Gheada () is a term in Galician to describe the debuccalisation of the

voiced velar stop The voiced velar plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. Some languages have the voiced pre-velar plosive, which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototypic ...

to a, usually voiceless, back fricative, most often a

voiceless pharyngeal fricative The voiceless pharyngeal fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some Speech communication, spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is an h with stroke, h-bar, , and the equivalent ...

. Although it is found throughout Galicia, its use is declining in

Lugo Lugo (, ) is a city in northwestern Spain in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia. It is the capital of the Lugo (province), province of Lugo. The municipality had a population of 100,060 in 2024, ...

and eastern Ourense, and it is rarely encountered in education or broadcasting. While it is neither considered incorrect nor stigmatised, it is generally considered appropriate only for familiar rather than formal domains. Occasionally, the sound is articulated as a

voiceless velar fricative The voiceless velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It was part of the consonant inventory of Old English and can still be found in some dialects of English, most notably in Scottish English, e.g. in ''lo ...

, as in Castilian '' jamón''.

Orthography

The pronunciation is sometimes indicated by the digraph '' gh'': * ''gato'' (; "cat") > * ''pago'' (; "payment") >

Phonetic realizations

Pharyngeal realizations of the ''gheada'' are the most common, but there's considerable variation. Speakers from inland villages tend to prefer uvular, pharyngeal, or glottal fricatives, which are often

voiced Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced. The term, however, is used to refe ...

between vowels. In contrast, speakers from coastal villages prefer velar, pharyngeal, or occasional uvular fricatives, which are always voiceless.

Possible systems

There are three different systems of ''gheada''. In the most widespread one, is pronounced as a voiceless fricative in any position. For example: This system is found in the major cities of Galicia:

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

Pontevedra Pontevedra (, ) is a city in the autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, in northwestern Spain. It is the capital of both the ''Pontevedra (comarca), Comarca'' and Province of Pontevedra, and the capital of the Rías Baixas. It is als ...

, and

A Coruña A Coruña (; ; also informally called just Coruña; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality in Galicia, Spain. It is Galicia's second largest city, behind Vigo. The city is the provincial capital of the province ...

, as well as in the eastern part of the Province of A Coruña. Another system has both and voiceless fricative allophones: In this system, found in the western parts of Ourense and

, northern areas of

, and south-eastern areas of

, is only found after a nasal consonant in the middle of words. Speakers often have trouble recognizing and as allophones of the same phoneme. A third system has merged into , eliminating the allophone completely: This system is found in the western parts of Galicia, in Fisterra and the Ría de Muros.

References

Sources

* *

External links