Voiceless Velar Fricative of English

The voiceless velar fricative was one of the sounds of Old English. It was spelled gh. Though the letters remain in English spelling, they are now usually not pronounced or pronounced /f/. The English letters gh often correspond to the letters ch in German and Dutch.

In words such as eight and night the gh is silent. However, in words such as cough and laugh, the letters are pronounced /f/. This sound change occurs word-finally.

The German ch represents a voiceless velar fricative or palatal fricative after front vowels and vocalic /r/. Here are examples:

daugher Tochter
eight Acht
freight Fracht
high Hoch
light Licht
neighbour Nachbar
night Nacht
sight Sicht
through durch
weight Gewicht

In Dutch, a language closely related to German, the letters ch are always pronounced as a velar fricative. The Dutch words for neighbour and through are buurman and door. They are not part of the following list:

daughter dochter
eight acht
freight vracht
high hoog
light licht
night nacht
sight zicht
weight gewicht

The Dutch word hoog is spelled with a g, but this is pronounced as a velar fricative. The English gh was spelled h in Old English. Many researchers believe that it changed from a voiceless velar fricative to a voiced or partly voiced velar fricative, which explains the spelling gh.

In words such as ghetto, ghost and spaghetti, the gh was never pronounced as a velar fricative. These words have different origins. Here the gh is pronounced /g/.

English words with the spelling gh were once pronounced with the voiceless velar fricative. This sound is used in both German and Dutch. In these languages, many words with ch correspond to English words with gh.