Is it like a sound between [g] and [h]? I’m having a hard time pronouncing it.
Interactive IPA chart with sounds may be of some use.
If it’s not already existing in your first language(s), I think it’s generally very hard to learn as an adult. Most people I’ve seen try, can only approximate it with the uvular variant, and even then that’s an achievement.
Most people who try, end up sounding like Gollum…
It takes some practice, but it’s basically a [g] that allows continuous airflow, well at least as long as you can go without breathing in.
[g] is a sound that you can’t hold. It’s discrete if you will, whereas [ɣ] is continuous.
Right — same place of articulation, just not pressing the tongue as hard such that air can pass.
Does it have any relationship witht he [h] sound
In terms of place of articulation, no. [h] is made by constructing air in your glottis, whereas [ɣ] is between the back of the tongue and the velum. In terms of sound, they’re both non-sibilant fricatives
I don’t think English has any voiced plosive/fricative minimal pairs that are articulated exactly the same, so it’s hard to compare to a different part of the mouth.
If you can make the [ x ] sound (as in German Bach), start there.
Whatever you do to move from K to G, do the same thing to move from [x ] to [γ].
That’s how I learned it, anyway.
[ɣ] is then a combination of g and h sound?
That’s not a terrible way to describe it, but it’s not really helpful, either. [γ] is a voiced fricative, like [v] and [z]. [h] is a fricative, too, but it’s unvoiced. [γ] is a velar consonant, like [k] and [g].
So [g] is a voiced velar (where you make the sound), and you need to have your mouth there; how you make the sound is the same way you make the other fricatives.
I would not say it has anything to do with [h]. It’s like [g], but you open your mouth ever so slightly more, so that you can sustain the sound.
And, yes, it is the same thing as the difference between lock and loch. Unfortunately, there aren’t really any good stop vs. fricative pairs in English otherwise.
And I’ve encountered a lot of English speakers who attempt [ x] with something farther back like [χ].
Other pair examples (bad ones) would be like if you had no top lip and tried a [b] sound by biting your bottom lip, which is [b̪], vs [v]. Those are both voiced and articulated the same, but the latter is a fricative. Also see [d] vs [ð] or [ʒ], none of which are articulated quite the same.