Voiceless glottal fricative
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⟩, 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:
[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]
Voiceless glottal fricative | |
---|---|
h | |
IPA Number | 146 |
Audio sample | |
source · help | |
Encoding | |
Entity (decimal) | h |
Unicode (hex) | U+0068 |
X-SAMPA | h |
Braille |
Features
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, 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 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.
- The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and diaphragm, as in most sounds.
Occurrence
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adyghe | Shapsug | хыгь/khyg' | [həɡʲ] | 'now' | Corresponds to [x] in other dialects. |
Albanian | hire | [ˈhiɾɛ] | 'the graces' | ||
Aleut | hanix̂ | [ˈhaniχ] | 'lake' | ||
Arabic | Modern Standard[4] | هائل/haa'il | [ˈhaːʔɪl] | 'enormous' | See Arabic phonology |
Assyrian | Eastern | ܗܝܡܢܘܬܐ hèmanūta | [heːmaːnuːta] | 'faith' | |
Western | ܗܪܟܗ harcë | [hεrcɪ] | 'here' | ||
Armenian | Eastern[5] | 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[6] | 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[7] | hus | [ˈhuːˀs] | 'house' | Often voiced [ɦ] when between vowels.[7] 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[8] | ჰავა/hava | [hɑvɑ] | 'climate' | ||
German[9] | Hass | [has] | 'hatred' | See Standard German phonology | |
Greek | Cypriot[10] | μαχαζί/mahazi | [mahaˈzi] | 'shop' | Allophone of /x/ before /a/. |
Hawaiian[11] | haka | [ˈhɐkə] | 'shelf' | See Hawaiian phonology | |
Hebrew | הַר/har | [häʁ̞] | 'mountain' | See Modern Hebrew phonology | |
Hindi | Standard[4] | 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[12] | i capitani | [iˌhäɸiˈθäːni] | 'the captains' | Intervocalic allophone of /k/.[12] 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[13] | 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[14] | 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[15][16] | chuvisco | [ɕuˈvihku] | 'drizzle' | Corresponds to either /s/ or /ʃ/ (depending on dialect) in the syllable coda. Might also be deleted. | |
Romanian | hăț | [həts] | 'bridle' | See Romanian phonology | |
Scottish Gaelic | ro-sheòl | [ɾɔˈhɔːɫ] | 'topsail'[17] | Lenited form of /t/, /s/, see Scottish Gaelic phonology | |
Serbo-Croatian | Croatian[18] | hmelj | [hmê̞ʎ̟] | 'hops' | Allophone of /x/ when it is initial in a consonant cluster.[18] See Serbo-Croatian phonology |
Spanish[19] | 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[4] | ہم/ham | [ˈhəm] | 'we' | See Hindi-Urdu phonology |
Vietnamese[20] | hiểu | [hjew˧˩˧] | 'understand' | See Vietnamese phonology | |
Welsh | haul | [ˈhaɨl] | 'sun' | See Welsh orthography | |
West Frisian | hoeke | [ˈhukə] | 'corner' | ||
Yi | ꉐ / hxa | [ha˧] | 'hundred' |
Notes
- Smyth (1920, §16: description of stops and h)
- Wright & Wright (1925, §7h: initial h)
- Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:325–326)
- Thelwall (1990:38)
- Dum-Tragut (2009:13)
- Hualde & Ortiz de Urbina (2003:24)
- Grønnum (2005:125)
- Shosted & Chikovani (2006:255)
- Kohler (1999:86–87)
- Arvaniti (1999:175)
- Ladefoged (2005:139)
- Hall (1944:75)
- Gilles & Trouvain (2013:67–68)
- Barbosa & Albano (2004:5–6)
- (in Portuguese) Pará Federal University – The pronunciation of /s/ and its variations across Bragança municipality's Portuguese
- (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
- "ro-sheòl". www.faclair.com. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
- Landau et al. (1999:68)
- Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:258)
- Thompson (1959:458–461)
References
- Arvaniti, Amalia (1999), "Cypriot Greek" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 29 (2): 173–178, doi:10.1017/S002510030000654X, S2CID 163926812
- Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (2): 227–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756
- Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
- Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013), "Luxembourgish" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 67–74, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278
- Grønnum, Nina (2005), Fonetik og fonologi, Almen og Dansk (3rd ed.), Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, ISBN 87-500-3865-6
- Hall, Robert A. Jr. (1944). "Italian phonemes and orthography". Italica. American Association of Teachers of Italian. 21 (2): 72–82. doi:10.2307/475860. JSTOR 475860.
- Hualde, José Ignacio; Ortiz de Urbina, Jon, eds. (2003), A grammar of Basque, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, ISBN 3-11-017683-1
- Kohler, Klaus (1999), "German", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 86–89, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
- Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.), Blackwell
- Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-19815-4.
- Landau, Ernestina; Lončarić, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66–69, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
- Laufer, Asher (1991), "Phonetic Representation: Glottal Fricatives", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 21 (2): 91–93, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004448, S2CID 145231104
- Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
- Shosted, Ryan K.; Chikovani, Vakhtang (2006), "Standard Georgian" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (2): 255–264, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659
- Smyth, Herbert Weir (1920). A Greek Grammar for Colleges. American Book Company. Retrieved 1 January 2014 – via CCEL.
- Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 20 (2): 37–41, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004266, S2CID 243640727
- Thompson, Laurence (1959), "Saigon phonemics", Language, 35 (3): 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232
- Wright, Joseph; Wright, Elizabeth Mary (1925). Old English Grammar (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.