Occurrence
This sound is the most commonly cited realization of the Semitic letter hēth, which occurs in all dialects of Arabic, Classical Syriac, as well as Biblical and Tiberian Hebrew but not modern Hebrew. It has also been reconstructed as appearing in Ancient Egyptian, a related Afro-Asiatic language. Modern non-Oriental Hebrew has 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 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abkhaz | ҳара | 'we' | See Abkhaz phonology | |||
| Adyghe | тхьэкӀумэ | 'ear' | ||||
| Agul | ? | 'barn' | ||||
| Arabic | Standard | حال | 'situation' | See Arabic phonology | ||
| Avar | xIебецI | 'earwax' | ||||
| Berber | Kabyle | aḥeffaf | 'hairdresser' | |||
| Chechen | xъач / ẋaç | 'plum' | ||||
| Galician | ghato | 'cat' | Corresponds to /ɡ/ in other dialects. See gheada | |||
| Hebrew | חַשְׁמַל | 'electricity' | Oriental dialects only. See Modern Hebrew phonology | |||
| Kabardian | кхъохь | 'ship' | ||||
| Kurdish | Some speakers | hol | 'environment' | Corresponds to /h/ in most Kurdish dialects | ||
| Maltese | Standard | wieħed | 'one' | |||
| Nuu-chah-nulth | ʔaap-ḥii | 'friendly' | ||||
| Portuguese | Fluminense | marca | 'mark', 'trait', 'spot', 'note' | In free variation with, and before voiceless consonants | ||
| General Brazilian | rocha | 'rock' | Some dialects, corresponds to rhotic consonant /ʁ/. See Portuguese phonology | |||
| Sioux | Nakota | 'yesterday' | ||||
| Somali | xood | 'cane' | See Somali phonology | |||
| Syriac | Chaldean Neo-Aramaic | ܡܫܝܼܚܵܐ | 'christ' | |||
Read more about this topic: Voiceless Pharyngeal Fricative
Famous quotes containing the word occurrence:
“One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalised by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)