"exhale" v "exhalation"

[Odessa Dawn]

"To feel your ribs' breath, allow the ribs (and therefore the hands) to expand, moving away from the centre of the body as you inhale, and letting the ribs contract as you exhale, pressing them slightly towards the centre of the body with your hands at the end of the exhalation."
More: Breath Work | Pranayama | Health Effects Of The Breath
exhale /eksˈheɪl/

exhalation /ˌeks.h əˈleɪ.ʃən/

Does that mean that h sound in the word exhalation in the British version is silent?

[5jj]

Does that mean that h sound in the word exhalation in the British version is silent?

An italicised vowel in the Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary indicates an optional sound. If I ever use the word, I pronounce the /h/, but probably with less aspiration than my /h/ in the stressed syllable of exhale. Both the OALD and the LPD give the /h/; they do not indicate that it is optional.

[BobK]

I'm not sure what ribs do, in this strange yogic world; but I''d be surprised if they possessed breath (/breθ/). And if 'breath' is a typo for 'breathe' (/bri:ð/] what's the apostrophe doing. Either way, I'm confused.

b