Voiceless dental fricative

Voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative

Voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative
θ
IPA number	130
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	θ
Unicode (hex)	U+03B8
X-SAMPA	T
Kirshenbaum	T
Braille
Image
Sound

The voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some oral languages. It is familiar to English speakers as the 'th' in thing. Though rather rare as a phoneme in the world's inventory of languages, it is encountered in some of the most widespread and influential (see below). The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨θ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is T. The IPA symbol is the Greek letter theta, which is used for this sound in Greek, and the sound is thus often referred to as "theta".

The dental non-sibilant fricatives are often called "interdental" because they are often produced with the tongue between the upper and lower teeth, and not just against the back of the upper or lower teeth, as they are with other dental consonants.

Among the more than 60 languages with over 10 million speakers, only English, Standard Arabic, Spanish (Spain only), Burmese, and Greek have the voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative. Speakers of languages and dialects without the sound sometimes have difficulty producing or distinguishing it from similar sounds, especially if they have had no chance to acquire it in childhood, and typically replace it with a voiceless alveolar fricative, voiceless dental stop, or a voiceless labiodental fricative (known respectively as th-alveolarization, th-stopping, and th-fronting).

The sound is known to have disappeared from a number of languages, e.g. from most of the Germanic languages or dialects, where it is retained only in English and Icelandic.

Features

Features of the voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative:

• Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence. It does not have the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.
• Its place of articulation is dental, which means it is articulated with the tongue at either the upper or lower teeth, or both. (Most stops and liquids described as dental are actually denti-alveolar.)
• Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Albanian		thotë	[θɔtə]	'to say'
Arabic	Standard	ثابت	[ˈθaːbit]	'firm'	See Arabic phonology. Represented by <ث>.
Amami		[θeda]		'sun'
Arapaho		yoo3on	[jɔːθɔn]	'bee'
Bashkir		уҫал	[uθɑɫ]	'angry'
Berber	Kabyle	faṯ	[faθ]	'to cut'
Berta		[θɪ́ŋɑ̀]		'to eat'
Burmese		? thuuu	[θòʊ̃]	'three'
Cornish		eth	[ɛθ]	'eight'
Emiliano-Romagnolo citation needed		faza	[ˈfaːθɐ]	'face'
English		thin	[θɪn]	'thin'	See English phonology
Galician	Most dialects	cero	[ˈθɛɾʊ]	'zero'	Descends from early /ts/ and /dz/.
Greek		θάλασσα	[ˈθalasa]	'sea'	See Modern Greek phonology
Gweno		[riθo]		'eye'
Gwich’in		thał	[θaɬ]	'pants'
Hän		nihthän	[nihθɑn]	'I want'
Harsusi		[θəroː]		'two'
Hebrew	Iraqi	עברית	[ʕibˈriːθ]	'Hebrew language'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
	Yeminite		[ʕivˈriːθ]
Hlai	Basadung	[θsio]		'one'
Karen	Sgaw	[θø˧]		'three'
Karuk		[jiθa]		'one'
Kickapoo		[nɛθwi]		'three'
Kwama		[mɑ̄ˈθíl]		'to laugh'
Leonese		ceru	[θeɾu]	'zero'
Lorediakarkar		[θar]		'four'
Massa		[faθ]		'five'
Saanich		TÁŦES	[teθʔəs]	'eight'
Sardinian	Nuorese	petha	[pɛθa]	'meat'
Shark Bay		[θar]		'four'
Shawnee		nthwi	[nθwɪ]	'three'
Sioux	Nakota	?	[ktũˈθa]	'four'
Spanish	Castilian	cazar	[kaˈθar]	'to hunt'	See Spanish phonology and ceceo
Swahili		thamini	[θɑmini]	'value'
Tanacross		thiit	[θiːtʰ]	'embers'
Toda		உஇனபஒத	[wɨnboθ]	'nine'
Turkmen		sekiz	[θekið]	'eight'
Tutchone	Northern	tho	[θo]	'pants'
	Southern	thü	[θɨ]
Upland Yuman	Havasupai	[θerap]		'five'
	Hualapai	[θarap]
	Yavapai	[θerapi]
Welayta		shiththa	[ɕiθθa]	'flower'
Welsh		saith	[saiθ]	'seven'
Zhuang		saw	[θaːu˨˦]	'language'

Voiceless dental sibilant

Voiceless dental sibilant
s̪

The voiceless dental sibilant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨s̪⟩, a combination of the letter for the voiceless alveolar sibilant and a diacritic indicating dental articulation.

Features

Features of the voiceless dental sibilant:

• Its manner of articulation is sibilant fricative, which means it is generally produced by channeling air flow along a groove in the back of the tongue up to the place of articulation, at which point it is focused against the sharp edge of the nearly clenched teeth, causing high-frequency turbulence.
• Its place of articulation is dental, which in case of this consonant means it is articulated with the tongue at lower teeth, though in some languages it may actually be denti-alveolar.
• Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Basque		gauza	[gaus̪̻a]	'thing'	Laminal. Contrasts with voiceless apico-alveolar sibilant s̺
Bulgarian		всеки	[ˈvs̪ɛki]	'everyone'	Contrasts with palatalized form.
Italian		sali	[ˈs̪äli]	'you go up'	See Italian phonology
Macedonian		скока	[ˈs̪ko̞kä]	'jump'	See Macedonian phonology
Polish		sum	[s̪um]	'catfish'	See Polish phonology
Romanian		surd	[s̪ur̪d̪]	'deaf'	Apical. See Romanian phonology
Russian		волосы	[ˈvoləs̪ɨ]	'hair'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		Slàinte	[s̪ɫ̪aːntʰʲə]	'cheers'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatian		сам / sam	[s̪ȃ̠m]	'alone'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Swedish	Central Standard	säte	[ˈs̪ɛːt̪e]	'seat'	See Swedish phonology
Toda					Contrasts with non-sibilant θ and dental sibilant affricate ts̪
Ukrainian		село	[s̪ɛˈl̪ɔ]	'village'	See Ukrainian phonology

Voiceless corono-dentoalveolar sibilant

Voiceless corono-dentoalveolar sibilant
s̄
θṣ

The voiceless corono-dentoalveolar sibilant is the only sibilant fricative in some dialects of Andalusian Spanish. It doesn't have an official symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet, and is usually represented by an ad-hoc symbol such as ⟨s̄⟩ or ⟨θ^ṣ⟩.

Dalbor (1980) describes this sound as follows: "[s̄] is a voiceless, corono-dentoalveolar groove fricative, the so-called s coronal or s plana because of the relatively flat shape of the tongue body.... To this writer, the coronal [s̄], heard throughout Andalusia, should be characterized by such terms as "soft," "fuzzy," or "imprecise," which, as we shall see, brings it quite close to one variety of /θ/ … Canfield has referred, quite correctly, in our opinion, to this [s̄] as "the lisping coronal-dental," and Amado Alonso remarks how close it is to the post-dental [θ̦], suggesting a combined symbol [θ^ṣ to represent it."

Features

Features of the voiceless corono-dentoalveolar sibilant:

• Its manner of articulation is sibilant fricative, which means it is generally produced by channeling air flow along a groove in the back of the tongue up to the place of articulation, at which point it is focused against the sharp edge of the nearly clenched teeth, causing high-frequency turbulence.
• Its place of articulation is denti-alveolar, which means it is articulated with a flat tongue against the alveolar ridge and upper teeth.
• It is normally apical, which means it is pronounced with the very tip of the tongue.
• Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Spanish	Andalusian	casa	[ˈka̠s̄a̠]	'house'	Present in dialects with ceceo. See Spanish phonology

See also

• Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative
• Voiced dental sibilant
• Voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant
• Sibilant consonant#Possible combinations
• Pronunciation of English th
• Index of phonetics topics

Bibliography

• Bertinetto, Marco; Loporcaro, Michele (2005), "The sound pattern of Standard Italian, as compared with the varieties spoken in Florence, Milan and Rome", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35 (2): 131–151, doi:10.1017/S0025100305002148 
• Chew, Peter A. (2003), A computational phonology of Russian, Universal Publishers 
• Dalbor, John B. (1980), "Observations on Present-Day Seseo and Ceceo in Southern Spain", Hispania (American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese) 63 (1): 5–19, doi:10.2307/340806, JSTOR 340806 
• Engstrand, Olle (2004), Fonetikens grunder (in Swedish), Lund: Studenlitteratur, ISBN 91-44-04238-8 
• Hickey, Raymond (1984), "Coronal Segments in Irish English", Journal of Linguistics 20 (2): 233–250, doi:10.1017/S0022226700013876 
• Klagstad Jr., Harold L. (1958), The Phonemic System of Colloquial Standard Bulgarian, American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages, pp. 42–54 
• Kordić, Snježana (2006), Serbo-Croatian, Languages of the World/Materials; 148, Munich & Newcastle: Lincom Europa, ISBN 3-89586-161-8 
• Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (2nd ed.), Blackwell 
• Lunt, Horace G. (1952), Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language, Skopje 
• Marotta, Giovanna; Barth, Marlen (2005), "Acoustic and sociolingustic aspects of lenition in Liverpool English", Studi Linguistici e Filologici Online 3 (2): 377–413 
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373 
• Rocławski, Bronisław (1976), Zarys fonologii, fonetyki, fonotaktyki i fonostatystyki współczesnego języka polskiego, Wydawnictwo Uczelniane Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego 
• Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20 (2): 37–41, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004266 
• Wells, John C (1982), Accents of English, second, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-24224-X 

External links

• Discrimination of Unvoiced Fricatives using Machine Learning Methods