Voiced glottal fricative

A voiced glottal fricative, sometimes called a breathy-voiced glottal transition, is a type of sound used in some spoken languages. It is used by some English-speakers as the "h" sound in "ahead". The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɦ⟩.

A [ɦ] sound may have real glottal constriction in a number of languages (such as Finnish), making it a true fricative. However, in most languages that have it, it only patterns like a fricative or approximant phonologically, and lacks the usual phonetic characteristics of a consonant. In such languages, [ɦ] has no inherent place or manner of articulation. Thus it has been described as a breathy-voiced counterpart of the following vowel from a phonetic point of view. However, its characteristics are also influenced by the preceding vowels and whatever other sounds surround it. Therefore, it can be described as a segment whose only consistent feature is its breathy voice phonation in such languages.

Northern Wu languages such as Shanghainese contrast voiced and voiceless glottal fricatives. The two glottal fricatives pattern like plosives.