# Voiceless glottal fricative

The voiceless glottal fricative, sometimes called voiceless glottal transition or the aspirate, is a type of sound used in some spoken languages that 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⟩. However, [h] has been described as a voiceless phonation because in many languages, it lacks the place and manner of articulation of a prototypical consonant, as well as 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.
An effort undertaken at the Kiel Convention in 1989 attempted to move glottal fricatives, both voiceless and voiced, to approximants. The fricative may be represented with the extIPA diacritic for strong articulation, ⟨h͈⟩.
The Shanghainese language, among others, contrasts voiced and voiceless glottal fricatives.

## 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 or an approximant, 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.
* 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
### Fricative or transition

| Language | Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes |
| Adyghe | Shapsug | хыгь/khyg' | [həɡʲ] | 'now' | Corresponds to [x] in other dialects. |
| Afar | Afar | daháb | [dʌhʌb] | 'gold' | |
| Albanian | Albanian | hire | [ˈhiɾɛ] | 'the graces' | |
| Aleut | Aleut | hanix̂ | [ˈhaniχ] | 'lake' | |
| Arabic | Modern Standard | هائل/haa'il | [ˈhaːʔɪl] | 'enormous' | See Arabic phonology |
| Assyrian | Eastern | ܗܝܡܢܘܬܐ hèmanūta | [heːmaːnuːta] | 'faith' | |
| Assyrian | Western | ܗܪܟܗ harcë | [hεrcɪ] | 'here' | |
| Armenian | Eastern | հայերեն/hayeren | | 'Armenian language' | |
| Asturian | South-central dialects | ḥuerza | [ˈhweɾθɐ] | 'force' | F- becomes [h] before -ue/-ui in south-central dialects. May be also realized as [ħ, ʕ, ɦ, x, χ] |
| Asturian | Eastern dialects | ḥacer | [haˈθeɾ] | "to do" | F- becomes [h] in oriental dialects. May be also realized as [ħ, ʕ, ɦ, x, χ] |
| Asturian | All dialects | guaḥe ḥispiar | [ˈgwahɪ] [hisˈpjaɾ] | "kid" "to steal small quantities of something" | Some words use ḥ in all dialects. |
| Avar | Avar | гьа | [ha] | 'oath' | |
| Azeri | Azeri | hin | [hɪn] | 'chicken coop' | |
| Basque | North-Eastern dialects | hirur | [hiɾur] | 'three' | Can be voiced [ɦ] instead. |
| Bengali | Bengali | হাওয়া/haoua | [hao̯a] | 'wind' | |
| Berber | Berber | aherkus | [ahərkus] | 'shoe' | |
| Cantabrian | Cantabrian | muḥer | [muˈheɾ] | 'woman' | F- becomes [h]. In most dialects, -LJ- and -C'L- too. May be also realized as [ħ, ʕ, ɦ, x, χ]. |
| Catalan | Catalan | ehem | [eˈhẽm] | 'ha!' | Found in loanwords and interjections. See Catalan phonology |
| Chechen | Chechen | хӏара / hara | [hɑrɐ] | 'this' | |
| Chinese | Cantonese | 海 / hói | | 'sea' | See Cantonese phonology |
| Chinese | Taiwanese Mandarin | 海 / hǎi | [haɪ̯˨˩˦] | 'sea' | A velar fricative [x] for Standard Chinese. See Standard Chinese phonology |
| Danish | Danish | hus | [ˈhuːˀs] | 'house' | Often voiced [ɦ] when between vowels. See Danish phonology |
| English | English | high | [haɪ̯] | 'high' | See English phonology and H-dropping |
| Esperanto | Esperanto | hejmo | [ˈhejmo] | 'home' | See Esperanto phonology |
| Eastern Lombard | Val Camonica | Bresa | [ˈbrɛha] | 'Brescia' | Corresponds to /s/ in other varieties. |
| Estonian | Estonian | hammas | [ˈhɑmˑɑs] | 'tooth' | See Estonian phonology |
| Faroese | Faroese | hon | [hoːn] | 'she' | |
| Finnish | Finnish | hammas | [ˈhɑmːɑs] | 'tooth' | See Finnish phonology |
| French | Belgian | hotte | [hɔt] | 'pannier' | Found in the region of Liège. See French phonology |
| Galician | Occidental, central, and some oriental dialects | gato | [ˈhätʊ] | 'cat' | Realization of [g] in some dialects. May be also realized as [ɦ, ʕ, x, χ, ʁ, ɡʰ]. See gheada. |
| Georgian | Georgian | ჰავა/hava | [hɑvɑ] | 'climate' | |
| German | German | Hass | [has] | 'hatred' | See Standard German phonology |
| Greek | Cypriot | μαχαζί/mahazi | [mahaˈzi] | 'shop' | Allophone of /x/ before /a/. |
| Hawaiian | Hawaiian | haka | [ˈhɐkə] | 'shelf' | See Hawaiian phonology |
| Hebrew | Hebrew | הַר/har | [häʁ̞] | 'mountain' | See Modern Hebrew phonology |
| Hindi | Standard | हम/ham | [ˈhəm] | 'we' | See Hindustani phonology |
| Hmong | Hmong | hawm | [haɨ̰] | 'to honor' | |
| Hungarian | Hungarian | helyes | [ˈhɛjɛʃ] | 'right' | See Hungarian phonology |
| Irish | Irish | shroich | [hɾˠɪç] | 'reached' | Appears as the lenited form of 'f', 's' and 't', as well as grammatical pre-aspiration of vowels, & occasionally word-initial as 'h' in borrowed words. See Irish phonology. |
| Italian | Tuscan | i capitani | [iˌhäɸiˈθäːni] | 'the captains' | Intervocalic allophone of /k/. See Italian phonology |
| Japanese | Japanese | すはだ / suhada | [sɨᵝhada] | 'bare skin' | See Japanese phonology |
| Javanese | Javanese | ꦩꦲ/Maha | [mɔhɔ] | The expert, Almighty one | |
| Kabardian | Kabardian | тхылъхэ/ tkhyl"khė | [tχɪɬhɑ] | 'books' | |
| Kazakh | Kazakh | шаһар / şahar | [ʃahɑr] | 'city' | |
| Khmer | Khmer | ហឹរ / hœ̆r ចាស់ / chăs | [hər] [cah] | 'spicy' 'old' | See Khmer phonology |
| Korean | Korean | 허리 / heori | [hʌɾi] | 'waist' | See Korean phonology |
| Lakota | Lakota | ho | [ho] | 'voice' | |
| Lao | Lao | ຫ້າ/haa | [haː˧˩] | 'five' | |
| Leonese | Leonese | guaje | [ˈwahe̞] | 'boy' | |
| Lezgian | Lezgian | гьек/hek | [hek] | 'glue' | |
| Luxembourgish | Luxembourgish | hei | [hɑ̝ɪ̯] | 'here' | See Luxembourgish phonology |
| Malay | Malay | hari | [hari] | 'day' | |
| Mutsun | Mutsun | hučekniš | [hut͡ʃɛkniʃ] | 'dog' | |
| Navajo | Navajo | hastiin | [hàsd̥ìːn] | 'mister' | |
| Norwegian | Norwegian | hatt | [hɑtː] | 'hat' | See Norwegian phonology |
| Pashto | Pashto | هو/ho | [ho] | 'yes' | |
| Persian | Persian | هفت/haft | [hæft] | 'seven' | See Persian phonology |
| Pirahã | Pirahã | hi | [hì] | 'he' | |
| Portuguese | Many Brazilian dialects | marreta | [maˈhetɐ] | 'sledgehammer' | Allophone of /ʁ/. [h, ɦ] are marginal sounds to many speakers, particularly out of Brazil. See Portuguese phonology. |
| Portuguese | Most dialects | Honda | [ˈhõ̞dɐ] | 'Honda' | Allophone of /ʁ/. [h, ɦ] are marginal sounds to many speakers, particularly out of Brazil. See Portuguese phonology. |
| Portuguese | Minas Gerais (mountain dialect) | arte | [ˈahtʃ] | 'art' | |
| Portuguese | Colloquial Brazilian (some dialects) | chuvisco | [ɕuˈvihku] | 'drizzle' | Corresponds to either /s/ or /ʃ/ (depending on dialect) in the syllable coda. Might also be deleted. |
| Quechua | Standard | hatun | [hatuŋ] | 'big' | The elderly still maintain the pronunciation of /h/, but the young changed the pronunciation to /x/. See Quechuan phonology |
| Romanian | Romanian | hăț | [həts] | 'bridle' | See Romanian phonology |
| Scottish Gaelic | Scottish Gaelic | ro-sheòl | | 'topsail' | Lenited form of /t/, /s/, see Scottish Gaelic phonology |
| Serbo-Croatian | Croatian | hmelj | [hmê̞ʎ̟] | 'hops' | Allophone of /x/ when it is initial in a consonant cluster. See Serbo-Croatian phonology |
| Spanish | Andalusian, Canarian, and Extremaduran Spanish | higo | [ˈhiɣo̞] | 'fig' | Corresponds to Old Spanish /h/, which was developed from Latin /f/ but muted in other dialects. |
| Spanish | Many dialects | obispo | [o̞ˈβ̞ihpo̞] | 'bishop' | Allophone of /s/ at the end of a syllable. See Spanish phonology |
| Spanish | Some dialects | jaca | [ˈhaka] | 'pony' | Corresponds to /x/ in other dialects. |
| Swedish | Swedish | hatt | [ˈhatː] | 'hat' | See Swedish phonology |
| Sylheti | Sylheti | ꠢꠣꠝꠥꠇ/hamukh | [hamux] | 'snail' | |
| Tagalog | Tagalog | tahimik | [tɐˈhimɪk] | 'quiet' | See Tagalog phonology |
| Tatar | Tatar | һава/hawa | [hawa] | 'air' | See Tatar phonology |
| Telugu | Telugu | అంతఃపురం | [ant̪ahpuram] | 'Women's quarters'/ 'Harem' | See Visarga |
| Thai | Thai | ห้า/haa | [haː˥˩] | 'five' | |
| Turkish | Turkish | halı | [häˈɫɯ] | 'carpet' | See Turkish phonology |
| Ubykh | Ubykh | дуаха | [dwaha] | 'prayer' | See Ubykh phonology |
| Ukrainian | Ukrainian | кігті | [ˈkiht⁽ʲ⁾i] | 'claws' | Sometimes when [ɦ] is devoiced. See Ukrainian phonology. |
| Urdu | Standard | ہم/ham | [ˈhəm] | 'we' | See Hindi-Urdu phonology |
| Vietnamese | Vietnamese | hiểu | [hjew˧˩˧] | 'understand' | See Vietnamese phonology |
| Welsh | Welsh | haul | [ˈhaɨl] | 'sun' | See Welsh orthography |
| West Frisian | West Frisian | hoeke | [ˈhukə] | 'corner' | |
| Yi | Yi | ꉐ / hxa | [ha˧] | 'hundred' | |