The voiceless glottal fricative, sometimes called voiceless glottal transition or the aspirate, 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⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is h
. However, [h] has been described as a voiceless vowel 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 | |||
---|---|---|---|
h | |||
IPA Number | 146 | ||
Audio sample | |||
Encoding | |||
Entity (decimal) | h | ||
Unicode (hex) | U+0068 | ||
X-SAMPA | h | ||
Braille | |||
|
Voiceless glottal approximant | |||
---|---|---|---|
h | |||
ɦ̥ | |||
Audio sample | |||
Encoding | |||
X-SAMPA | h_o | ||
Braille | |||
|
[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.
An effort undertaken at the Kiel Convention in 1989 attempted to move glottal fricatives, both voiceless and voiced, to approximants. The approximant may be represented by the same symbol or ɦ̥.
The Shanghainese language contrasts the voiced and voiceless glottal fricatives.
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 | هائل/haa'il | [ˈhaːʔɪl] | 'enormous' | See Arabic phonology |
Assyrian | Eastern | ܗܝܡܢܘܬܐ hèmanūta | [heːmaːnuːta] | 'faith' | |
Western | ܗܪܟܗ harcë | [hεrcɪ] | 'here' | ||
Armenian | Eastern | 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 | 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 | hus | [ˈhuːˀs] | 'house' | Often voiced [ɦ] when between vowels. 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 | ჰავა/hava | [hɑvɑ] | 'climate' | ||
German | Hass | [has] | 'hatred' | See Standard German phonology | |
Greek | Cypriot | μαχαζί/mahazi | [mahaˈzi] | 'shop' | Allophone of /x/ before /a/. |
Hawaiian | haka | [ˈhɐkə] | 'shelf' | See Hawaiian phonology | |
Hebrew | הַר/har | [häʁ̞] | 'mountain' | See Modern Hebrew phonology | |
Hindi | Standard | 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 | i capitani | [iˌhäɸiˈθäːni] | 'the captains' | Intervocalic allophone of /k/. 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 | 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 | 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 | 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' | Lenited form of /t/, /s/, see Scottish Gaelic phonology | |
Serbo-Croatian | Croatian | hmelj | [hmê̞ʎ̟] | 'hops' | Allophone of /x/ when it is initial in a consonant cluster. See Serbo-Croatian phonology |
Spanish | 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 | ہم/ham | [ˈhəm] | 'we' | See Hindi-Urdu phonology |
Vietnamese | hiểu | [hjew˧˩˧] | 'understand' | See Vietnamese phonology | |
Welsh | haul | [ˈhaɨl] | 'sun' | See Welsh orthography | |
West Frisian | hoeke | [ˈhukə] | 'corner' | ||
Yi | ꉐ / hxa | [ha˧] | 'hundred' |
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Czech | [example needed] | Allophone of ɦ. |
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