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, . In the transcription of Arabic, Berber (and other Afro-Asiatic languages) as well as a few other scripts, it is often written , .
It is typically characterized as fricative in the upper pharynx, similar to , 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).
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Abaza / 'stone' Abkhaz / 'we' See Abkhaz phonology Adyghe // 'god' Afardalcu'striped hyena' Agul / 'barn' Amis 'burn, roast' Word-final allophone of //. Arabic Standard / 'situation' See Arabic phonologyEssaouira ()'chleuh' Archi / 'state' Central Neo-Aramaic Turoyo () 'Christ' Corresponds with in most other dialects.Atayal'in/at/on him/her/it' Avar // 'earwax' Azerbaijani 'instrument' BretonSant-Nikolaz-ar-Pelem[dæħˈmɑːt]'always' Corresponds with in most other dialects.Bro Gwened[bo̞:ħ]'goat' Chechen // 'plum' English Some speakers, mostly of Received Pronunciation horrible 'horrible' Glottal for other speakers. See English phonology French Some speakers 'to do, to make' Galician Some dialects 'cat' Corresponds to in other dialects. See Galician phonology and gheada Hebrew Mizrahi / 'electricity' Merged with for most modern speakers. See Modern Hebrew phonology.Temani/aḥoḏ'one'Yemenite pronunciation of the letter chet. Merged with in most other dialects. See Yemenite HebrewJudeo-SpanishHaketia 'Haketia' Borrowed from Arabic and HebrewJerusalem 'small vegetable garden' Borrowed from Arabic and Hebrew Kabardian // 'ship' Kabyle // 'hairdresser' Kullui 'twenty' historically derives from and occurs word-finally Kurdish Most speakers 'environment' Corresponds to in some Kurdish dialectsLeoneseRiberan'flour' Maltese Standard 'one' Nuu-chah-nulth 'friendly' Sioux Nakota 'yesterday' Somali // 'cane' See Somali phonology Tarifit 'salt' Ukrainian / 'fingernails' Allophone of (which may be transcribed ) before voiceless consonants; can be fronted to in some "weak positions". See Ukrainian phonology
See also Voiced pharyngeal fricative Heth Index of phonetics articles Guttural H with stroke
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