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, Hebrew and other scripts, it is often written ⟨Ḥ⟩, ⟨ḥ⟩.
| Voiceless pharyngeal fricative | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ħ | |||
| IPA Number | 144 | ||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ħ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0127 | ||
| X-SAMPA | X\ | ||
| Braille |   | ||
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| Audio sample | |||
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source · help | |||
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Typically characterized as a fricative in the upper pharynx, it is often characterized as 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.
- It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
- 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/kh'akh"vy | [ħaqʷə] | 'stone' | ||
| Abkhaz | ҳара/khara | [ħaˈra] | 'we' | See Abkhaz phonology | |
| Adyghe | тхьэ/tkh'ė |  [tħa] | 'god' | ||
| Agul | мухI/mukh' | [muħ] | 'barn' | ||
| Arabic[2] | حال/ḥal | [ħaːl] | 'situation' | See Arabic phonology | |
| Archi | хIал/kh'al | [ħal] | 'state' | ||
| Assyrian/Syriac | Western | ܡܫܝܚܐ/mšīho | [mʃiːħo] | 'Christ' | Corresponds with [x] in other Syriac varieties such as Eastern. |
| Avar | xIебецI/kh'ebets' | [ħeˈbetsʼ] | 'earwax' | ||
| Azerbaijani | əhdaş | [æħd̪ɑʃ] | 'instrument' | ||
| Chechen | xьач / ẋaç | [ħatʃ] | 'plum' | ||
| English | Some speakers, mostly of Received Pronunciation[3] | hat | [ħæʔt] | 'hat' | Glottal [h] for other speakers.[3] See English phonology |
| Galician[4] | Some dialects | gato | [ˈħatʊ] | 'cat' | Corresponds to /ɡ/ in other dialects. See gheada |
| Hebrew | חַשְׁמַל/chashemal | [ħaʃˈmal] | 'electricity' | Oriental dialects only. See Modern Hebrew phonology | |
| Jarawa | हवावा/hwꝍwꝍ | [ħʷəwə] | 'wild boar' | ||
| Kabardian | кхъухь/kkh"ukh' | [q͡χʷəħ] | 'ship' | ||
| Kabyle | ⴰⵃⴻⴼⴼⴰⴼ aḥeffaf احفاف | [aħəfːaf] | 'hairdresser' | ||
| Kurdish | Some speakers | ḧol | [ħol] | 'environment' | Corresponds to /h/ in most Kurdish dialects |
| Maltese | Standard | wieħed | [wiħːet] | 'one' | |
| Nuu-chah-nulth | ʔaap-ḥii | [ʔaːpˈħiː] | 'friendly' | ||
| Sioux | Nakota | haxdanahâ | [haħdanahã] | 'yesterday' | |
| Somali | xood | [ħoːd] | 'cane' | See Somali phonology | |
| Ukrainian[5] | нігті/nigti | [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 | |
Notes
- Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:167–168)
- Watson (2002:19)
- Collins & Mees (2003), p. 148.
- Regueira (1996:120)
- Danyenko & Vakulenko (1995:12)
References
- Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2003) [First published 1981], The Phonetics of English and Dutch (5th ed.), Leiden: Brill Publishers, ISBN 9004103406
- Danyenko, Andrii; Vakulenko, Serhii (1995), Ukrainian, Lincom Europa, ISBN 9783929075083
- Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996), The sounds of the World's Languages, Oxford: Blackwell, ISBN 0-631-19815-6
- Regueira, Xose (1996). "Galician". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 26 (2): 119–122. doi:10.1017/s0025100300006162.
- Watson, Janet (2002), The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, New York: Oxford University Press
External links
- List of languages with [ħ] on PHOIBLE
