Adding spacing before hbar embedded in text

Question

I am writing text in Maltese, and UNICODE char U+0127 ħ is not supported by default. To bypass this I redefined the hbar to be upright, as instructed here: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/527065/how-to-typeset-upright-ħ

\AtBeginDocument{\renewcommand*{\hbar}{{\mkern-1mu\mathchar'26\mkern-8mu\mathrm{h}}}} 

The issue is that the spacing between the \hbar and the previous character is not sufficient, as seen in the figures.

Is there a way for me to edit the definition of the \hbar or otherwise, in order to introduce correct spacing please?

Answer 1

The character is in the default latin modern font used by lualatex or xelatex, so with lualatex for example

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
nagħmel
\end{document}

with pdftex you can define the character to use the crossed h from the tipa package for phonetic symbols

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tipa}
\DeclareUnicodeCharacter{0127}{\textcrh}
\begin{document}
nagħmel
\end{document}

Answer 2

I suggest you use lualatex, in a modern distribution you can simply do:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{babel}
\babelprovide[import, main]{maltese}
\begin{document}
% text from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltese_language
L-Unjoni hija bbażata fuq il-valuri tar-rispett għad-dinjità tal-bniedem,
il-libertà, id-demokrazija, l-ugwaljanza, l-istat tad-dritt u r-rispett
għad-drittijiet tal-bniedem, inklużi d-drittijiet ta' persuni li jagħmlu parti
minn minoranzi. Dawn il-valuri huma komuni għall-Istati Membri f'soċjetà fejn
jipprevalu l-pluraliżmu, in-non-diskriminazzjoni, it-tolleranza, il-ġustizzja,
is-solidarjetà u l-ugwaljanza bejn in-nisa u l-irġiel.
\end{document}