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Voiceless glottal fricative

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For consonants followed by the superscript ʰ, see Aspirated consonant.
Voiceless glottal fricative
h
h͈
IPA number146
Audio sample
Encoding
Entity (decimal)h
Unicode (hex)U+0068
X-SAMPAh
Braille⠓ (braille pattern dots-125)
Voiceless glottal phonation
h
Braille⠓ (braille pattern dots-125)

The voiceless glottal fricative, sometimes called voiceless glottal transition or the aspirate,[1][2] is a type of sound used in some spoken languages that patterns like a fricative or approximant consonant phonologically, but often lacks the usual phonetic characteristics of a consonant. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨h⟩. However, [h] has been described as a voiceless phonation because in many languages, it lacks the place and manner of articulation of a prototypical consonant, as well as the height and backness of a prototypical vowel:

[h and ɦ] have been described as voiceless or breathy voiced counterparts of the vowels that follow them [but] the shape of the vocal tract [...] is often simply that of the surrounding sounds. [...] Accordingly, in such cases it is more appropriate to regard h and ɦ as segments that have only a laryngeal specification, and are unmarked for all other features. There are other languages [such as Hebrew and Arabic] which show a more definite displacement of the formant frequencies for h, suggesting it has a [glottal] constriction associated with its production.[3]

An effort undertaken at the Kiel Convention in 1989 attempted to move glottal fricatives, both voiceless and voiced, to approximants.[4][5] The fricative may be represented with the extIPA diacritic for strong articulation, ⟨h͈⟩.

The Shanghainese language, among others, contrasts voiced and voiceless glottal fricatives.[6]

Features

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Features of the "voiceless glottal fricative":

  • In some languages, it has the constricted manner of articulation of a fricative. However, in many if not most it is a transitional state of the glottis or an approximant, with no manner of articulation other than its phonation type. Because there is no other constriction to produce friction in the vocal tract in the languages they are familiar with, many phoneticians[who?] no longer consider [h] to be a fricative. However, the term "fricative" is generally retained for historical reasons.
  • It may have a glottal place of articulation. However, it may have no fricative articulation, in which case the term 'glottal' only refers to the nature of its phonation, and does not describe the location of the stricture nor the turbulence. All consonants except for the glottals, and all vowels, have an individual place of articulation in addition to the state of the glottis. As with all other consonants, surrounding vowels influence the pronunciation [h], and [h] has sometimes been presented as a voiceless vowel, having the place of articulation of these surrounding vowels.
  • Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
  • It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
  • Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
  • Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

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Fricative or transition

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Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Adyghe Shapsug хыгь/khyg' [həɡʲ] 'now' Corresponds to [x] in other dialects.
Albanian hire [ˈhiɾɛ][stress?] 'the graces'
Aleut hanix̂ [ˈhaniχ] 'lake'
Arabic Modern Standard[7] هائل/haa'il [ˈhaːʔɪl] 'enormous' See Arabic phonology
Assyrian Eastern ܗܝܡܢܘܬܐ hèmanūta [heːmaːnuːta] 'faith'
Western ܗܪܟܗ harcë [hεrcɪ] 'here'
Armenian Eastern[8] հայերեն/hayeren [hɑjɛɾɛn]ⓘ 'Armenian language'
Asturian South-central dialects ḥuerza [ˈhweɾθɐ] 'force' F- becomes [h] before -ue/-ui in south-central dialects. May be also realized as [ħ, ʕ, ɦ, x, χ]
Eastern dialects ḥacer [haˈθeɾ] "to do" F- becomes [h] in oriental dialects. May be also realized as [ħ, ʕ, ɦ, x, χ]
All dialects guaḥe
ḥispiar 		[ˈgwahɪ]

[hisˈpjaɾ]

"kid"

"to steal small quantities of something"

Some words use ḥ in all dialects.
Avar гьа [ha] 'oath'
Azeri hin [hɪn] 'chicken coop'
Basque North-Eastern dialects[9] hirur [hiɾur] 'three' Can be voiced [ɦ] instead.
Bengali হাওয়া/haoua [hao̯a] 'wind'
Berber aherkus [ahərkus] 'shoe'
Cantabrian muḥer [muˈheɾ] 'woman' F- becomes [h]. In most dialects, -LJ- and -C'L- too. May be also realized as [ħ, ʕ, ɦ, x, χ].
Catalan ehem [eˈhẽm] 'ha!' Found in loanwords and interjections. See Catalan phonology
Chechen хӏара / hara [hɑrɐ] 'this'
Chinese Cantonese 海 / hói [hɔːi̯˧˥]ⓘ 'sea' See Cantonese phonology
Taiwanese Mandarin 海 / hǎi [haɪ̯˨˩˦] A velar fricative [x] for Standard Chinese. See Standard Chinese phonology
Danish[10] hus [ˈhuːˀs] 'house' Often voiced [ɦ] when between vowels.[10] See Danish phonology
English high [haɪ̯] 'high' See English phonology and H-dropping
Esperanto hejmo [ˈhejmo] 'home' See Esperanto phonology
Eastern Lombard Val Camonica Bresa [ˈbrɛha] 'Brescia' Corresponds to /s/ in other varieties.
Estonian hammas [ˈhɑmˑɑs] 'tooth' See Estonian phonology
Faroese hon [hoːn] 'she'
Finnish hammas [ˈhɑmːɑs] 'tooth' See Finnish phonology
French Belgian hotte [hɔt] 'pannier' Found in the region of Liège. See French phonology
Galician Occidental, central, and some oriental dialects gato [ˈhätʊ] 'cat' Realization of [g] in some dialects. May be also realized as [ɦ, ʕ, x, χ, ʁ, ɡʰ]. See gheada.
Georgian[11] ჰავა/hava [hɑvɑ] 'climate'
German[12] Hass [has] 'hatred' See Standard German phonology
Greek Cypriot[13] μαχαζί/mahazi [mahaˈzi] 'shop' Allophone of /x/ before /a/.
Hawaiian[14] haka [ˈhɐkə] 'shelf' See Hawaiian phonology
Hebrew הַר/har [häʁ̞] 'mountain' See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindi Standard[7] हम/ham [ˈhəm] 'we' See Hindustani phonology
Hmong hawm [haɨ̰] 'to honor'
Hungarian helyes [ˈhɛjɛʃ] 'right' See Hungarian phonology
Irish shroich [hɾˠɪç] 'reached' Appears as the lenited form of 'f', 's' and 't', as well as grammatical pre-aspiration of vowels, & occasionally word-initial as 'h' in borrowed words. See Irish phonology.
Italian Tuscan[15] i capitani [iˌhäɸiˈθäːni] 'the captains' Intervocalic allophone of /k/.[15] See Italian phonology
Japanese すはだ / suhada [sɨᵝhada] 'bare skin' See Japanese phonology
Javanese ꦩꦲ/Maha [mɔhɔ] The expert, Almighty one
Kabardian тхылъхэ/ tkhyl"khė [tχɪɬhɑ] 'books'
Kazakh шаһар / şahar [ʃahɑr] 'city'
Khmer ហឹរ / hœ̆r
ចាស់ / chăs		 [hər]
[cah]		 'spicy'
'old'		 See Khmer phonology
Korean 허리 / heori [hʌɾi] 'waist' See Korean phonology
Lakota ho [ho] 'voice'
Lao ຫ້າ/haa [haː˧˩] 'five'
Leonese guaje [ˈwahe̞] 'boy'
Lezgian гьек/hek [hek] 'glue'
Luxembourgish[16] hei [hɑ̝ɪ̯] 'here' See Luxembourgish phonology
Malay hari [hari] 'day'
Mutsun hučekniš [hut͡ʃɛkniʃ] 'dog'
Navajo hastiin [hàsd̥ìːn] 'mister'
Norwegian hatt [hɑtː] 'hat' See Norwegian phonology
Pashto هو/ho [ho] 'yes'
Persian هفت/haft [hæft] 'seven' See Persian phonology
Pirahã hi [hì] 'he'
Portuguese Many Brazilian dialects[17] marreta [maˈhetɐ] 'sledgehammer' Allophone of /ʁ/. [h, ɦ] are marginal sounds to many speakers, particularly out of Brazil. See Portuguese phonology.
Most dialects Honda [ˈhõ̞dɐ] 'Honda'
Minas Gerais (mountain dialect) arte [ˈahtʃ] 'art'
Colloquial Brazilian (some dialects)[18][19] chuvisco [ɕuˈvihku] 'drizzle' Corresponds to either /s/ or /ʃ/ (depending on dialect) in the syllable coda. Might also be deleted.
Quechua Standard hatun [hatuŋ] 'big' The elderly still maintain the pronunciation of /h/, but the young changed the pronunciation to /x/.

See Quechuan phonology

Romanian hăț [həts] 'bridle' See Romanian phonology
Scottish Gaelic ro-sheòl [ɾɔˈhɔːɫ] 'topsail'[20] Lenited form of /t/, /s/, see Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatian Croatian[21] hmelj [hmê̞ʎ̟] 'hops' Allophone of /x/ when it is initial in a consonant cluster.[21] See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Spanish[22] Andalusian, Canarian, and Extremaduran Spanish higo [ˈhiɣo̞] 'fig' Corresponds to Old Spanish /h/, which was developed from Latin /f/ but muted in other dialects.
Many dialects obispo [o̞ˈβ̞ihpo̞] 'bishop' Allophone of /s/ at the end of a syllable. See Spanish phonology
Some dialects jaca [ˈhaka] 'pony' Corresponds to /x/ in other dialects.
Swedish hatt [ˈhatː] 'hat' See Swedish phonology
Sylheti ꠢꠣꠝꠥꠇ/hamukh [hamux] 'snail'
Tagalog tahimik [tɐˈhimɪk] 'quiet' See Tagalog phonology
Tatar һава/hawa [hawa] 'air' See Tatar phonology
Telugu అంతఃపురం [ant̪ahpuram] 'Women's quarters'/ 'Harem' See Visarga
Thai ห้า/haa [haː˥˩] 'five'
Turkish halı [häˈɫɯ] 'carpet' See Turkish phonology
Ubykh дуаха [dwaha] 'prayer' See Ubykh phonology
Ukrainian кігті [ˈkiht⁽ʲ⁾i] 'claws' Sometimes when [ɦ] is devoiced. See Ukrainian phonology.
Urdu Standard[7] ہم/ham [ˈhəm] 'we' See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Vietnamese[23] hiểu [hjew˧˩˧] 'understand' See Vietnamese phonology
Welsh haul [ˈhaɨl] 'sun' See Welsh orthography
West Frisian hoeke [ˈhukə] 'corner'
Yi ꉐ / hxa [ha˧] 'hundred'

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Smyth (1920, §16: description of stops and h)
  2. ^ Wright & Wright (1925, §7h: initial h)
  3. ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:325–326)
  4. ^ Ladefoged (1990), p. 24–25.
  5. ^ Garellek et al. (2021).
  6. ^ Qian 2003, pp.14-16.
  7. ^ a b c Thelwall (1990:38)
  8. ^ Dum-Tragut (2009:13)
  9. ^ Hualde & Ortiz de Urbina (2003:24)
  10. ^ a b Grønnum (2005:125)
  11. ^ Shosted & Chikovani (2006:255)
  12. ^ Kohler (1999:86–87)
  13. ^ Arvaniti (1999:175)
  14. ^ Ladefoged (2005:139)
  15. ^ a b Hall (1944:75)
  16. ^ Gilles & Trouvain (2013:67–68)
  17. ^ Barbosa & Albano (2004:5–6)
  18. ^ (in Portuguese) Pará Federal University – The pronunciation of /s/ and its variations across Bragança municipality's Portuguese Archived 2013-07-07 at the Wayback Machine
  19. ^ (in Portuguese) Rio de Janeiro Federal University – The variation of post-vocallic /S/ in the speech of Petrópolis, Itaperuna and Paraty Archived 2017-12-15 at the Wayback Machine
  20. ^ "ro-sheòl". www.faclair.com. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  21. ^ a b Landau et al. (1999:68)
  22. ^ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:258)
  23. ^ Thompson (1959:458–461)

References

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