It is used for a voiceless y-like sound,[clarification needed] such as in Dania transcription of the Danish language.

Heng was used word-finally in early transcriptions of Mayan languages, where it may have represented a uvular fricative.

/h/ and /ŋ/ are separate phonemes in English, even though no minimal pair for them exists due to their complementary distribution.

[1] Heng is also used in Bantu linguistics to indicate a voiced alveolar lateral fricative ([ɮ]).

A variant form, U+0267 ɧ LATIN SMALL LETTER HENG WITH HOOK, is encoded as part of the IPA Extensions Block.