Voiceless glottal fricative
| Voiceless glottal fricative | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| h | |||
| IPA Number | 146 | ||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | h | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0068 | ||
| X-SAMPA | h | ||
| |||
The voiceless glottal transition, commonly called a "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 ⟨h⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is h.
Although [h] has been described as a voiceless vowel, because in many languages it lacks the place and manner of articulation of a prototypical consonant, it also lacks the height and backness of a prototypical vowel:
[h and ɦ] have been described as voiceless or breathy voiced counterparts of the vowels that follow them [but] the shape of the vocal tract […] is often simply that of the surrounding sounds. […] Accordingly, in such cases it is more appropriate to regard h and ɦ as segments that have only a laryngeal specification, and are unmarked for all other features. There are other languages [such as Hebrew and Arabic] which show a more definite displacement of the formant frequencies for h, suggesting it has a [glottal] constriction associated with its production.[1]
Features
Features of the "voiceless glottal fricative":
- 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 in the languages they are familiar with, many phoneticians no longer consider [h] to be a fricative. However, the term "fricative" is generally retained for historical reasons.
- It may have a glottal place of articulation. However, it may have no fricative articulation, in which case the term 'glottal' only refers to the nature of its phonation, and does not describe the location of the stricture nor the turbulence. 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 [h], and [h] has sometimes been presented as a voiceless vowel, having the place of articulation of these surrounding vowels.
- 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 intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic | Standard[2] | هار | [ˈhaːra] | 'mountain' | See Arabic phonology |
| Armenian | հայերեն | 'Armenian' | |||
| Asturian | [[[Asturian alphabet|guaḥe]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [ɣwahe] | 'child' | Mainly present in eastern dialects | |
| Avar | гьа | [ha] | 'oath' | ||
| Basque | North-Eastern dialects | [[[Latin alphabet|hirur]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [hiɾur] | 'three' | |
| Chechen | хIара/hara | [hɑrɐ] | 'this' | ||
| Chinese | Cantonese | [[[Chinese characters|河]]] Error: {{Lang}}: unrecognized language tag: zh-cmn-Hani (help)/[[[Jyutping|ho4]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [hɔː] | 'river' | See Cantonese phonology |
| Coptic | ϩρα | [ehra] | 'face' | ||
| Dutch | Standard | [[[Dutch orthography|Eindhout]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [ˈɛi̯nthʌu̯t] | 'Eindhout' (Dutch city) | Allophone of [ɦ] after voiceless consonants. See Dutch phonology |
| Friesland | [[[Dutch orthography|haat]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [haːt] | 'hate' | Allophone of /ɦ/ after voiceless consonants and word-initially. | |
| Holland | Some dialects. Corresponds to [ɦ] in standard Dutch. | ||||
| Limburg | |||||
| English | [[[English orthography|high]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [ˈhaɪ] | 'high' | See English phonology | |
| Faroese | [[[Latin alphabet|hon]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [hoːn] | 'she' | ||
| Finnish | [[[Finnish alphabet|hammas]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [hɑmːɑs] | 'tooth' | See Finnish phonology | |
| Georgian[3] | ჰავა | [hɑvɑ] | 'climate' | ||
| German[4] | [[[German orthography|Hass]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [has] | 'hatred' | See German phonology | |
| Hawaiian[5] | [[[Hawaiian alphabet|haka]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [haka] | 'shelf' | See Hawaiian phonology | |
| Hebrew | הר | [haʁ] | 'mountain' | See Modern Hebrew phonology | |
| Hindi | Standard[2] | हम | [ˈhəm] | 'we' | See Hindi-Urdu phonology |
| Hmong | [[[Romanized Popular Alphabet|hawm]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [haɨ̰] | 'to honor' | ||
| Hungarian | [[[Hungarian orthography|helyes]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [hɛjɛʃ] | 'right' | See Hungarian phonology | |
| Japanese | すはだ/[[[Romanization of Japanese|suhada]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [sɯhada] | 'bare skin' | See Japanese phonology | |
| Korean | [[[Hangul|호랑이]]] Error: {{Lang}}: unrecognized script: kang for code: ko (help)/[[[Revised Romanization of Korean|horang-i]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [hoɾaŋi] | 'tiger' | See Korean phonology | |
| Kabardian | тхылъхэ | [tχɪɬhɑ] | 'books' | ||
| Lao | ຫ້າ | [haː˧˩] | 'five' | ||
| Leonese | [[[Latin alphabet|guaje]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [wahe] | 'boy' | ||
| Malay | [[[Malay alphabet|hari]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [hari] | 'day' | ||
| Navajo | [[[Latin alphabet|hastiin]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [hàsd̥ìːn] | |||
| Norwegian | [[[Norwegian alphabet|hatt]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [hɑtː] | 'hat' | See Norwegian phonology | |
| Pashto | هو | [ho] | 'yes' | ||
| Persian | هفت | [hæft] | 'seven' | See Persian phonology | |
| Pirahã | [[[Latin alphabet|hi]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [hì] | 'he' | ||
| Portuguese | Brazilian[6] | [[[Latin alphabet|carro]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [ˈkahʊ] | 'car' | Also realized as a velar or uvular fricative. See Portuguese phonology |
| Romanian | [[[Romanian alphabet|hăţ]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [həts] | 'bridle' | See Romanian phonology | |
| Spanish[7] | Many dialects | [[[Spanish orthography|obispo]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [o̞ˈβihpo̞] | 'bishop' | Allophone of /s/. See Spanish phonology |
| Some dialects | [[[Spanish orthography|jaca]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [ˈhaka] | 'pony' | corresponds to /x/ in other dialects. | |
| Thai | [[[Thai script|ห้า]]] Error: {{Lang}}: script: thai not supported for code: th (help) | [haː˥˩] | 'five' | ||
| Turkish | halı | [häˈɫɯ] | 'carpet' | See Turkish phonology | |
| Ubykh | [dwaha] | 'prayer' | See Ubykh phonology | ||
| Urdu | Standard[2] | ہم | [ˈhəm] | 'we' | See Hindi-Urdu phonology |
| Vietnamese[8] | [[[Vietnamese alphabet|hiểu]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [hjew˧˩˧] | 'understand' | See Vietnamese phonology | |
| Welsh | haul | [ˈhaɨl] | 'sun' | See Welsh orthography | |
| West Frisian | [[[Latin alphabet|hoeke]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [hukə] | 'corner' | ||
| Yi | ꉐ/[[[Yi script|hxa]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [ha˧] | 'hundred' | ||
See also
References
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:325–326)
- ^ a b c Thelwall (1990:38)
- ^ Shosted & Chikovani (2006:255)
- ^ Kohler (1999:86–87)
- ^ Ladefoged (2005:139)
- ^ Barbosa & Albano (2004:5–6)
- ^ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:258)
- ^ Thompson (1959:458–461)
Bibliography
- Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (2): 227–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756
- Kohler, Klaus (1999), "German", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association:A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 86–89, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
- Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.), Blackwell
- Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
- Laufer, Asher (1991), "Phonetic Representation: Glottal Fricatives", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 21 (2): 91–93
- Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
- Shosted, Ryan K.; Vakhtang, Chikovani (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (2): 255–264, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659
- Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 20 (2): 37–41
- Thompson, Laurence (1959), "Saigon phonemics", Language, 35 (3): 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232
