Voiced glottal fricative

For consonants followed by superscript ʱ, see voiced aspirate.

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 ⟨ɦ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is h\.

Voiced glottal fricative
ɦ
IPA number	147
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɦ
Unicode (hex)	U+0266
X-SAMPA	h\
Braille
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In many languages, /ɦ/ has no inherent 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.

Northern Wu languages such as Shanghainese contrast the voiced and voiceless glottal fricatives.^[3] The two glottal fricatives pattern like plosives.^[4][5]

Features

Features of the voiced glottal fricative:

• Its phonation is breathy voiced, or murmured, which means the vocal cords are loosely vibrating, with more air escaping than in a modally voiced sound. It is sometimes referred to as a "voiced h". Strictly speaking this is incorrect, as there is no voicing.^[6]
• 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 central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans	Standard	hoekom	[ɦu.kɔm]	'why'
Azeri	Standard	möhkəm / مؤحکم	[mœːɦcæm]	'solid'
Albanian	Northern Tosk[7]	dhe menjëherë udhëtari	[ðɛ miɲɜˈɦɛɹoθˈtaɽ̞i]	'and immediately the traveller'	Occasional allophone of /h/ in connected speech.
Basque	Northeastern dialects[8]	hemen	[ɦemen]	'here'	Can be voiceless [h] instead.
Czech		hlava	[ˈɦlävä]	'head'	See Czech phonology
Danish[9]		Mon det har regnet?	[- te̝ ɦɑ -]	'I wonder if it has rained.'	Common allophone of /h/ between vowels.[9] See Danish phonology
Dutch[10]		haat	[ɦaːt]	'hate'	See Dutch phonology
English	Australian[11]	behind	[bəˈɦɑe̯nd]	'behind'	Allophone of /h/ between voiced sounds.[11][12] See Australian English phonology and English phonology
	Received Pronunciation[12]		[bɪˈɦaɪ̯nd]
	Broad South African	hand	[ˈɦɛn̪t̪]	'hand'	Some speakers, only before a stressed vowel.
Estonian		raha	[ˈrɑɦɑ]	'money'	Allophone of /h/ between voiced sounds. See Estonian phonology and Finnish phonology
Finnish
French	Quebec[13]	manger	[mãɦe]	'to eat'	Limited to a minority of speakers. Can also be realized as a voiceless [h].
Hebrew		מַהֵר‎	[mäɦe̞ʁ]ⓘ	'fast'	Occurs as an allophone of /h/ between voiced sounds. See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani		हूँ / ہوں	[ɦũː]	'am'	See Hindustani phonology
Hungarian	Some speakers	tehát	[tɛɦaːt]	'so'	Intervocalic allophone of /h/. Occurs as voiceless /h/ for other speakers. See Hungarian phonology
Japanese	Some speakers	少し話して / sukoshi hanashite[14]	[sɯkoɕi ɦanaɕi̥te]	'speak a little bit'
Indonesian	Some speakers	bahan	[baˈɦan]	'ingredient'
Kalabari[15]		hóín	[ɦóĩ́]	'introduction'
Korean		여행 / yeohaeng	[jʌɦεŋ]	'travel'	Occurs as an allophone of /h/ between voiced sounds. See Korean phonology
Limburgish[16][17]		hart	[ɦɑ̽ʀ̝t]	'heart'	The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect. See Maastrichtian dialect phonology
Lithuanian		humoras	[ˈɦʊmɔrɐs̪]	'humour'	Often pronounced instead of [ɣ]. See Lithuanian phonology
Marathi		हार	[ɦaːɾ]	'garland'
Odia		ହଳ/haḷa	[ɦɔɭɔ]	'plough'
Nepali		हल	[ɦʌl]	'solution'	See Nepali phonology
Parkari Koli		ۿُونَواڙ‎	[ɦuːnaʋaːɽ]	'desolate, deserted'
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[18][19] dialects	mesmo	[ˈmeɦmu]	'same'	Corresponds to either /s/ or /ʃ/ (depending on dialect) in the syllable coda. Might also be deleted.
	Cearense dialect[20]	gente	[ˈɦẽnt͡ʃi]	'people'	Debuccalized from [ʒ], [v] or [z].
	Mineiro dialect	dormir	[doɦˈmi(h)]	'to sleep'	Before other voiced consonants, otherwise realized as [h].
Punjabi		ਹਵਾ / ہوا	[ɦə̀ʋä̌ː]	'air'
Riffian Berber		hwa	[ɦwæ]	'to go down'
Romanian	Transylvanian dialects[21]	haină	[ˈɦajnə]	'coat'	Corresponds to [h] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Sanskrit		हस्त / hasta	[ˈɦɐs̪t̪ɐ]	'hand'	See Sanskrit phonology
Silesian		hangrys	[ˈɦaŋɡrɨs]	'gooseberry'
Slovak		hora	[ˈɦɔ̝rä]ⓘ	'mountain'	See Slovak phonology
Slovene	Littoral dialects		[ˈɦɔra]		This is a general feature of all Slovene dialects west of the Škofja Loka–Planina line. Corresponds to [ɡ] in other dialects. See Slovene phonology
	Rovte dialects
	Rosen Valley dialect
Sylheti		ꠢꠥꠐꠇꠤ / হুটকি	[ɦuʈki]	'dried fish'
Telugu		హల్లు	[ɦəlːu]	'Consonant'
Ukrainian		голос	[ˈɦɔlos]	'voice'	Also described as pharyngeal [ʕ][citation needed]. See Ukrainian phonology
Wu	Shanghainese	閒話 / ghe-gho	[ɦɛ˩ ɦo˦]	'language'	See Northern Wu phonology
	Suzhounese	四號 / sy5-ghau6	[sz̩˥˩ ɦæ˧˩]	'fourth day of a Western month'
Zulu		ihhashi	[iːˈɦaːʃi]	'horse'

See also

• Creaky-voiced glottal approximant