How these sounds differ
ʕ
Voiced Uvular Fricative
- Voicing
- voiced
- Place
- uvular
- Manner
- fricative
- Class
- consonant
- In languages
- 15 / 500
ħ
Voiceless Uvular Fricative
- Voicing
- voiceless
- Place
- uvular
- Manner
- fricative
- Class
- consonant
- In languages
- 24 / 500
Cross-linguistic distribution
15
Languages with ʕ
14
Languages with both
24
Languages with ħ
14 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.