| Ipa Symbol: | ɦ |
| Ipa Number: | 147 |
| Decimal: | 614 |
| Xsampa: | h\ |
| Braille: | “ |
| Braille2: | h |
| Imagefile: | IPA Unicode 0x0266.svg |
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 (IPA|ɦ), and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is h\.
In many languages, pronounced as /[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. It may have real glottal constriction in a number of languages (such as Finnish), making it a fricative.
Northern Wu languages such as Shanghainese contrast the voiced and voiceless glottal fricatives.[1] The two glottal fricatives pattern like plosives.[2] [3]
Features of the voiced glottal fricative:
| Language | Word | Meaning | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Standard | Afrikaans: '''h'''oekom | pronounced as /[ɦu.kɔm]/ | 'why' | ||
| Azeri | Standard | Azerbaijani: mö'''h'''kəm / Azerbaijani: مؤ'''ح'''کم | pronounced as /[mœːɦcæm]/ | 'solid' | ||
| Albanian | Northern Tosk[5] | dhe menjë'''h'''erë udhëtari | [ðɛ miɲɜˈɦɛɹoθˈtaɽ̞i] | 'and immediately the traveller' | Occasional allophone of /h/ in connected speech. | |
| Northeastern dialects | Basque: '''h'''emen | pronounced as /[ɦemen]/ | 'here' | Can be voiceless pronounced as /link/ instead. | ||
| Czech: [[Czech orthography|'''h'''lava]] | pronounced as /[ˈɦlava]/ | 'head' | See Czech phonology | |||
| Danish | Danish: [[Danish alphabet|Mon det '''h'''ar regnet?]] | pronounced as /[- te̝ ɦɑ -]/ | 'I wonder if it has rained.' | Common allophone of pronounced as //h// between vowels. See Danish phonology | ||
| Dutch; Flemish: [[Dutch orthography|'''h'''aat]] | pronounced as /[ɦaːt]/ | 'hate' | See Dutch phonology | |||
| pronounced as /[bəˈɦɑe̯nd]/ | 'behind' | Allophone of pronounced as //h// between voiced sounds. See Australian English phonology and English phonology | ||||
| pronounced as /[bɪˈɦaɪ̯nd]/ | ||||||
| pronounced as /[ˈɦɛn̪t̪]/ | 'hand' | Some speakers, only before a stressed vowel. | ||||
| Estonian | Estonian: [[Estonian alphabet|ra'''h'''a]] | pronounced as /[ˈrɑɦɑ]/ | 'money' | Allophone of pronounced as //h// between voiced sounds. See Estonian phonology and Finnish phonology | ||
| Finnish | ||||||
| French: man'''g'''er | pronounced as /[mãɦe]/ | 'to eat' | Limited to a minority of speakers. Can also be realized as a voiceless pronounced as /link/. | |||
| Hebrew | 'fast' | Occurs as an allophone of pronounced as //h// between voiced sounds. See Modern Hebrew phonology | ||||
| Hindustani | Hindi: [[Devanagari|हूँ]] / Urdu: {{Nastaliq|[[nasta'liq|ہوں]] | pronounced as /[ɦũː]/ | 'am' | See Hindustani phonology | ||
| Some speakers | Hungarian: te'''h'''át | pronounced as /[tɛɦaːt]/ | 'so' | Intervocalic allophone of pronounced as //h//. Occurs as voiceless pronounced as //h// for other speakers. See Hungarian phonology | ||
| Some speakers | 少し話して/sukoshi hanashite | pronounced as /[sɯkoɕi ɦanaɕi̥te]/ | 'speak a little bit' | |||
| Some speakers | bahan | pronounced as /[baˈɦan]/ | 'ingredients' | |||
| hóín | pronounced as /[ɦóĩ́]/ | 'introduction' | ||||
| Korean: [[Hangul|여행]] / Korean: [[Revised Romanization of Korean|yeo'''h'''aeng]] | pronounced as /[jʌɦεŋ]/ | 'travel' | Occurs as an allophone of pronounced as //h// between voiced sounds. See Korean phonology | |||
| Limburgan; Limburger; Limburgish: '''h'''art | pronounced as /[ɦɑ̽ʀ̝t]/ | 'heart' | The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect. See Maastrichtian dialect phonology | |||
| Lithuanian: '''h'''umoras | pronounced as /[ˈɦʊmɔrɐs̪]/ | 'humour' | Often pronounced instead of [ɣ]. See Lithuanian phonology | |||
| Marathi: [[Devanāgarī|'''हा'''र]] | pronounced as /[ɦaːɾ]/ | 'garland' | ||||
| Oriya: [[Odia script|'''ହ'''ଳ]]/haḷa | pronounced as /[ɦɔɭɔ]/ | 'plough' | ||||
| [[Devanāgarī|हल]] | pronounced as /[ɦʌl]/ | 'solution' | See Nepali phonology | |||
| Polish | Podhale dialect | Polish: [[Polish alphabet|'''h'''ydrant]] | pronounced as /[ˈɦɘ̟d̪rän̪t̪]/ | 'fire hydrant' | Contrasts with pronounced as /link/. Standard Polish possesses only pronounced as //x//. See Polish phonology | |
| Kresy dialect | ||||||
| Many Brazilian dialects | Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|esse '''r'''apaz]] | pronounced as /[ˈesi ɦaˈpajs]/ | 'this youth' (m.) | Allophone of pronounced as //ʁ//. pronounced as /[h, ɦ]/ are marginal sounds to many speakers, particularly out of Brazil. See Portuguese phonology and guttural R | ||
| Many speakers | Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|'''h'''ashi]] | pronounced as /[ɦɐˈʃi]/ | 'chopsticks' | |||
| Some Brazilian[6] [7] dialects | Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|me'''s'''mo]] | pronounced as /[ˈmeɦmu]/ | 'same' | Corresponds to either pronounced as //s// or pronounced as //ʃ// (depending on dialect) in the syllable coda. Might also be deleted. | ||
| Cearense dialect[8] | Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|'''g'''ente]] | pronounced as /[ˈɦẽnt͡ʃi]/ | 'people' | Debuccalized from pronounced as /[ʒ]/, pronounced as /[v]/ or pronounced as /[z]/. | ||
| Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|do'''r'''mir]] | pronounced as /[doɦˈmi(h)]/ | 'to sleep' | Before other voiced consonants, otherwise realized as pronounced as /[h]/. | |||
| Panjabi; Punjabi: [[Gurmukhi|ਹਵਾ]] / Panjabi; Punjabi: {{Nastaliq|[[Shahmukhi|ہوا]] | pronounced as /[ɦə̀ʋä̌ː]/ | 'air' | ||||
| '''h'''wa | pronounced as /[ɦwæ]/ | 'to go down' | ||||
| Romanian | Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: [[Romanian alphabet|'''h'''aină]] | pronounced as /[ˈɦajnə]/ | 'coat' | Corresponds to pronounced as /link/ in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology | ||
| Silesian | pronounced as /[ˈɦaŋɡrɨs]/ | 'gooseberry' | ||||
| Slovak | Slovak: '''h'''ora | 'mountain' | See Slovak phonology | |||
| Slovenian: '''h'''ora | pronounced as /[ˈɦɔra]/ | 'mountain' | This is a general feature of all Slovene dialects west of the Škofja Loka–Planina line. Corresponds to pronounced as /[ɡ]/ in other dialects. See Slovene phonology | |||
| Rovte dialects | ||||||
| Rosen Valley dialect | ||||||
| [[Sylheti Nagari|'''ꠢꠥ'''ꠐꠇꠤ]] | pronounced as /[ɦuʈki]/ | 'dried fish' | ||||
| Telugu: హల్లు | pronounced as /[ɦəlːu]/ | 'Consonant' | ||||
| Ukrainian | Ukrainian: [[Ukrainian alphabet|'''г'''олос]] | pronounced as /[ˈɦɔlos]/ | 'voice' | Also described as pharyngeal pronounced as /link/. See Ukrainian phonology | ||
| pronounced as /[ɦɛ˩ ɦo˦]/ | 'language' | See Northern Wu phonology | ||||
| pronounced as /[sz̩˥˩ ɦæ˧˩]/ | 'fourth day of a Western month' | |||||
| Zulu | Zulu: i'''hh'''ashi | pronounced as /[iːˈɦaːʃi]/ | 'horse' | |||
pronounced as /navigation/