| Above: | Voiceless glottal fricative |
| Ipa Symbol: | h |
| Ipa Symbol2: | h͈ |
| Ipa Number: | 146 |
| Decimal1: | 104 |
| X-Sampa: | h |
| Braille: | h |
| Imagefile: | IPA Unicode 0x0068.svg |
| Above: | Voiceless glottal phonation |
| Ipa Symbol: | h |
| Braille: | h |
| Sound: | no |
| Imagefile: | IPA Unicode 0x0068.svg |
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 (IPA|h). However, pronounced as /[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:
An effort undertaken at the Kiel Convention in 1989 attempted to move glottal fricatives, both voiceless and voiced, to approximants. The fricative may be represented with the extIPA diacritic for strong articulation, (IPA|h͈).
The Shanghainese language, among others, contrasts voiced and voiceless glottal fricatives.[1]
Features of the "voiceless glottal fricative":
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shapsug | Adyghe; Adygei: [[Cyrillic script|'''х'''ыгь]]/khyg' | pronounced as /[həɡʲ]/ | 'now' | Corresponds to pronounced as /[x]/ in other dialects. | ||
| Albanian: [[Albanian alphabet|'''h'''ire]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈhiɾɛ]/ | 'the graces' | ||||
| Aleut | hanix̂ | pronounced as /[ˈhaniχ]/ | 'lake' | |||
| Arabic: [[Arabic alphabet|هائل]]|rtl=yes/haa'il | pronounced as /[ˈhaːʔɪl]/ | 'enormous' | See Arabic phonology | |||
| ܗܝܡܢܘܬܐ hèmanūta | pronounced as /[heːmaːnuːta]/ | 'faith' | ||||
| ܗܪܟܗ harcë | pronounced as /[hεrcɪ]/ | 'here' | ||||
| Armenian: [[Armenian alphabet|'''հ'''այերեն]]/hayeren | 'Armenian language' | |||||
| Asturian | South-central dialects | ḥuerza | pronounced as /[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] | ||
| Avaric: [[Cyrillic script|'''гь'''а]] | pronounced as /[ha]/ | 'oath' | ||||
| pronounced as /[hɪn]/ | 'chicken coop' | |||||
| North-Eastern dialects | Basque: '''h'''irur|italic=yes | pronounced as /[hiɾur]/ | 'three' | Can be voiced pronounced as /link/ instead. | ||
| Bengali: [[Bengali alphabet|'''হা'''ওয়া]]/haoua | pronounced as /[hao̯a]/ | 'wind' | ||||
| Berber languages: a'''h'''erkus|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ahərkus]/ | 'shoe' | ||||
| Cantabrian | muḥer | [muˈheɾ] | 'woman' | F- becomes [h]. In most dialects, -LJ- and -C'L- too. May be also realized as pronounced as /[ħ, ʕ, ɦ, x, χ]/. | ||
| Catalan; Valencian: [[Catalan orthography|e'''h'''em]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[eˈhẽm]/ | 'ha!' | Found in loanwords and interjections. See Catalan phonology | |||
| Chechen: [[Cyrillic script|'''хӏ'''ара]] / Chechen: '''h'''ara | pronounced as /[hɑrɐ]/ | 'this' | ||||
| [[Chinese characters|海]] / [[Yale romanization of Cantonese|'''h'''ói]] | 'sea' | See Cantonese phonology | ||||
| [[Chinese characters|海]] / [[Pinyin|'''h'''ǎi]] | pronounced as /[haɪ̯˨˩˦]/ | A velar fricative pronounced as /link/ for Standard Chinese. See Standard Chinese phonology | ||||
| Danish: [[Danish alphabet|'''h'''us]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈhuːˀs]/ | 'house' | Often voiced pronounced as /link/ when between vowels. See Danish phonology | |||
| pronounced as /[haɪ̯]/ | 'high' | See English phonology and H-dropping | ||||
| Esperanto: [[Esperanto orthography|'''h'''ejmo]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈhejmo]/ | 'home' | See Esperanto phonology | |||
| Bre'''s'''a | pronounced as /[ˈbrɛha]/ | 'Brescia' | Corresponds to /s/ in other varieties. | |||
| Estonian: [[Estonian alphabet|'''h'''ammas]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈhɑmˑɑs]/ | 'tooth' | See Estonian phonology | |||
| Faroese: '''h'''on|italic=yes | pronounced as /[hoːn]/ | 'she' | ||||
| Finnish: [[Finnish alphabet|'''h'''ammas]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈhɑmːɑs]/ | 'tooth' | See Finnish phonology | |||
| French | French: [[French alphabet|'''h'''otte]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[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 pronounced as /[ɦ, ʕ, x, χ, ʁ, ɡʰ]/. See gheada. | |
| Georgian: [[Georgian alphabet|'''ჰ'''ავა]]/hava | pronounced as /[hɑvɑ]/ | 'climate' | ||||
| German: [[German orthography|'''H'''ass]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[has]/ | 'hatred' | ||||
| Greek, Modern (1453-);: [[Greek alphabet|μα'''χ'''αζί]]/mahazi | pronounced as /[mahaˈzi]/ | 'shop' | Allophone of pronounced as //x// before pronounced as //a//. | |||
| Hawaiian: [[Hawaiian alphabet|'''h'''aka]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈhɐkə]/ | 'shelf' | See Hawaiian phonology | |||
| Hebrew: [[Hebrew alphabet|הַר]]|rtl=yes/har | pronounced as /[häʁ̞]/ | 'mountain' | See Modern Hebrew phonology | |||
| Standard | Hindi: [[Devanagri|हम]]/ham | pronounced as /[ˈhəm]/ | 'we' | See Hindustani phonology | ||
| Hmong; Mong: [[Romanized Popular Alphabet|'''h'''awm]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[haɨ̰]/ | 'to honor' | ||||
| Hungarian: [[Hungarian orthography|'''h'''elyes]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈhɛjɛʃ]/ | 'right' | See Hungarian phonology | |||
| pronounced as /[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: [[Italian orthography|i '''c'''apitani]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[iˌhäɸiˈθäːni]/ | 'the captains' | Intervocalic allophone of pronounced as //k//. See Italian phonology | |||
| Japanese: [[Kana|すはだ]] / Japanese: [[Romanization of Japanese|su'''h'''ada]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[sɨᵝhada]/ | 'bare skin' | See Japanese phonology | |||
| ꦩꦲ/Maha | pronounced as /[mɔhɔ]/ | The expert, Almighty one | ||||
| Kabardian: [[Cyrillic script|тхылъ'''х'''э]]/ tkhyl"khė | pronounced as /[tχɪɬhɑ]/ | 'books' | ||||
| шаһар / şahar | pronounced as /[ʃahɑr]/ | 'city' | ||||
| Central Khmer: [[Khmer script|ហឹរ]] / Central Khmer: [[Khmer script|ចាស់]] / | pronounced as /[hər]/ pronounced as /[cah]/ | 'spicy' 'old' | See Khmer phonology | |||
| [[Lakota language|ho]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ho]/ | 'voice' | ||||
| Lao: [[Lao script|ຫ້າ]]/haa | pronounced as /[haː˧˩]/ | 'five' | ||||
| Asturian; Bable; Leonese; Asturleonese: gua'''j'''e|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈwahe̞]/ | 'boy' | ||||
| Lezghian: [[Cyrillic script|'''гь'''ек]]/hek | pronounced as /[hek]/ | 'glue' | ||||
| Luxembourgish; Letzeburgesch: '''h'''ei|italic=yes | pronounced as /[hɑ̝ɪ̯]/ | 'here' | See Luxembourgish phonology | |||
| Malay: [[Malay alphabet|'''h'''ari]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[hari]/ | 'day' | ||||
| '''h'''učekniš|italic=yes | pronounced as /[hut͡ʃɛkniʃ]/ | 'dog' | ||||
| Navajo; Navaho: '''h'''astiin | pronounced as /[hàsd̥ìːn]/ | 'mister' | ||||
| Norwegian: [[Norwegian alphabet|'''h'''att]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[hɑtː]/ | 'hat' | See Norwegian phonology | |||
| Pushto; Pashto: [[Nasta'liq script|هو]]|rtl=yes/ho | pronounced as /[ho]/ | 'yes' | ||||
| Persian: [[Persian alphabet|هفت]]|rtl=yes/haft | pronounced as /[hæft]/ | 'seven' | See Persian phonology | |||
| '''h'''i|italic=yes | pronounced as /[hì]/ | 'he' | ||||
| Many Brazilian dialects | Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|ma'''rr'''eta]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[maˈhetɐ]/ | 'sledgehammer' | Allophone of pronounced as //ʁ//. pronounced as /[h, ɦ]/ are marginal sounds to many speakers, particularly out of Brazil. See Portuguese phonology. | ||
| Most dialects | Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|'''H'''onda]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈhõ̞dɐ]/ | 'Honda' | |||
| Minas Gerais (mountain dialect) | Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|a'''r'''te]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈahtʃ]/ | 'art' | |||
| Colloquial Brazilian[2] [3] | Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|chuvi'''s'''co]] | pronounced as /[ɕuˈvihku]/ | 'drizzle' | Corresponds to either pronounced as //s// or pronounced as //ʃ// (depending on dialect) in the syllable coda. Might also be deleted. | ||
| Quechua | Standard | hatun | pronounced as /[hatuŋ]/ | 'big' | The elderly still maintain the pronunciation of pronounced as //h//, but the young changed the pronunciation to pronounced as //x//.See Quechuan phonology | |
| Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: [[Romanian alphabet|'''h'''ăț]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[həts]/ | 'bridle' | See Romanian phonology | |||
| Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: [[Scottish Gaelic orthography|ro-'''sh'''eòl]] | in Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic pronounced as /ɾɔˈhɔːɫ/ | 'topsail'[4] | Lenited form of /t/, /s/, see Scottish Gaelic phonology | |||
| [[Gaj's Latin alphabet|'''h'''melj]] | pronounced as /[hmê̞ʎ̟]/ | 'hops' | Allophone of pronounced as //x// when it is initial in a consonant cluster. See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |||
| Andalusian and Extremaduran Spanish | Spanish; Castilian: [[Spanish orthography|'''h'''igo]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈhiɣo̞]/ | 'fig' | Corresponds to Old Spanish /h/, which was developed from Latin /f/ but muted in other dialects. | ||
| Many dialects | Spanish; Castilian: [[Spanish orthography|obi'''s'''po]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[o̞ˈβ̞ihpo̞]/ | 'bishop' | Allophone of pronounced as //s// at the end of a syllable. See Spanish phonology | ||
| Some dialects | Spanish; Castilian: [[Spanish orthography|'''j'''aca]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈhaka]/ | 'pony' | Corresponds to pronounced as //x// in other dialects. | ||
| Swedish | Northern Sami: [[Swedish alphabet|'''h'''att]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈhatː]/ | 'hat' | See Swedish phonology | ||
| [[Sylheti Nagari|ꠢꠣꠝꠥꠇ]]/hamukh | pronounced as /[hamux]/ | 'snail' | ||||
| Tagalog: [[Filipino orthography|ta'''h'''imik]] | pronounced as /[tɐˈhimɪk]/ | 'quiet' | See Tagalog phonology | |||
| Tatar: [[Tatar alphabet|'''һ'''ава/'''h'''awa]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[hawa]/ | 'air' | See Tatar phonology | |||
| Telugu: అం'''తః'''పురం | pronounced as /[ant̪ahpuram]/ | 'Women's quarters'/ 'Harem' | See Visarga | |||
| Thai: [[Thai script|ห้า]]/haa | pronounced as /[haː˥˩]/ | 'five' | ||||
| Turkish: [[Turkish alphabet|'''h'''alı]] | pronounced as /[häˈɫɯ]/ | 'carpet' | See Turkish phonology | |||
| дуаха | [dwaha] | 'prayer' | See Ubykh phonology | |||
| Ukrainian | Ukrainian: [[Ukrainian alphabet|кі'''г'''ті]] | pronounced as /[ˈkiht⁽ʲ⁾i]/ | 'claws' | Sometimes when pronounced as /link/ is devoiced. See Ukrainian phonology. | ||
| Standard | Urdu: [[Nasta'liq|ہم]]|rtl=yes/ham | pronounced as /[ˈhəm]/ | 'we' | See Hindi-Urdu phonology | ||
| Vietnamese | Vietnamese: [[Vietnamese alphabet|'''h'''iểu]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[hjew˧˩˧]/ | 'understand' | See Vietnamese phonology | ||
| Welsh: [[Welsh orthography|'''h'''aul]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈhaɨl]/ | 'sun' | See Welsh orthography | |||
| West Frisian | Western Frisian: '''h'''oeke|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈhukə]/ | 'corner' | |||
| Sichuan Yi; Nuosu: [[Yi script|ꉐ]] / Sichuan Yi; Nuosu: [[Yi script|'''hx'''a]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ha˧]/ | 'hundred' | ||||
pronounced as /navigation/