The voiced glottal fricative, sometimes called breathy-voiced glottal transition, is a type of sound used in some spoken languages which 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 ⟨ɦ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is h\
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Voiced glottal fricative | |||
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ɦ | |||
IPA Number | 147 | ||
Audio sample | |||
source · help | |||
Encoding | |||
Entity (decimal) | ɦ | ||
Unicode (hex) | U+0266 | ||
X-SAMPA | h\ | ||
Braille | |||
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In many languages, [ɦ] has no place or manner of articulation. Thus, it has been described as a breathy-voiced counterpart of the following vowel from a phonetic point of view. However, its characteristics are also influenced by the preceding vowels and whatever other sounds surround it. Therefore, it can be described as a segment whose only consistent feature is its breathy voice phonation in such languages.[1] It may have real glottal constriction in a number of languages (such as Finnish[2]), making it a fricative.
Northern Wu languages such as Shanghainese contrast the voiced and voiceless glottal fricatives.[3] The two glottal fricatives pattern like plosives.[4][5]
Features of the voiced glottal fricative:
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Afrikaans | Standard | hoekom | [ɦu.kɔm] | 'why' | |
Azeri | Standard | möhkəm / مؤحکم | [mœːɦcæm] | 'solid' | |
Albanian | Northern Tosk[7] | dhe menjëherë udhëtari | [ðɛ miɲɜˈɦɛɹoθˈtaɽ̞i] | 'and immediately the traveller' | Occasional allophone of /h/ in connected speech. |
Basque | Northeastern dialects[8] | hemen | [ɦemen] | 'here' | Can be voiceless [h] instead. |
Czech | hlava | [ˈɦlävä] | 'head' | See Czech phonology | |
Danish[9] | Mon det har regnet? | [- te̝ ɦɑ -] | 'I wonder if it has rained.' | Common allophone of /h/ between vowels.[9] See Danish phonology | |
Dutch[10] | haat | [ɦaːt] | 'hate' | See Dutch phonology | |
English | Australian[11] | behind | [bəˈɦɑe̯nd] | 'behind' | Allophone of /h/ between voiced sounds.[11][12] See Australian English phonology and English phonology |
Received Pronunciation[12] | [bɪˈɦaɪ̯nd] | ||||
Broad South African | hand | [ˈɦɛn̪t̪] | 'hand' | Some speakers, only before a stressed vowel. | |
Estonian | raha | [ˈrɑɦɑ] | 'money' | Allophone of /h/ between voiced sounds. See Estonian phonology and Finnish phonology | |
Finnish | |||||
French | Quebec[13] | manger | [mãɦe] | 'to eat' | Limited to a minority of speakers. Can also be realized as a voiceless [h]. |
Hebrew | מַהֵר | 'fast' | Occurs as an allophone of /h/ between voiced sounds. See Modern Hebrew phonology | ||
Hindustani | हूँ / ہوں | [ɦũː] | 'am' | See Hindustani phonology | |
Hungarian | Some speakers | tehát | [tɛɦaːt] | 'so' | Intervocalic allophone of /h/. Occurs as voiceless /h/ for other speakers. See Hungarian phonology |
Japanese | Some speakers | 少し話して/sukoshi hanashite[14] | [sɯkoɕi ɦanaɕi̥te] | 'speak a little bit' | |
Indonesian | Some speakers | bahan | [baˈɦan] | 'ingredient' | |
Kalabari[15] | hóín | [ɦóĩ́] | 'introduction' | ||
Korean | 여행 / yeohaeng | [jʌɦεŋ] | 'travel' | Occurs as an allophone of /h/ between voiced sounds. See Korean phonology | |
Limburgish[16][17] | hart | [ɦɑ̽ʀ̝t] | 'heart' | The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect. See Maastrichtian dialect phonology | |
Lithuanian | humoras | [ˈɦʊmɔrɐs̪] | 'humour' | Often pronounced instead of [ɣ]. See Lithuanian phonology | |
Marathi | हार | [ɦaːɾ] | 'garland' | ||
Odia | ହଳ/haḷa | [ɦɔɭɔ] | 'plough' | ||
Nepali | हल | [ɦʌl] | 'solution' | See Nepali phonology | |
Polish | Podhale dialect | hydrant | [ˈɦɘ̟d̪rän̪t̪] | 'fire hydrant' | Contrasts with /x/. Standard Polish possesses only /x/. See Polish phonology |
Kresy dialect | |||||
Portuguese | Many Brazilian dialects | esse rapaz | [ˈesi ɦaˈpajs] | 'this youth' (m.) | Allophone of /ʁ/. [h, ɦ] are marginal sounds to many speakers, particularly out of Brazil. See Portuguese phonology and guttural R |
Many speakers | hashi | [ɦɐˈʃi] | 'chopsticks' | ||
Some Brazilian[18][19] dialects | mesmo | [ˈmeɦmu] | 'same' | Corresponds to either /s/ or /ʃ/ (depending on dialect) in the syllable coda. Might also be deleted. | |
Cearense dialect[20] | gente | [ˈɦẽnt͡ʃi] | 'people' | Debuccalized from [ʒ], [v] or [z]. | |
Mineiro dialect | dormir | [doɦˈmi(h)] | 'to sleep' | Before other voiced consonants, otherwise realized as [h]. | |
Punjabi | ਹਵਾ / ہوا | [ɦə̀ʋä̌ː] | 'air' | ||
Riffian Berber | hwa | [ɦwæ] | 'to go down' | ||
Romanian | Transylvanian dialects[21] | haină | [ˈɦajnə] | 'coat' | Corresponds to [h] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology |
Silesian | hangrys | [ˈɦaŋɡrɨs] | 'gooseberry' | ||
Slovak | hora | 'mountain' | See Slovak phonology | ||
Slovene | Littoral dialects | hora | [ˈɦɔra] | 'mountain' | This is a general feature of all Slovene dialects west of the Škofja Loka–Planina line. Corresponds to [ɡ] in other dialects. See Slovene phonology |
Rovte dialects | |||||
Rosen Valley dialect | |||||
Sylheti | ꠢꠥꠐꠇꠤ | [ɦuʈki] | 'dried fish' | ||
Telugu | హల్లు | [ɦəlːu] | 'Consonant' | ||
Ukrainian | голос | [ˈɦɔlos] | 'voice' | Also described as pharyngeal [ʕ][citation needed]. See Ukrainian phonology | |
Wu | Shanghainese | 閒話/ghe-gho | [ɦɛ˩ ɦo˦] | 'language' | See Northern Wu phonology |
Suzhounese | 四號/5sy-ghau6 | [sz̩˥˩ ɦæ˧˩] | 'fourth day of a Western month' | ||
Zulu | ihhashi | [iːˈɦaːʃi] | 'horse' |