Consonant “x” (soft x)

Video courtesy of UBC Linguistics Dept., used with permission.

Examples

• xálh – road, path
  
• xá:ysem – ant
  
• skwíx – name
  
  Audio: Elizabeth Herrling, Elizabeth Phillips

Pronunciation

The Halq’eméylem “x” (the ‘soft x’) sounds a lot like the “sh” sound—but “x” is made quite differently. For “x” the tongue touches the roof of the mouth towards the back, as shown in the diagrams. Like “sh”, “x” is made with heavy friction.

Tongue position for sound “x” (‘soft x’ sound)

Tongue position for sound “sh”

Notes

Usually you will hear the sound “y” immediately after the “x” sound, especially when the “x” is at the start of the word.

The writing system in Galloway’s dictionary does not write the “y”:  Galloway essentially uses a single “x” to represent the “xy” sound.

Many speakers do prefer to write the “y” in addition to “x”, whenever they hear it, so there is variation in the spelling of many words that start with “x”.