Voiceless pharyngeal fricative

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⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is X\. In the transcription of Arabic, Berber (and other Afro-Asiatic languages) as well as a few other scripts, it is often written ⟨Ḥ⟩, ⟨ḥ⟩.

Voiceless pharyngeal fricative
ħ
IPA Number144
Audio sample
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ħ
Unicode (hex)U+0127
X-SAMPAX\
Braille⠖ (braille pattern dots-235)⠓ (braille pattern dots-125)

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

Features

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Features of the voiceless pharyngeal fricative:

Occurrence

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This sound is the most commonly cited realization of the Semitic letter hēth, which occurs in all dialects of Arabic, Classical Syriac, Western Neo-Aramaic, Central Neo-Aramaic, Ge'ez, Tigre, Tigrinya as well as Biblical, Mishnaic and Mizrahi Hebrew. It has also been reconstructed as appearing in Ancient Egyptian, a related Afro-Asiatic language. Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Ashkenazi Hebrew and most speakers of Modern Hebrew have 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/kh'akh"vy [ħaqʷə] 'stone'
Abkhaz ҳара/khara [ħaˈra] 'we' See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe тхьэ/tkh'ė/تحە [tħa] 'god'
Agul мухI/mukh' [muħ] 'barn'
Amis[2] tuduh [tuɮuħ] 'burn, roast' Word-final allophone of /ʜ/.
Arabic[3] ح‍ال/al [ħaːl] 'situation' See Arabic phonology
Essaouira[4] شلوح (šlū) [ʃlɵːħ] 'chleuh'
Archi хIал/kh'al [ħal] 'state'
Central Neo-Aramaic Turoyo ܡܫܝܚܐ (mšìo) [mʃiːħɔ] 'Christ' Corresponds with [x] in most other dialects.
Atayal hiyan [ħijan] 'in/at/on him/her/it'
Avar xIебецI/kh'ebets'/حېبېض [ħeˈbetsʼ] 'earwax'
Azerbaijani əhdaş [æħd̪ɑʃ] 'instrument'
Chechen ач//حـاچ [ħatʃ] 'plum'
English Some speakers, mostly of Received Pronunciation[5] horrible [ħɒɹɪbəl] 'horrible' Glottal [h] for other speakers.[5] See English phonology
French[6] Some speakers faire [feː(ă)ħ] 'to do, to make'
Galician[7] Some dialects gato [ˈħatʊ] 'cat' Corresponds to /ɡ/ in other dialects. See Galician phonology and gheada
Hebrew Mizrahi חַשְׁמַל/ašmal [ħaʃˈmal] 'electricity' Merged with [χ] for most modern speakers. See Modern Hebrew phonology.
Temani אֶחָדֿ/aoḏ [æˈħɔð] 'one' Yemenite pronunciation of the letter chet. Merged with /χ/ in most other dialects. See Yemenite Hebrew
Judaeo-Spanish Haketia aketía [ħakeˈti.a] 'Haketia' Borrowed from Arabic and Hebrew
Kabardian кхъухь/ꝗvɦ/ٯّوح [q͡χʷəħ] 'ship'
Kabyle ⴻⴼⴼⴰⴼ/aeffaf/احـفاف [aħəfːaf] 'hairdresser'
Kullui [biːħ] 'twenty' /ħ/ historically derives from /s/ and occurs word-finally[8]
Kurdish Most speakers ol [ħol] 'environment' Corresponds to /h/ in some Kurdish dialects
Maltese Standard wieħed [wiːħet] 'one'
Nuu-chah-nulth ʔaap-ii [ʔaːpˈħiː] 'friendly'
Sioux Nakota haxdanahâ [haħdanahã] 'yesterday'
Somali xood/حٗـود/𐒄𐒝𐒆 [ħoːd] 'cane' See Somali phonology
Tarifit emm/ [ħem] 'goodbye'
Ukrainian[9] нігті/nihti [ˈnʲiħtʲi] 'fingernails' Allophone of /ʕ/ (which may be transcribed /ɦ/) before voiceless consonants;[9] can be fronted to [x] in some "weak positions".[9] See Ukrainian phonology

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:167–168)
  2. ^ Maddieson, Ian; Wright, Richard (October 1995). "The Vowels and Consonants of Amis — A Preliminary Phonetic Report" (PDF). Fieldwork Studies of Targeted Languages III. UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics Volume 91. pp. 45–65.
  3. ^ Watson (2002:19)
  4. ^ Francisco (2019), p. 89.
  5. ^ a b Collins & Mees (2003), p. 148.
  6. ^ Mager, Irene (1974). A critical analysis of the teaching of French phonology (Thesis). OCLC 9841438. ProQuest 193965929.
  7. ^ Regueira (1996:120)
  8. ^ Thakur 1975, p. 181.
  9. ^ a b c Danyenko & Vakulenko (1995:12)

References

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