ɦʷ vs h

Voiced Glottal Fricative vs Voiceless Glottal Fricative

How these sounds differ

ɦʷ

Voiced Glottal Fricative

Voicing: voiced
Place: glottal
Manner: fricative
Class: consonant
In languages: 0 / 500

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Voiceless Glottal Fricative

Voicing: voiceless
Place: glottal
Manner: fricative
Class: consonant
In languages: 322 / 500

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Cross-linguistic distribution

Languages with ɦʷ

Languages with both

322

Languages with h

0 languages in our database contrast both sounds as distinct phonemes. Languages that have one but not the other tend to merge them into a single phoneme — meaning speakers of those languages often struggle to hear the distinction when learning a language that contrasts them.

Has h, not ɦʷ (20)

Washkuk Sepik Sentani Sentanic Adzera Austronesian Kaliai Austronesian Iai Austronesian Chamorro Austronesian Sa'ban Austronesian Toba-Batak Austronesian Malagasy Austronesian Lakkia Tai-Kadai Cham Austronesian Garo Sino-Tibetan Yay Tai-Kadai Yao Hmong-Mien Hakka Chinese Sino-Tibetan SEDANG Austroasiatic Burushaski Language isolate Lak Nakh-Daghestanian Ket Yeniseian Telefol Nuclear Trans New Guinea