喉音 (hóu yīn) — glottal sound; guttural sound

Definition

In linguistics, 喉音 refers to sounds produced in the larynx (especially glottal or guttural sounds like [h] or the glottal stop). 舌音 refers to tongue-positioned sounds — these are technical phonetics terms, not everyday vocabulary.

noun
glottal soundguttural sound

Examples

  • 喉音。
    Yǒu xiē yǔ yán zhōng yǒu hěn duō hóu yīn.
    Some languages have many glottal sounds.
  • 喉音。
    Tā fā zhè ge hóu yīn de shí hou hěn chī lì.
    He has difficulty producing this guttural sound.
  • 喉音。
    Hàn yǔ pīn yīn zhōng méi yǒu hóu yīn.
    There are no glottal sounds in Hanyu Pinyin.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

喉hóuthroat
音yīnsound

喉 (throat) combines with 音 (sound) to mean a glottal or guttural sound.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
口口kǒumouth
Sound part声符shēngfú
侯
侯hóu喉hóu
Same sound today

喉 combines 口, a mouth, with 侯, which gives its sound.

Open 喉 →

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

音 adds a short stroke that seals the mouth-like part, showing a covered or muffled sound rather than speech.

Open 音 →

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.