#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.