wish, but don't worry about mimicking so much. I am only including this audio so that you can can hear the difference between a velar and uvular consonant sound.
Step 4: Feel It Out
Now that you have a basic idea of where the uvular is, you have to spend time practicing until you can pinpoint it in your own speech.
In the audio files below, I articulate three different uvular sounds. Listen and try your best to mimic. Do not worry about getting the sound for now, as I will describe each sound in more detail after.
While feeling these sounds out, try the following:
- Keep the front/middle of your tongue (what you can see in a mirror) completely relaxed at the bottom of your mouth.
- Keep the tip of your tongue resting against the back of your lower teeth/gum-line.
- Do NOT pull your tongue back.
- Do NOT do any excess movements with your lips or tongue (make the uvular consonant in a single movement).
Part 2: Uvular Comparison Drills
In French, there exists many versions of the uvular consonant, even though they are all represented by the same letter "r."
In this set of drills, we will train your ability to distinguish one uvular sound from another. Note that the fourth sound - the uvular trill - only exists in some dialects of French. So if you are unable to do this sound, it is 100% okay to replace it with the "voiced uvular fricative."
A Note on Voicing
One key phonetic concept you should be aware of is "voicing". Voicing is a key feature of a consonant sound. You voice a consonant when you vibrate your vocal chords as you say it. The sound is voiceless when your vocal chords are inactive. The easiest way to get this is to say out loud "I will understand French sounds." Now, whisper the same sentence. That is the difference between voiced and voiceless.
Here's the ultimate point I'm driving at with this: Whenever you combine an uvular consonant with a voiceless consonant (/f/, /t/, /k/, or /p/), the uvular consonant is ALSO voiceless.
If you think about it, it should make perfect sense. Since you are articulating two sounds at the same time, it's impossible to voice one and not voice the other. Keep this in mind as you learn new words on your own and have to figure out which uvular sound is being made.
1) Voiceless Uvular Fricative /χ/
- The voiceless uvular fricative /χ/ is what you get when you add an uvular sound to /f/, /t/, /k/ or /p/
- Make this sound by lifting the back of your tongue to your uvula and creating a narrow channel to force air through.
- Listen and do your best to mimic the sound.
You are most likely to hear this in combination with one of the other voiceless consonants. Listen closely to the audio file below and try to mimic me as I articulate the following syllables: fχa....tχa....kχa....pχa.
2) Voiced Uvular Fricative /ʁ/
- This sound shares the exact same articulation as the voiceless uvular fricative. The only difference here is that you activate your vocal chords.
- Most people find this sound more difficult than the voiceless one since it requires more coordination.
- Make sure you are comfortable with the voiceless /χ/ before attempting this /ʁ/ sound.
Similar to its voiceless brother, the voiced uvular fricative /ʁ/ always occurs in combination with other voiced consonants. You may have a tendency to do a voiceless /χ/ in these combos. Listen to the audio and try to mimic as I articulate: vʁa...dʁa...gʁa...bʁa.
3) Voiced Uvular Approximant /ʁ*/
'Approximant' means that you place two articulators close enough together to change a sound, but not enough to block airflow.
Take the /w/ sound from the word "why." This is an approximant sound because you bring your lips together, but not all the way. A bit further and you would have a /b/ or /p/ sound.
So, an uvular approximant /ʁ*/ is when the back of your tongue moves close enough to the uvula but doesn't touch it. The resulting sound is a softer version previous consonant /ʁ/.
Even though there is no perceivable difference between /ʁ/ and /ʁ*/, there is an important distinction. The /ʁ*/ usually occurs when someone is speaking faster, since it takes less time and energy to articulate.
You are also more likely to hear this /ʁ*/ sound at the END of a syllable. You could do a fricative /ʁ/ as well, but it would sound less authentic. So to hone true mimicry skills, you want to tune your hear to hear this distinction.
Take the example below from "Alors on Danse:"
ɥi...di...a...si...dɑ̃...la...mɛʁ*...də
4) Voiced Uvular Trill /ʀ/
You will not see the Uvular Trill in this course because it is dialectical, difficult to speak and replaced by a fricative /ʁ/ with most French speakers. Still, it is important to expose you to it now as you will sometimes hear it, depending on who you interact with.
For a 'trill,' you place the back of the tongue against the uvula and move air to cause the uvula to vibrate on its own. Some people can do it already - it's the cat purr sound people do when they try to act sexy. It took me a good week of purring before I first got it.
Before we move on, we need to confirm that you are able to tell the difference between these uvular consonants. The distinction you will struggle with most is between the voiced and voiceless fricative sounds.
In the audio below, I alternate between these two sounds in isolation and in real French words. Listen and try to spot the differences.
This information (with practice) should help you master the uvular consonants of French. All the information in this page is for reference.
And after you get a basic grasp of these sounds, it's a matter of practice and repetition. Each time you practice with the proper articulation, authentic speech becomes physically easier. These uvular sounds will inevitably feel awkward now, but as you progress, they will soon become as natural to you as any other sound.
Part 3: Uvular Combo & Speed Drills
I mentioned before that the uvular consonants in French are "rhotic." Rhotic refers to the role the sound plays within the Flow of a language. Within a language, these sounds will appear in combination with almost every other sound.
Take the English rhotic sound /ɹ/. This is the sound in the word "road." Notice how this sound appears in combination with almost every English consonant. Word examples include "bread, throat, grand, drug, treat, preach, cream."
You will also find in English that syllables often end with this same rhotic sound /ɹ/. Examples include: "par-king, mur-der, hear, fair-y." When this rhotic /ɹ/ sound occurs after a vowel, it often alters the quality of the preceding vowel (compare the sounds of "far" and "fa" in "farther" and "father").
There are two points I am driving at here:
- Since the Uvular Consonants in French are also rhotic, they can change words in French Flow just as the English /ɹ/ does.
- You will have a STRONG tendency to replace the uvular consonants with your own native "R" sound.
Doing this is perhaps the biggest giveaway of whether you have a bad accent. Like I said, the English /ɹ/ sound is completely different from any of the French Uvular consonants. Yet this is still the most common pronunciation error that English speakers make.
In the audio files below, you will train hearing and mimicking of all the possible Uvular Consonant combos in French and perform special drills to build the motor skills needed to articulate these sounds accurately and effortlessly.
The "Rally" Combo Drill
What I mean by "combo" is that you make the two consonant sounds in super fast succession, almost at the same time. This requires a bit of motor coordination, but after a few tries you'll get it.
- For each combo, separate the two sounds and add any vowel after each to create two syllables (e.g., "fχ" will turn into "fa...χa").
- Alternate slowly between the two syllables and gradually build speed.
- Continue to build speed until it is too fast and you must drop the vowel after the first consonant and fuse the sound into one syllable (i.e., "fa....χa" will transform into "fχa").
- Repeat this final syllable several times before starting the drill again.For each combo, do this drill 5 times in one session, do at least one session per day.
If you do these drills regularly, you will accelerate the development of your uvular consonant combos. Once you are comfortable, you may move on to speed training drills.
The Speed Training Drill
Since the uvular sounds happen so often in French, you will have situations where the they occur in two or more consecutive syllables. Since you are new to it, you still may need preparation time to articulate the sounds. This is why we need to train speed as well.
When you first start with this drill, you will need to do it slowly. After repeating the exercise for a while, you will gradually be able to increase the speed. So make a point to perform this drill at least five times a session, and at least once a day.
I promise it will go a long way in developing the raw motor ability needed to speak French!
- Alternate between the two syllables to a steady beat.
- After each measure, double the number of times you say the syllables.
- Double two more times until it is so fast that you have to fuse the sounds.
- Do this drill 5 times in one session, at least one session per day.
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