Editing H-dropping (section)

===Historical /h/-loss===
In [[Old English phonology]], the sounds {{IPA|[h]}}, {{IPA|[x]}}, and {{IPA|[ç]}} (described respectively as [[voiceless glottal fricative|glottal]], [[voiceless velar fricative|velar]] and [[voiceless palatal fricative|palatal]] voiceless fricatives) are taken to be [[allophone]]s of a single [[phoneme]] {{IPA|/h/}}. This phoneme occurred at the start of syllables, alone or [[consonant cluster|cluster]]ed with an approximant, and in coda position. The {{IPA|[h]}} sound appeared in most onsets (except those with an {{IPA|/h/}} and {{IPA|/w/}} cluster, which had {{IPA|[x]}}) and the other two allophones in [[syllable coda]]s ({{IPA|[x]}} after [[back vowel]]s and {{IPA|[ç]}} after [[front vowel]]s).

The instances of {{IPA|/h/}} in [[Syllable coda|coda]] position were [[Middle English phonology#H-loss|lost]] during the [[Middle English]] and [[Early Modern English]] periods, although they are still reflected in the spelling of words such as ''taught'' (now pronounced like ''taut'') and ''weight'' (now pronounced in most accents like ''wait''). Most of the initial clusters involving {{IPA|/h/}} also disappeared (see [[H-cluster reductions]]). As a result, in the [[Standard English|standard]] varieties of [[Modern English]], the only position in which {{IPA|/h/}} can occur is at the start of a syllable, either alone (as in ''hat'', ''house'', ''behind'', etc.), in the cluster {{IPA|/hj/}} (as in ''[[wikt:huge|huge]]''), or (for a minority of speakers) in the cluster {{IPA|/hw/}} (as in ''[[wikt:whine|whine]]'' if pronounced [[Wine–whine merger|differently from ''wine'']]). The usual realizations of the latter two clusters are {{IPA|[ç]}} and {{IPA|[ʍ]}} (see [[English phonology]]).