View source for Heng (letter)

{{distinguish| text=the [[Cyrillic]] letter [[Shha with hook]]}}
{{Infobox grapheme
|name=Heng
|letter=Ꜧ ꜧ
|variations=
|image2= Latin letter Heng (second variant of capital form).svg
|imagealt= Capital and lowercase letter Heng
|image= Latin letter Heng.svg
|script=[[Latin script]]
|type=[[Alphabet]]
|typedesc=ic
|language=[[Unified Northern Alphabet]]
|phonemes=
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'''Heng''' is a letter of the [[Latin alphabet]], originating as a [[typographic ligature]] of ''[[h]]'' and ''[[ŋ]]''. It is used for a voiceless ''y''-like sound,{{clarify|date=May 2024}} such as in [[Dania transcription]] of the Danish language.

Heng was used word-finally in early transcriptions of [[Mayan languages]], where it may have represented a [[uvular consonant|uvular]] [[fricative consonant|fricative]].

It is sometimes used to write [[Judeo-Tat]].{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

Heng has been occasionally used by [[phonologist]]s to represent a jocular [[phoneme]] in [[English language|English]], which includes both {{IPA|[h]}} and {{IPA|[ŋ]}} as its [[allophone]]s, to illustrate the limited usefulness of [[minimal pair]]s to distinguish phonemes. {{IPA|/h/}} and {{IPA|/ŋ/}} are separate phonemes in English, even though no minimal pair for them exists due to their [[complementary distribution]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Hornsby |first=David |year=2014 |title=Linguistics: A Complete Introduction: Teach Yourself |publisher=John Murray Press |isbn=9781444180343 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wa6KAAAAQBAJ&dq=heng+phoneme&pg=PT116}}</ref>

Heng is also used in [[Bantu languages|Bantu]] linguistics to indicate a [[voiced alveolar lateral fricative]] ({{IPA|[ɮ]}}).<ref>{{cite web|last=Wells|first=John|author-link=John C. Wells|date=3 November 2006|url=http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/blog0611a.htm|title=The symbol {{IPA|ɮ|cat=no}}|work=John Wells’s phonetic blog|publisher=Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London|access-date=1 February 2018}}</ref>

Both {{unichar|a726|LATIN CAPITAL LETTER HENG|html=}} and {{unichar|a727|LATIN SMALL LETTER HENG|html=}} are encoded in Unicode block [[Latin Extended-D]]; they were added with Unicode version 5.1 in April 2008.

==Transcription==
A variant form, {{unichar|0267|LATIN SMALL LETTER HENG WITH HOOK|nlink=ɧ}}, is encoded as part of the [[IPA Extensions|IPA <span lang="english" dir="rtl">Extensions</span>]] Block. It is used to represent the [[voiceless palatal-velar fricative]] in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]].
{{unichar|10797|MODIFIER LETTER SMALL HENG WITH HOOK}} is used as a [[International Phonetic Alphabet#Superscript IPA|superscript IPA letter]].<ref name="L220252">{{Cite web|title=L2/20-252R: Unicode request for IPA modifier-letters (a), pulmonic|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20252r-mod-ipa-a.pdf|date=2020-11-08|first1=Kirk|last1=Miller|first2=Michael|last2=Ashby}}</ref>

==Teuthonista==

The [[Teuthonista]] phonetic transcription system uses both heng and {{unichar|AB5C|MODIFIER LETTER SMALL HENG|nlink=ꭜ}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2011/11202-n4081-teuthonista.pdf|title=L2/11-202: Revised proposal to encode "Teuthonista" phonetic characters in the UCS |date=2011-06-02 |first1=Michael |last1=Everson |first2=Alois |last2=Dicklberger |first3=Karl |last3=Pentzlin |first4=Eveline |last4=Wandl-Vogt}}</ref>

==See also==
*Ŋ ŋ – [[Eng (letter)|Latin letter Eng]]
*Ӈ ӈ – [[En with hook|Cyrillic letter En with hook]]
* [[Unified Northern Alphabet]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* {{cite journal |last=Chao |first=Yuen Ren |authorlink=Yuen Ren Chao |year=1934 |title=The non-uniqueness of phonemic solutions of phonetic systems |journal=Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=363–397}}
* {{cite book |last=Pullum |first=Geoffrey K. |authorlink=Geoffrey K. Pullum |author2=Ladusaw, William A. |year=1996 |title=[[Phonetic Symbol Guide]] |publisher=University of Chicago Press |page=77}}

{{Latin script|H
| show diacritic = hook
| show pairs = no
}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:H hook}}
[[Category:Latin letters with diacritics]]
[[Category:Latin-script letters]]
[[Category:Phonetic transcription symbols]]


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