Voiceless pharyngeal fricative

Voiceless pharyngeal fricative
ħ
IPA Number	144
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ħ
Unicode (hex)	U+0127
X-SAMPA	X\
Braille
Image

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⟩. In the transcription of Arabic and other scripts, it is often written ⟨Ḥ⟩, ⟨ḥ⟩.

Typically characterized as a fricative in the upper pharynx, it is often 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.
• Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral 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

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).

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abaza		хIахъвы	[ħaqʷǝ]	'stone'
Abkhaz		ҳара	[ħaˈra]	'we'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe		тхьэ	<phonos file="Tħa.ogg">[tħa]</phonos>	'god'
Agul		?	[muħ]	'barn'
Arabic	Standard	حال	<phonos file="Hal.ogg">[ħaːl]</phonos>	'situation'	See Arabic phonology
	Tunisian	weħid	[wɛħːɪd]	'one'
Archi		хIал	[ħaːl]	'good'
Avar		xIебецI	[ħeˈbetsʼ]	'earwax'
Berber	Kabyle	ⴰⵃⴻⴼⴼⴰⴼ aḥeffaf احفاف	[aħəfːaf]	'hairdresser'
Chechen		xъач / ẋaç	<phonos file="Hatch.ogg">[ħatʃ]</phonos>	'plum'
English	Some speakers of Received Pronunciation	hat	[ħaʔt]	'hat'	Glottal [h] for other speakers. See English phonology
Finnish		tähti	[tæħti]	'star'	Allophone of /h/ in complementary distribution.
Galician	Some dialects	ghato	[ˈħato]	'cat'	Corresponds to /ɡ/ in other dialects. See gheada
Hebrew		חַשְׁמַל	<phonos file="Hashmal.ogg">[ħaʃˈmal]</phonos>	'electricity'	Oriental dialects only. See Modern Hebrew phonology
Kabardian		кхъухь	<phonos file="Qhoh.ogg">[q͡χʷəħ]</phonos>	'ship'
Kurdish	Some speakers	hol	<phonos file="Hol.ogg">[ħol]</phonos>	'environment'	Corresponds to /h/ in most Kurdish dialects
Maltese	Standard	wieħed	[wiħːet]	'one'
Nuu-chah-nulth		ʔaap-ḥii	[ʔaːpˈħiː]	'friendly'
Sioux	Nakota	[haħdanahã]		'yesterday'
Somali		xood	<phonos file="Hood.ogg">[ħoːd]</phonos>	'cane'	See Somali phonology
Syriac	Chaldean Neo-Aramaic	ܡܫܝܼܚܵܐ	[mʃiːħa]	'christ'	Corresponds with [x] in other Syriac varieties such as Assyrian Neo-Aramaic.
Ukrainian		нігті	[ˈnʲiħtʲi]	'fingernails'	Allophone of /ʕ/ (which may be transcribed /ɦ/) before voiceless consonants; can be fronted to [x] in some "weak positions". See Ukrainian phonology

See also

• Pharyngeal fricative
• Heth
• Index of phonetics articles
• Guttural