#gheada

[cantoghalpon]

[mlwotd]

#003 gheada

gheada f /ħeˈada/

[noun] the lenition, more precisely the debuccalisation, of the voiced velar stop /g/ or the and voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ in Galician to a voiceless pharyngeal fricative /ħ/ or a voiceless glottal fricative /h/

The Use of gheada in Three Generations of Women from Carballo, A Coruña

Since yesterday’s post ended with a mention of Galician I have decided to choose possibly the most “famous” Galician word as today's palabra do día.

The topic of gheada is somewhat controversial in Galician linguistic circles:

The official prescriptive grammar of Galician [...] cites the aspiration as an acceptable allophone of the phoneme /g/ but does not accept its representation in written texts. Many individuals consider the trait to be an innovative characteristic of Galician which distinguishes it from its sister language Portuguese; however, such a positive consideration does not affect the speakers’ linguistic behavior and even intellectuals who proclaim the uniqueness of gheada, avoid its use.

ibid.

There are different situations where and ways in which this phenomenon manifests itself, if you want to know more then follow the link above.