Voiceless dental fricative

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Voiceless dental fricative
θ
IPA Number 130
Audio sample
source  · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)θ
Unicode (hex)U+03B8
X-SAMPA T
Braille Braille DecimalPoint.svg Braille O.svg

The voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to English speakers as the 'th' in think. Though rather rare as a phoneme among the world's languages, it is encountered in some of the most widespread and influential ones. 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 post-classical Greek, and the sound is thus often referred to as "theta".

Contents

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.

This sound and its voiced counterpart are rare phonemes, occurring in 4% of languages in a phonological analysis of 2,155 languages. [1] Among the more than 60 languages with over 10 million speakers, only English, northern varieties of the Berber language of North Africa, Standard Peninsular Spanish, various dialects of Arabic, Swahili (in words derived from Arabic), and Greek have the voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative.[ citation needed ] 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 (/s/) (as in Indonesian), voiceless dental stop (/t/), or a voiceless labiodental fricative (/f/); known respectively as th-alveolarization, th-stopping, [2] and th-fronting. [3]

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 Scots, English, and Icelandic, but it is alveolar in the last of these. [4] [5] Among non-Germanic Indo-European languages as a whole, the sound was also once much more widespread, but is today preserved in a few languages including the Brythonic languages, Peninsular Spanish, Galician, Venetian, Tuscan, Albanian, some Occitan dialects and Greek. It has likewise disappeared from many Semitic languages, such as Hebrew (excluding Yemenite Hebrew) and many modern varieties of Arabic (excluding Tunisian, Mesopotamian Arabic and various dialects in the Arabian Peninsula, as well as Modern Standard Arabic).

Features

Features of the voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative:

Occurrence

LanguageWord IPA MeaningNotes
Albanian thotë [θɔtə]'says'
Arabic Modern Standard [6] ثَوْب [θawb] ⓘ 'a dress'Represented by ⟨ ث ⟩. See Arabic phonology.
Eastern Libyaثِلاثة[θɪˈlæːθæ]'three'
Sanaa, Yemen [7] [ full citation needed ]يِثَمَّن[jɪˈθæmːæn]'it is priced'
Iraqثمانْية[θ(ɪ)ˈmæːnjæ]'eight'
Khuzestan, Iran [8] الثانْية[ɪθˈθæːnjæ]'the second one'
Aragonese arbuzo[arˈbuθo]'bush'
Arapaho yoo3on[jɔːθɔn]'five'
Arpitan Genevan  [ fr ] and Savoyard marchiê[maʁθ'ia]'market'
Fribourgeois  [ fr ]èthêla[e'θɛːla]'star'
Valaisan  [ fr ]clâf[θo]'key'Limited to l'Étivaz  [ fr ] (VD), Bourg-Saint-Pierre (VS), and a few other villages.
Assyrian ܒܝܬܐ bèṭa[beːθa]'house'Mostly used in the Western, Barwari, Tel Keppe, Batnaya and Alqosh dialects; realized as [ t ] in other varieties.
Asturian zumu [ˈθumu]'juice'
Avestan 𐬑𐬱𐬀𐬚𐬭𐬀‎xšaθra[xʃaθra]'kingdom'Ancient dead sacred language.
Bashkir дуҫ / duθ [duθ] ⓘ 'friend'
Berber Ṯmaziɣṯ [θmæzɪɣθ]'Berber (language)'(noun)This pronunciation is common in northern Morocco, central Morocco, and northern Algeria.
Berta [θɪ́ŋɑ̀]'to eat'
Burmese [9] သုံး / thon: [θòʊ̯̃]'three'Commonly realized as an affricate [ t̪͡θ ]. [10]
Cornish eth[ɛθ]'eight'
Emiliano-Romagnol [11] fâza[ˈfaːθɐ]'face'
English Received Pronunciation [12] thin [θɪn]'thin'
Western American [θ̪͆ɪn] ⓘ Interdental. [12]
Galician Most dialects [13] cero[ˈθɛɾo]'zero'Merges with /s/ into [ s ] in Western dialects. [13] See Galician phonology
Greek θάλασσα [ˈθalasa]'sea'See Modern Greek phonology
Gweno [riθo]'eye'
Gwich’in thał[θaɬ]'pants'
Halkomelem θqet[θqet]'tree'
Hän nihthän[nihθɑn]'I want'
Harsusi [θəroː]'two'
Hebrew Iraqi עברית [ʕibˈriːθ]'Hebrew' (language)See Modern Hebrew phonology
Yemenite [ʕivˈriːθ]
Hlai Basadung[θsio]'one'
Italian Tuscan [14] i capitani [iˌhäɸiˈθäːni]'the captains'Intervocalic allophone of /t/. [14] See Italian phonology and Tuscan gorgia
Kabyle ṯafaṯ [θafaθ]'light'(noun)
Karen Sgaw သၢ [θə˧]'three'
Karuk yiθa[jiθa]'one'
Kickapoo neθwi[nɛθwi]'three'
Kwama [mɑ̄ˈθíl]'to laugh'
Leonese ceru[θeɾu]'zero'
Lorediakarkar [θar]'four'
Malay Selasa[θəlaθa]'Tuesday'Mostly occurs in Arabic loanwords originally containing this sound, but the writing is not distinguished from the Arabic loanwords with the [s] sound and this sound must be learned separately by the speakers. See Malay phonology.
Massa [faθ]'five'
Occitan Gasconmacipon[maθiˈpu]'(male) child'Limited the sub-dialects of the region of Castillonais, in the Ariège department.
Vivaro-Alpinechin[θĩ]'dog'Limited to Vénosc, in the Isère department.
Old Persian 𐎧𐏁𐎠𐎹𐎰𐎡𐎹xšāyaθiya[xʃaːjaθija]'king'Ancient dead language.
Saanich TÁŦES[teθʔəs]'eight'
Sardinian Nuoresepetha[pɛθa]'meat'
Shark Bay [θar]'four'
Shawnee nthwi[nθwɪ]'three'
Sioux Nakoda ktusa[ktũˈθa]'four'
Spanish European [15] cazar [käˈθ̪͆äɾ]'to hunt'Interdental. See Spanish phonology and Seseo . This sound is not contrastive in the Americas, southern Andalusia or the Canary Islands.
Castilian pared[paˈɾeθ]'wall'Word-final, especially in Madrid. [16] [17] Corresponds to [ð] in standard Spanish.
Swahili thamini [θɑˈmini]'value'Mostly occurs in Arabic loanwords originally containing this sound.
Tanacross thiit[θiːtʰ]'embers'
Toda உஇனபஒத [wɨnboθ]'nine'
Tutchone Northern tho[θo]'pants'
Southern thü[θɨ]
Upland Yuman Havasupai [θerap]'five'
Hualapai [θarap]
Yavapai [θerapi]
Venetian Eastern dialectsçinque[ˈθiŋkwe]'five'Corresponds to /s/ in other dialects.
Wolaytta shiththa[ɕiθθa]'flower'
Welsh saith [saiθ]'seven'
Zhuang saw [θaːu˨˦]'language'
Zotung Standard dialect of Lungngokacciade[kəˈθʲaːðɛ]'I go'Realized as [sʲ] and [t] in Aikap and other Northern dialects. It can also be voiced depending on the preceding consonant.

Voiceless denti-alveolar sibilant

Voiceless denti-alveolar sibilant
s̻̪
s̪̻
s̟
Encoding
X-SAMPA s_m_d

The voiceless denti-alveolar sibilant is the only sibilant fricative in some dialects of Andalusian Spanish. It has no official symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet, though its features would be transcribed ⟨s̻̪⟩ or ⟨s̪̻⟩ (using the ⟨◌̻⟩, the diacritic marking a laminal consonant, and ⟨◌̪⟩, the diacritic marking a dental consonant). It is usually represented by an ad-hoc symbol such as ⟨s̄⟩, ⟨θˢ̣⟩, or ⟨s̟⟩ (advanced diacritic).

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 [θˢ̣] to represent it".

Features

Features of the voiceless denti-alveolar sibilant:

Occurrence

LanguageWord IPA MeaningNotes
Spanish Andalusian [18] casa [ˈkäs̻̪ä]'house'Present in dialects with ceceo . See Spanish phonology

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Phoible.org. (2018). PHOIBLE Online - Segments. [online] Available at: http://phoible.org/parameters.
  2. ↑ Wells (1982 :565–66, 635)
  3. ↑ Wells (1982 :96–97, 328–30, 498, 500, 553, 557–58, 635)
  4. ↑ Pétursson (1971 :?), cited in Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996 :145)
  5. ↑ Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996 :144–145)
  6. ↑ Thelwall (1990 :37)
  7. ↑ [[#CITEREF|]]:224)
  8. ↑ Versteegh (2001 :159)
  9. ↑ Watkins (2001 :291–292)
  10. ↑ Watkins (2001 :292)
  11. ↑ Fig. 11 La zeta bolognese (in Italian)
  12. 1 2 Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 143.
  13. 1 2 Regueira (1996 :119–120)
  14. 1 2 Hall (1944 :75)
  15. ↑ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003 :255)
  16. ↑ García Mouton & Molina Martos (2016 :283–296)
  17. ↑ Molina Martos (2016 :347–367)
  18. 1 2 Dalbor (1980 :9)

Related Research Articles

A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in the case of German ; or the side of the tongue against the molars, in the case of Welsh. This turbulent airflow is called frication.

A dental consonant is a consonant articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth, such as, . In some languages, dentals are distinguished from other groups, such as alveolar consonants, in which the tongue contacts the gum ridge. Dental consonants share acoustic similarity and in Latin script are generally written with consistent symbols.

The field of articulatory phonetics is a subfield of phonetics that studies articulation and ways that humans produce speech. Articulatory phoneticians explain how humans produce speech sounds via the interaction of different physiological structures. Generally, articulatory phonetics is concerned with the transformation of aerodynamic energy into acoustic energy. Aerodynamic energy refers to the airflow through the vocal tract. Its potential form is air pressure; its kinetic form is the actual dynamic airflow. Acoustic energy is variation in the air pressure that can be represented as sound waves, which are then perceived by the human auditory system as sound.

Sibilants are fricative consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words sip, zip, ship, and genre. The symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet used to denote the sibilant sounds in these words are, respectively,. Sibilants have a characteristically intense sound, which accounts for their paralinguistic use in getting one's attention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pharyngealization</span> Articulation of consonants or vowels

Pharyngealization is a secondary articulation of consonants or vowels by which the pharynx or epiglottis is constricted during the articulation of the sound.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Retroflex consonant</span> Type of consonant articulation

A retroflex, apico-domal, or cacuminalconsonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants—especially in Indology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voiced retroflex lateral approximant</span> Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ɭ⟩ in IPA

The voiced retroflex lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɭ ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is l`.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voiced dental and alveolar lateral fricatives</span> Consonantal sounds represented by ⟨ɮ⟩ in IPA

The voiced alveolar lateral fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiced dental, alveolar, and postalveolar lateral fricatives is ⟨ɮ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is K\.

The voiced alveolar fricatives are consonantal sounds. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents these sounds depends on whether a sibilant or non-sibilant fricative is being described.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voiced dental fricative</span> Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ð⟩ in IPA

The voiced dental fricative is a consonant sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to English-speakers as the th sound in father. Its symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is eth, or and was taken from the Old English and Icelandic letter eth, which could stand for either a voiced or unvoiced (inter)dental non-sibilant fricative. Such 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 teeth, as they are with other dental consonants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voiced retroflex fricative</span> Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ʐ⟩ in IPA

The voiced retroflex 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 ⟨ʐ ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is z`. Like all the retroflex consonants, the IPA symbol is formed by adding a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of a z.

A voiceless postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The International Phonetic Association uses the term voiceless postalveolar fricative only for the sound, but it also describes the voiceless postalveolar non-sibilant fricative, for which there are significant perceptual differences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voiceless retroflex fricative</span> Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ʂ⟩ in IPA

The voiceless retroflex 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 ⟨ʂ⟩ which is a Latin letter s combined with a retroflex hook. Like all the retroflex consonants, the IPA letter is formed by adding a rightward-pointing hook to the bottom of ⟨s⟩. A distinction can be made between laminal, apical, and sub-apical articulations. Only one language, Toda, appears to have more than one voiceless retroflex sibilant, and it distinguishes subapical palatal from apical postalveolar retroflex sibilants; that is, both the tongue articulation and the place of contact on the roof of the mouth are different.

A voiceless alveolar affricate is a type of affricate consonant pronounced with the tip or blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge just behind the teeth. This refers to a class of sounds, not a single sound. There are several types with significant perceptual differences:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laminal consonant</span> Phone (speech sound)

A laminal consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue in contact with upper lip, teeth, alveolar ridge, to possibly, as far back as the prepalatal arch, although in the last contact may involve parts behind the blade as well. It is distinct from an apical consonant, produced by creating an obstruction with the tongue apex only. Sometimes laminal is used exclusively for an articulation that involves only the blade of the tongue with the tip being lowered and apicolaminal for an articulation that involves both the blade of the tongue and the raised tongue tip. The distinction applies only to coronal consonants, which use the front of the tongue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apical consonant</span> Phone (speech sound)

An apical consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the tip of the tongue (apex) in conjunction with upper articulators from lips to postalveolar, and possibly prepalatal. It contrasts with laminal consonants, which are produced by creating an obstruction with the blade of the tongue, just behind the tip. Sometimes apical is used exclusively for an articulation that involves only the tip of the tongue and apicolaminal for an articulation that involves both the tip and the blade of the tongue. However, the distinction is not always made and the latter one may be called simply apical, especially when describing an apical dental articulation. As there is some laminal contact in the alveolar region, the apicolaminal dental consonants are also labelled as denti-alveolar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voiceless alveolar nasal</span> Consonantal sound represented by ⟨n̥⟩ in IPA

The voiceless alveolar nasal is a type of consonant in some languages. The symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represent the sound are ⟨n̥⟩ and ⟨n̊⟩, combinations of the letter for the voiced alveolar nasal and a diacritic indicating voicelessness above or below the letter. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is n_0.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voiceless alveolar trill</span> Consonantal sound represented by ⟨r̥⟩ in IPA

The voiceless alveolar trill differs from the voiced alveolar trill only by the vibrations of the vocal cord. It occurs in a few languages, usually alongside the voiced version, as a similar phoneme or an allophone.

The voiceless alveolar fricatives are a type of fricative consonant pronounced with the tip or blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge just behind the teeth. This refers to a class of sounds, not a single sound. There are at least six types with significant perceptual differences:

The voiceless dental non-sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represent this sound are ⟨t͡θ⟩, ⟨t͜θ⟩, ⟨t̪͡θ⟩, and ⟨t̟͡θ⟩.

References

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