Voiceless dental fricative


IPA – number 130
IPA – text θ
IPA – image {{{imagesize}}}
Entity θ
X-SAMPA T
Kirshenbaum T
Voiceless dental fricative.ogg Sound sample (help·info)

The voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. 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". It is familiar to English speakers as the 'th' in thing.

The dental 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 teeth, as they are with other dental consonants.

Many languages, including widely-spoken ones such as German, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, as well as all Slavic languages, some dialects of English, and the seseante dialects of Spanish, lack this sound. Speakers of such languages and dialects sometimes have difficulty producing or distinguishing it from similar sounds, and typically replace it with a voiceless alveolar fricative, voiceless dental plosive, or a voiceless labiodental fricative (known respectively as th-alveolarization,[1] th-stopping,[2] and th-fronting.[3])

Contents

Features

Features of the voiceless dental fricative:

Occurrence

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Albanian thotë [θɔtə] 'to say'
Arabic Standard[4] ثابت [ˈθaːbit] 'firm' See Arabic phonology
Amami [θeda] 'sun'
Arapaho [jɔːθɔn] 'bee'
Asu [iðiθo] 'eye'
Berta [θɪ́ŋɑ̀] 'to eat'
Burmese ? [θòʊ̃] 'three'
Cornish eth [ɛθ] 'eight'
Emiliano-Romagnolo faza [ˈfaːθɐ] 'face'
English thin [θɪn] 'thin' See English phonology
Galician cero [θeɾo] 'zero'
Greek θάλασσα [ˈθalasa] 'sea' See Modern Greek phonology
Gweno [riθo] 'eye'
Gwich’in thał [θaɬ] 'pants'
Hän nihthän [nihθɑn] 'I want'
Harsusi [θəroː] 'two'
Hlai Basadung [θsio] 'one'
Kabyle faṯ [faθ] 'to cut'
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 ? [teθʔəs] 'eight'
Sardinian Nuorese petha [pɛθa] 'meat'
Shark Bay [θar] 'four'
Shawnee nthwi [nθwɪ] 'three'
Sioux Nakota ? [ktũˈθa] 'four'
Spanish Castilian[5] cazar [kaˈθaɾ] 'to hunt' See Spanish phonology
Swahili thamini [θɑmini] 'value'
Tanacross thiit [θiːtʰ] 'embers'
Toda [wɨnboθ] 'nine'
Turkmen sekiz [θekið] 'eight'
Tutchone Northern tho [θo] 'pants'
Southern thü [θɨ]
Upland Yuman Havasupai [θerap] 'five'
Hualapai [θarap]
Yavapai [θerapi]
Welayta [ɕiθθa] 'flower'
Welsh saith [saiθ] 'seven'
Western Neo-Aramaic ? [θloːθa] 'three'

Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative

The voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative (also knows as "slit" fricatives) is a consonantal sound. As the International Phonetic Alphabet does not have separate symbols for the alveolar consonants (the same symbol is used for all coronal places of articulation that aren't palatalized), it can represent this sound as in a number of ways including <θ̠>, <θ͇> (retracted or alveolarized θ, respectively), or <ɹ̝̊> (constricted voiceless ɹ).

Features

  • Its manner of articulation is simple fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence, but without the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.
  • Its place of articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
  • Its phonation type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
  • It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
  • It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
  • The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

Occurrence

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
English Scouse[6] and Hiberno-English attain [əˈθ̠eɪn] 'attain' Allophone of /t/ See English phonology
Icelandic þakið [θ̠akið̠] 'roof' See Icelandic phonology

See also

References

  1. ^ Phonological Features of African American Vernacular English
  2. ^ Wells (1982:565–66, 635)
  3. ^ Wells (1982:96–97, 328–30, 498, 500, 553, 557–58, 635)
  4. ^ Thelwall (1990:37)
  5. ^ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:255)
  6. ^ Marotta & Barth (2005:385)

Bibliography

v • d • e
Consonants
List · Table
Pulmonics Bila​bial Labio​d. Den​tal Alv. Post. Retro​fl. Pal​a​tal Ve​lar Uvu​lar Pha​ryn. Epi​glot​t. Glot​tal Non-pulmonics and other symbols [edit • talk]
Nasals m ɱ n̪ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ  Clicks  ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ
Plosives p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ  Impl.  ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ
Fricatives ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ  Eject.  pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ sʼ
Approxim. ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ  Affr.  p̪͡f t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ t͡ɕ d͡ʑ ʈ͡ʂ ɖ͡ʐ t͡ɬ d͡ɮ
Trills ʙ r • ʀ • Other laterals  ɺ • ɫ
Flaps / taps ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ ɽ • • Co-art. fricatives  ɕ ʑ ɧ
Lateral Fric. ɬ ɮ • • • Co-art. approxim.  ʍ w ɥ
Lateral Appr. l ɭ ʎ ʟ Co-articulated stops  k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m
This table contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help]
Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible.
See also IPA · Vowels






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