Voiceless pharyngeal fricative

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Voiceless pharyngeal fricative
ħ
IPA Number 144
Encoding
Entity (decimal) ħ
Unicode (hex) U+0127
X-SAMPA X\
Braille ⠖ (braille pattern dots-235) ⠓ (braille pattern dots-125)

The voiceless pharyngeal fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is an h-bar, ⟨ħ⟩. In the transcription of Arabic and other scripts, it is often written ⟨Ḥ⟩, ⟨ḥ⟩.

Typically characterized as a fricative in the upper pharynx, it is often a whispered [h].

Features

Features of the voiceless pharyngeal fricative:

  • Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
  • Its place of articulation is pharyngeal, which means it is articulated with the tongue root against the back of the throat (the pharynx).
  • 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 centrallateral dichotomy does not apply.
  • The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

This sound is the most commonly cited realization of the Semitic letter hēth, which occurs in all dialects of Arabic, Classical Syriac, as well as Biblical and Tiberian Hebrew but only a minority of speakers of modern Hebrew. It has also been reconstructed as appearing in Ancient Egyptian, a related Afro-Asiatic language. Modern non-Oriental Hebrew has merged the voiceless pharyngeal fricative with the voiceless velar (or uvular) fricative. However, phonetic studies have shown that the so-called voiceless pharyngeal fricatives of Semitic languages are often neither pharyngeal (but rather epiglottal) nor fricatives (but rather approximants).[1]

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Abaza хIахъвы [ħaqʷǝ] 'stone'
Abkhaz ҳара [ħaˈra] 'we' See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe тхьэ <phonos file="Tħa.ogg">[tħa]</phonos> 'god'
Agul ? [muħ] 'barn'
Arabic Standard[2] حال <phonos file="Hal.ogg">[ħaːl]</phonos> 'situation' See Arabic phonology
Tunisian weħid [wɛħːɪd] 'one'
Archi хIал [ħaːl] 'good'
Avar xIебецI [ħeˈbetsʼ] 'earwax'
Berber Kabyle ⴰⵃⴻⴼⴼⴰⴼ
aeffaf
احفاف
[aħəfːaf] 'hairdresser'
Chechen ач / <phonos file="Hatch.ogg">[ħatʃ]</phonos> 'plum'
English Some speakers of Received Pronunciation[3] hat [ħaʔt] 'hat' Glottal [h] for other speakers.[3] See English phonology
Finnish hti [tæħti] 'star' Allophone of /h/ in complementary distribution.
Galician[4] Some dialects ghato [ˈħato] 'cat' Corresponds to /ɡ/ in other dialects. See gheada
Hebrew חַשְׁמַל <phonos file="Hashmal.ogg">[ħaʃˈmal]</phonos> 'electricity' Oriental dialects only. See Modern Hebrew phonology
Kabardian кхъухь <phonos file="Qhoh.ogg">[q͡χʷəħ]</phonos> 'ship'
Kurdish Some speakers hol <phonos file="Hol.ogg">[ħol]</phonos> 'environment' Corresponds to /h/ in most Kurdish dialects
Maltese Standard wieħed [wiħːet] 'one'
Nuu-chah-nulth ʔaap-ii [ʔaːpˈħiː] 'friendly'
Sioux Nakota [haħdanahã] 'yesterday'
Somali xood <phonos file="Hood.ogg">[ħoːd]</phonos> 'cane' See Somali phonology
Syriac Chaldean Neo-Aramaic ܡܫܝܼܚܵܐ [mʃiːħa] 'christ' Corresponds with [x] in other Syriac varieties such as Assyrian Neo-Aramaic.
Ukrainian[5] нігті [ˈnʲiħtʲi] 'fingernails' Allophone of /ʕ/ (which may be transcribed /ɦ/) before voiceless consonants;[5] can be fronted to [x] in some "weak positions".[5] See Ukrainian phonology

See also

References

Bibliography

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