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h The symbol used to represent the friction element. Fricative and affricate sounds contain this element.
H The usual symbol for high in tone or intonation analyses.
H* In intonational analysis the symbol used to represent a high tone associated to an accented syllable. The symbol is also used as a component of bitonal accent representations such as L^-+H*.
H% The symbol used for a high boundary tone in autosegmental metrical representations of intonation. See Pierrehumbert for more information.
Hair cells Sensory receptors in the organ of Corti in the inner ear. They convert the mechanical vibration caused by sound into electrical signals which are transmitted to the brain by the auditory nerve.
Hammer Also called malleus. One of the small bones of the middle ear.
Haplology [hæpˈlɒlədʒi] The omission of an entire syllable when two identical or phonetically similar syllables occur in sequence. An example from English: [pəˈtɪkjəli] for [pəˈtɪkjələli] particularly.
Hard consonant A term sometimes used with reference to Slavonic languages. Many of these languages have a phonological distinction which is signalled by the presence or absence of palatalisation of consonants. Hard consonant is the term used for the non-palatalised variety.
Hard palate An area of the roof of the oral cavity lying between the alveolar ridge and the soft palate. The hard palate is the passive articulator for palatal and for retroflex sounds.
Harmonic [hɑːˈmɒnɪk] A component in the spectrum of a periodic sound. Harmonics occur at integer multiples of the sound's fundamental frequency.
Harmonic analysis The decomposition of a complex periodic sound into its components. The result is usually displayed as an amplitude-frequency spectrum.
Harmonic synthesis The addition of sine waves at varying frequencies and amplitudes to produce a complex periodic sound.
Harsh voice Also called ventricular voice. A phonation type which involves a high degree of tension in the larynx with constriction of the upper part causing the false vocal folds to press on the upper surface of the vocal folds and damp their vibration.
Hash [hæʃ] A name for the word boundary symbol #.
H aspiré [aʃ aspire] In French the letter <h> is always silent. However, some instances of the letter do not allow elision of a preceding vowel, for instance of a preceding definite article, nor do they allow liaison. For example, le hareng ("herring") and not *l'hareng, les harengs ("the herrings") = [le arɑ̃] and not *[lez arɑ̃]. The <h> in this and similar words is "aspiré". The opposite is h muet [aʃ mɥɛ]. An example: l'heure ("the hour"), les heures = [lez œʁ].

Hat pattern An intonation pattern common in Dutch, but with correlates in other languages, such as English. The pattern consists of a rise in pitch followed by a level plateau and then a pitch fall. The term is particularly associated with the the Dutch school of intonation research at the Institute for Perception Research in Eindhoven. See Cohen & 'tHart (1967) for more details.
H-dropping A term usually employed in the description of accents of English to denote the situation where [h] is omitted from stressed lexical items. Many accents of the British Isles drop [h] and use pronunciations such as head [ed], hawk [ɔːk]. The deletion of [h] in unstressed grammatical items such as have, him, her, which is common in nearly all accents of English, is not usually called h-dropping.
Head A non-obligatory component of an intonation pattern. Some writers use the term to refer to any material before the intonation nucleus. More recently the term has been used to refer to the material from the first accented syllable up to but not including the nucleus.
Height One of the parameters used to specify vowel quality. The height of a vowel refers to the estimated relationship between the highest point of the tongue and the roof of the oral cavity. If the highest point of the tongue is close to the roof then the vowel is termed high or close (examples [i u]). Vowels where the highest point of the tongue is at its maximum distance from the roof are called low or open (examples [a ɑ]). Intermediate points are called close-mid or half close (examples [e o]) and open-mid or half open (examples [ɛ ɔ]).
Heightened subglottal pressure The name of a binary feature, abbreviated to [hsp]. Sounds produced with higher than usual pressure in the trachea below the larynx. Used mainly to deal with so-called voiced aspirates in languages such as Hindi, which are [+hsp].
Hertz See frequency.
Hesitation pause A pause (silent or filled) which is likely to be perceived as a hesitation. This is contrasted with a pause, occurring at the end of an intonation pattern, which is not necessarily the result of a hesitation on the part of the speaker.
Heterorganic [ˌhetərɔːˈɡænɪk] The opposite of homorganic. An adjective applied to sounds which are made at different places of articulation.
Hiatus [haɪˈeɪtəs] A sequence of two vowels with no intervening consonant.
HighThe name of a binary feature. Often abbreviated to [hi]. [+hi] sounds are articulated by raising some part of the body of the tongue. [i u] are examples of [+hi] vowels. [c k] are examples of [+hi] consonants.
High fall The name of a nuclear tone in many analyses of English intonation. The pitch characteristics are as follows: the pitch contour starts high in the speaker's range and falls rapidly to a low pitch, any following tail syllables being low and relatively level in pitch. See O'Connor & Arnold for more information.
High-mid vowel See Height
High rise The name of a nuclear tone in many analyses of English intonation. The pitch characteristics are: the contour starts at mid in the speaker's pitch range and rises to high by the end of the intonation group. See O'Connor & Arnold for more information.
High rise terminal The frequent use of a high rise nuclear tone, especially on non-questions. This style of speech is also called Uptalk or Upspeak, and has been noted to be on the increase in many accents of English in recent years, especially amongst younger speakers.. There is no real consensus on the motivation for this intonational innovation. Some suggest that it is a continual check that interlocutors have understood the message, hence another alternative name: checking tone.
High vowel See Height
H muet See h aspiré.
Homograph [ˈhɒməɡrɑːf] A term applied to words which are spelled the same but pronounced differently. For example in English lead [liːd] and lead [led] are homographs.
Homophene [ˈhɒməfiːn] A term used to describe words or utterances which look the same to a speech reader. For example, pie and buy, are readily distinguishable by a normally hearing English speaker, but would be impossible to separate for a hearing-impaired speaker who relied on speech reading.
Homophone [ˈhɒməfəʊn] (adj] (adj homophonous [həˈmɒfənəs]) A term applied to words pronounced identically. For example write, right and rite are homophones in English. Homophones in one accent of a language are not necessarily homophones in all accents. A good example of this is the pair horse and hoarse in English. These are homophonous in many accents, but some Scottish accents (among others) have horse =[hɔrs] and hoarse = [hors].
HRT See High rise terminal.
Homorganic [ˌhɒmɔːˈɡænɪk] An adjective applied to two or more sounds which are made at the same place of articulation. For example [p b], [t n], [k,x] are all homorganic pairs of sounds.
Hyoid bone [ˈhaɪɔɪd] The horseshoe shaped bone found just above the larynx. It is suspended on ligaments which attach to the styloid processes of the skull and is attached to the horns of the larynx below it.
Hypercorrection [ˌhaɪpəkəˈrekʃn] Also known as hyperadaptation. A phenomenon which may occur when speakers try to imitate or change to an accent other than their native one and which consists of applying a change to a wider set of forms than is necessary. For example, a speaker of a northern accent of English imitating a southern accent may correctly make the change [æ] > [ɑ:] in words such as path, pass, ask, but may also apply this change to words such as gas, mass, giving a pronunciation which is incorrect in the target accent.
Hypernasality [ˌhaɪpəneɪˈzæləti] (adj hypernasal [ˌhaɪpəˈneɪzl]) A condition where it is impossible to prevent airflow through the nasal cavity. This may be caused by a split or hole in the palate or by paralysis of the musculature controlling soft palate movement. The majority of speech sounds in hypernasal speech are nasal or nasalised. An example of a hypernasal utterance is [ˈmẽɪ̃mĩ] for [ˈbeɪbi].
Hyponasality [ˌhaɪpəʊneɪˈzæləti] (adj hyponasal [ˌhaɪpəʊˈneɪzl]) A condition where it is difficult to achieve nasal airflow, for example when the nasal passage is blocked by a heavy cold or enlarged adenoids. Nasal sounds are replaced by equivalent oral sounds. For example, [ˈmɔːnɪŋ] becomes [ˈbɔːdɪɡ].
Hz Abbreviation for hertz. See frequency.