Voiceless pharyngeal fricative

A 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, Template:Angbr IPA. In the transcription of Arabic, Berber (and other Afro-Asiatic languages) as well as a few other scripts, it is often written Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr.

Typically characterized as fricative in the upper pharynx, similar to Template:IPAblink, except that the latter is placed at the glottis instead.

Features

Features of a voiceless pharyngeal fricative:

Occurrence

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).<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abaza		Template:Lang/Template:Transliteration	Template:IPA	'stone'
Abkhaz		Template:Lang/Template:Transliteration	Template:IPA	'we'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe		Template:Lang/Template:Transliteration/Template:Lang	Template:Audio-IPA	'god'
Afar		dalcu	Template:IPA	'striped hyena'
Agul		Template:Lang/Template:Transliteration	Template:IPA	'barn'
Amis<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'burn, roast'	Word-final allophone of /Template:IPA link/.
Arabic<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	Standard	Template:Lang/Template:Transliteration	Template:Audio-IPA	'situation'	See Arabic phonology
	EssaouiraTemplate:Sfnp	Template:Lang (Template:Transliteration)	Template:IPA	'chleuh'
Archi		Template:Lang/Template:Transliteration	Template:IPA	'state'
Central Neo-Aramaic	Turoyo	Template:Lang (Template:Transliteration)	Template:IPA	'Christ'	Corresponds with [x] in most other dialects.
Atayal		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'in/at/on him/her/it'
Avar		Template:Lang/Template:Transliteration/Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'earwax'
Azerbaijani		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'instrument'
Chechen		Template:Lang/Template:Lang/Template:Lang	Template:Audio-IPA	'plum'
English	Some speakers, mostly of Received PronunciationTemplate:Sfnp	horrible	Template:IPA	'horrible'	Glottal Template:IPAblink for other speakers.Template:Sfnp See English phonology
French<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref>	Some speakers	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'to do, to make'
Galician<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	Some dialects	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'cat'	Corresponds to Template:IPA in other dialects. See Galician phonology and gheada
Hebrew	Mizrahi	Template:Lang/Template:Transliteration	Template:Audio-IPA	'electricity'	Merged with Template:IPAblink for most modern speakers. See Modern Hebrew phonology.
	Temani	Template:Lang/aḥoḏ	Template:IPA	'one'	Yemenite pronunciation of the letter chet. Merged with Template:IPA in most other dialects. See Yemenite Hebrew
Hindustani	Hindi	Template:Lang/Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'hafiz'	In Hindi, it appears as a rare phonetic transcription;<ref>Template:Citation</ref> in Urdu, the sound is preserved in formal and Quranic contexts.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> See Hindustani phonology
	Urdu	Template:Lang/Template:Lang	Template:IPA
Leonese	Riberan	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'flour'
Judaeo-Spanish	Haketia	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'Haketia'	Borrowed from Arabic and Hebrew
Kabardian		Template:Lang/Template:Lang/Template:Lang	Template:Audio-IPA	'ship'
Kabyle		Template:Lang/Template:Lang/Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'hairdresser'
Kullui			Template:IPA	'twenty'	Template:IPA historically derives from Template:IPA and occurs word-finallyTemplate:Sfn
Kurdish	Most speakers	Template:Lang	Template:Audio-IPA	'environment'	Corresponds to Template:IPA in some Kurdish dialects
Maltese	Standard	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'one'
Nuu-chah-nulth		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'friendly'
Sioux	Nakota	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'yesterday'
Somali		Template:Lang/Template:Lang/Template:Lang	Template:Audio-IPA	'cane'	See Somali phonology
Tarifit		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'goodbye'
Ukrainian<ref name="DanVak12">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		Template:Lang/Template:Transliteration	Template:IPA	'fingernails'	Allophone of Template:IPA (which may be transcribed Template:IPA) before voiceless consonants;<ref name="DanVak12"/> can be fronted to Template:IPAblink in some "weak positions".<ref name="DanVak12"/> See Ukrainian phonology

See also

• Voiced pharyngeal fricative
• Heth
• Index of phonetics articles
• Guttural
• H with stroke

References

• Template:Citation
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• Template:Cite journal
• Template:Citation
• Template:Cite thesis

External links

• Template:Phoible