Voiced glottal fricative

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Voiced glottal fricative
ɦ
IPA number147
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ɦ
Unicode (hex)U+0266
X-SAMPAh\
Kirshenbaumh<?>
Braille⠦ (braille pattern dots-236)⠓ (braille pattern dots-125)
Listen

The breathy-voiced glottal transition, commonly called a voiced glottal fricative, 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 ⟨ɦ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is h\.

In many languages, [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.[1] It may have real glottal constriction in a number of languages (such as Finnish[2]), making it a fricative.

Lamé contrasts voiceless and voiced glottal fricatives.[3]

Features[edit]

Features of the voiced glottal fricative:

  • Its phonation type is breathy voiced, or murmured, which means the vocal cords are loosely vibrating, with more air escaping than in a modally voiced sound.
  • 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, most phoneticians no longer consider [ɦ] to be a fricative. True fricatives may have a murmured phonation in addition to producing friction elsewhere. However, the term "fricative" is generally retained for the historical reasons.
  • It may have a glottal place of articulation. However, it may have no fricative articulation, making the term glottal mean that it is articulated by the vocal folds, but this is the nature of its phonation rather than a separate articulation. 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 [ɦ], and accordingly [ɦ] has only the place of articulation of these surrounding vowels.
  • 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 centrallateral dichotomy does not apply.
  • The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence[edit]

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Basque Northeastern dialects[4] hemen [ɦemen] 'here' Can be voiceless [h] instead.
Chinese Wu 閒話 [ɦɛɦʊ] 'language'
Czech hlava [ˈɦlava] 'head' See Czech phonology
Danish[3] Mon det har regnet? [- d̥e̝ ɦɑ -] 'I wonder if it has rained.' Common allophone of /h/ between vowels.[3] See Danish phonology
Dutch[5] haat [ɦaːt] 'hate' See Dutch phonology
English Australian[6] behind [bəˈɦɑe̯nd] 'behind' Allophone of /h/ between voiced sounds.[6][7] See Australian English phonology and English phonology
Received Pronunciation[7] [bɪˈɦaɪ̯nd]
Broad South African hand [ˈɦɛn̪t̪] 'hand' Some speakers, only before a stressed vowel.
Finnish raha [rɑɦɑ] 'money' Allophone of /h/ between voiced sounds. See Finnish phonology
French Quebec French[8] manger [mãɦe] 'to eat' Limited to a minority of speakers. Can also be realized as a voiceless [h].
Hebrew מַהֵר About this sound[mäɦe̞r]  'fast' See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani हूँ / ہوں [ɦu᷉] 'am' See Hindustani phonology
Kalabari[9] hóín [ɦóĩ́] 'introduction'
Korean 여행 / yeohaeng [jʌɦεŋ] 'travel' Occurs as an allophone of /h/ between voiced sounds. See Korean phonology
Limburgish Some dialects[10][11] hart [ɦɑ̽ʀ̝t] 'heart' Voiceless [h] in other dialects. The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect.
Lithuanian humoras [ˈɦʊmɔrɐs̪] 'humour' Often pronounced instead of [ɣ]. See Lithuanian phonology
Polish Podhale dialect hydrant [ˈɦɘ̟d̪rän̪t̪] 'fire hydrant' Contrasts with /x/. Standard Polish possesses only /x/. See Polish phonology
Kresy dialect
Portuguese Many Brazilian dialects esse rapaz [ˈesi ɦaˈpajs] 'this youth' (m.) Allophone of /ʁ/. [h, ɦ] are marginal sounds to many speakers, particularly out of Brazil. See Portuguese phonology and guttural R
Many speakers hashi [ɦɐˈʃi] 'chopsticks'
Some Brazilian[12][13] dialects mesmo [ˈmeɦmu] 'same' Corresponds to either /s/ or /ʃ/ (depending on dialect) in the syllable coda. Might also be deleted.
Cearense dialect[14] gente [ˈɦẽ.t͡ʃi] 'people' In cearense dialect, there is debuccalization of phonemes [ʒ], [v] and [z] to [ɦ].
Punjabi ਹਵਾ [ɦə̀ʋä̌ː] 'air'
Romanian Transylvanian dialects[15] haină [ˈɦainə] 'coat' Corresponds to [h] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Silesian hangrys [ˈɦaŋɡrɨs] 'gooseberry'
Slovak hora About this sound[ˈɦɔ̝rä]  'mountain'
Slovene Littoral dialects hora [ˈɦɔra] 'mountain' This is a general feature of all Slovene dialects west of the Škofja LokaPlanina line. Corresponds to [ɡ] in other dialects.
Rovte dialects
Sylheti ꠢꠥꠐꠇꠤ [ɦuʈki] 'dried fish'
Ukrainian голос [ˈɦɔlɔs] 'voice' Also described as [ʕ]. See Ukrainian phonology
Zulu ihhashi [iːˈɦaːʃi] 'horse'

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:325–326)
  2. ^ Laufer (1991:91)
  3. ^ a b c Grønnum (2005:125)
  4. ^ Hualde & Ortiz de Urbina (2003:24)
  5. ^ Gussenhoven (1992:45)
  6. ^ a b Cox & Fletcher (2017:159)
  7. ^ a b Roach (2004:241)
  8. ^ April (2007)
  9. ^ Harry (2003:113)
  10. ^ Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999:155)
  11. ^ Verhoeven (2007:219)
  12. ^ (in Portuguese) Pará Federal University – The pronunciation of /s/ and its variations across Bragança municipality's Portuguese
  13. ^ (in Portuguese) Rio de Janeiro Federal University – The variation of post-vocallic /S/ in the speech of Petrópolis, Itaperuna and Paraty
  14. ^ "A NEUTRALIZAÇÃO DOS FONEMAS / v – z - Z / NO FALAR DE FORTALEZA" (PDF). profala.ufc.br. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
  15. ^ Pop (1938), p. 30.

References[edit]