Voiceless pharyngeal fricative
| Voiceless pharyngeal fricative | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ħ | |||
| IPA number | 144 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ħ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0127 | ||
| X-SAMPA | X\ | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
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⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is X\. In the transcription of Arabic, Berber (and other Afro-Asiatic languages) as well as a few other scripts, it is often written ⟨Ḥ⟩, ⟨ḥ⟩.
Typically characterized as fricative in the upper pharynx, it is often characterized as a whispered [h].
Features
[edit]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.
- It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
- 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
[edit]This sound is the most commonly cited realization of the Semitic letter hēth, which occurs in all dialects of Arabic, Classical Syriac, Western Neo-Aramaic, Central Neo-Aramaic, Ge'ez, Tigre, Tigrinya as well as Biblical, Mishnaic and Mizrahi Hebrew. It has also been reconstructed as appearing in Ancient Egyptian, a related Afro-Asiatic language. Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Ashkenazi Hebrew and most speakers of Modern Hebrew have 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).[1]
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abaza | хIахъвы/kh'akh"vy | [ħaqʷə] | 'stone' | ||
| Abkhaz | ҳара/khara | [ħaˈra] | 'we' | See Abkhaz phonology | |
| Adyghe | тхьэ/tkh'ė/تحە | 'god' | |||
| Agul | мухI/mukh' | [muħ] | 'barn' | ||
| Amis[2] | tuduh | [tuɮuħ] | 'burn, roast' | Word-final allophone of /ʜ/. | |
| Arabic[3] | حال/ḥal | 'situation' | See Arabic phonology | ||
| Essaouira[4] | شلوح (šlūḥ) | [ʃlɵːħ] | 'chleuh' | ||
| Archi | хIал/kh'al | [ħal] | 'state' | ||
| Central Neo-Aramaic | Turoyo | ܡܫܝܚܐ (mšìḥo) | [mʃiːħɔ] | 'Christ' | Corresponds with [x] in most other dialects. |
| Atayal | hiyan | [ħijan] | 'in/at/on him/her/it' | ||
| Avar | xIебецI/kh'ebets'/حېبېض | [ħeˈbetsʼ] | 'earwax' | ||
| Azerbaijani | əhdaş | [æħd̪ɑʃ] | 'instrument' | ||
| Chechen | xьач/ẋaç/حـاچ | 'plum' | |||
| English | Some speakers, mostly of Received Pronunciation[5] | horrible | [ħɒɹɪbəl] | 'horrible' | Glottal [h] for other speakers.[5] See English phonology |
| French[6] | Some speakers | faire | [feː(ă)ħ] | 'to do, to make' | |
| Galician[7] | Some dialects | gato | [ˈħatʊ] | 'cat' | Corresponds to /ɡ/ in other dialects. See Galician phonology and gheada |
| Hebrew | Mizrahi | חַשְׁמַל/ḥašmal | 'electricity' | Merged with [χ] for most modern speakers. See Modern Hebrew phonology. | |
| Temani | אֶחָדֿ/aḥoḏ | [æˈħɔð] | 'one' | Yemenite pronunciation of the letter chet. Merged with /χ/ in most other dialects. See Yemenite Hebrew | |
| Judaeo-Spanish | Haketia | Ḥaketía | [ħakeˈti.a] | 'Haketia' | Borrowed from Arabic and Hebrew |
| Kabardian | кхъухь/ꝗvɦ/ٯّوح | 'ship' | |||
| Kabyle | ⴰⵃⴻⴼⴼⴰⴼ/aḥeffaf/احـفاف | [aħəfːaf] | 'hairdresser' | ||
| Kullui | [biːħ] | 'twenty' | /ħ/ historically derives from /s/ and occurs word-finally[8] | ||
| Kurdish | Most speakers | ḧol | 'environment' | Corresponds to /h/ in some Kurdish dialects | |
| Maltese | Standard | wieħed | [wiːħet] | 'one' | |
| Nuu-chah-nulth | ʔaap-ḥii | [ʔaːpˈħiː] | 'friendly' | ||
| Sioux | Nakota | haxdanahâ | [haħdanahã] | 'yesterday' | |
| Somali | xood/حٗـود/𐒄𐒝𐒆 | 'cane' | See Somali phonology | ||
| Tarifit | ḥemm/ⵀⵎ | [ħem] | 'goodbye' | ||
| Ukrainian[9] | нігті/nihti | [ˈnʲiħtʲi] | 'fingernails' | Allophone of /ʕ/ (which may be transcribed /ɦ/) before voiceless consonants;[9] can be fronted to [x] in some "weak positions".[9] See Ukrainian phonology | |
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:167–168)
- ^ Maddieson, Ian; Wright, Richard (October 1995). "The Vowels and Consonants of Amis — A Preliminary Phonetic Report" (PDF). Fieldwork Studies of Targeted Languages III. UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics Volume 91. pp. 45–65.
- ^ Watson (2002:19)
- ^ Francisco (2019), p. 89.
- ^ a b Collins & Mees (2003), p. 148.
- ^ Mager, Irene (1974). A critical analysis of the teaching of French phonology (Thesis). OCLC 9841438. ProQuest 193965929.
- ^ Regueira (1996:120)
- ^ Thakur 1975, p. 181.
- ^ a b c Danyenko & Vakulenko (1995:12)
References
[edit]- Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2003) [First published 1981], The Phonetics of English and Dutch (5th ed.), Leiden: Brill Publishers, ISBN 978-90-04-10340-5
- Danyenko, Andrii; Vakulenko, Serhii (1995), Ukrainian, Lincom Europa, ISBN 978-3-929075-08-3
- Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996), The sounds of the World's Languages, Oxford: Blackwell, ISBN 978-0-631-19815-4
- Regueira, Xose (1996). "Galician". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 26 (2): 119–122. doi:10.1017/s0025100300006162. S2CID 241094214.
- Watson, Janet (2002), The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-824137-9
- Francisco, Felipe Benjamin (2019). O dialeto árabe de Essaouira: documentação e descrição de uma variedade do sul do Marrocos [The Arabic Dialect of Essaouira: Documentation and Description of a Southern Moroccan Variety] (PhD) (in Portuguese). São Paulo: University of São Paulo. doi:10.11606/T.8.2019.tde-29102019-180034. S2CID 214469852.
