Editing Voiced glottal fricative (section)

{{Short description|Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ɦ⟩ in IPA}}
{{for|consonants followed by superscript ʱ|voiced aspirate}}
{{Infobox IPA
|ipa symbol=ɦ
|ipa number=147
|decimal=614
|xsampa=h\
|braille=“
|braille2=h
|imagefile=IPA Unicode 0x0266.svg
|imagesize=150px
}}

The '''voiced glottal fricative''', sometimes called '''breathy-voiced glottal transition''', is a type of sound used in some [[Speech communication|spoken]] [[language]]s which patterns like a [[fricative]] or [[approximant]] [[consonant]] ''[[phonology|phonologically]]'', but often lacks the usual ''[[phonetics|phonetic]]'' characteristics of a consonant. The symbol in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] that represents this sound is {{angbr IPA|ɦ}}, and the equivalent [[X-SAMPA]] symbol is <code>h\</code>.

In many languages, {{IPA|/ɦ/}} has no inherent place or manner of articulation. Thus, it has been described as a [[breathy voice|breathy-voiced]] counterpart of the following [[vowel]] from a phonetic point of view. However, its characteristics are also influenced by the ''preceding'' vowels and whatever other sounds surround it. Therefore, it can be described as a segment whose only consistent feature is its breathy voice [[phonation]] in such languages.<ref name=lagandmad>{{Harvcoltxt|Ladefoged|Maddieson|1996|pp=325–326}}</ref> It may have real glottal constriction in a number of languages (such as [[Finnish language|Finnish]]<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Laufer|1991|p=91}}</ref>), making it a fricative.

[[Northern Wu]] languages such as [[Shanghainese]] contrast the voiced and [[Voiceless glottal fricative|voiceless glottal fricatives]].<ref>Qian 2003, pp.14-16.</ref> The two glottal fricatives pattern like plosives.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Gu|first=Qin|title={{lang|zh|最新派上海市区方言语音的研究分析}}|trans-title=A Study and Analysis on the Phonology of Newest Period Urban Shanghainese|year=2008|issue=2|journal={{lang|zh|东方语言学}}|institution=Shanghai Normal University}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Koenig|first1=Laura L.|last2=Shi|first2=Lu-Feng|title=3aSC18: Measures of spectral tilt in Shanghainese stops and glottal fricatives|location=Providence|journal=The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America|year=2014|doi=10.1121/1.4877532 }}</ref>