ɦ vs h

Voiced Glottal Fricative vs Voiceless Glottal Fricative

How these sounds differ

Voiced Glottal Fricative

Voicing: voiced
Place: glottal
Manner: fricative
Class: consonant
In languages: 26 / 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 ɦ

Languages with both

322

Languages with h

6 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 ɦ, not h (20)

Kharia Austroasiatic NEWARI Sino-Tibetan !XU Kxa Kashimiri Indo-European Wichita Caddoan Karen Sino-Tibetan Dafla Sino-Tibetan Hindi-Urdu Indo-European Telugu Dravidian French Indo-European Urdu Indo-European Punjabi Indo-European Ukrainian Indo-European Dutch Indo-European Nepali Indo-European Assamese Indo-European Sinhalese Indo-European Czech Indo-European Afrikaans Indo-European Slovak Indo-European

Has h, not ɦ (20)

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