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:
Voiceless glottal fricative | |||
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h | |||
h͈ | |||
IPA Number | 146 | ||
Audio sample | |||
source · help | |||
Encoding | |||
Entity (decimal) | h | ||
Unicode (hex) | U+0068 | ||
X-SAMPA | h | ||
Braille | |||
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Voiceless glottal phonation | |||
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h | |||
Braille | |||
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[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 of the "voiceless glottal fricative":
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 | 'Armenian language' | ||
Asturian | South-central dialects | ḥuerza | [ˈhweɾθɐ] | 'force' | F- becomes [h] before -ue/-ui in some south-central dialects. May be also realized as [ħ, ʕ, ɦ, x, χ] |
Oriental dialects | ḥacer | [haˈθeɾ] | "to do" | F- becomes [h] in oriental dialects. May be also realized as [ħ, ʕ, ɦ, x, χ] | |
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 | '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 | |
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[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/. |
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 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' |