Voiced dental fricative

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 {{#invoke:IPA|main}} 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 (as in Received Pronunciation), and not just against the back of the upper teeth, as they are with other dental consonants.

The letter Template:Angbr IPA is sometimes used to represent the dental approximant, a similar sound, which no language is known to contrast with a dental non-sibilant fricative.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> However, the approximant can be explicitly indicated with the lowering diacritic: Template:Angbr IPA. Very rarely used variant transcriptions of the dental approximant include Template:Angbr IPA (retracted Template:IPAblink), Template:Angbr IPA (advanced Template:IPAblink) and Template:Angbr IPA (Template:Notatypo Template:IPAblink). It has been proposed that either a turned ⟨{{#invoke:IPA|main}}⟩<ref>Kenneth S. Olson, Jeff Mielke, Josephine Sanicas-Daguman, Carol Jean Pebley & Hugh J. Paterson III, 'The phonetic status of the (inter)dental approximant', Journal of the International Phonetic Association, Vol. 40, No. 2 (August 2010), pp. 201–211</ref> or reversed Template:Nowrap begin⟨{{#invoke:IPA|main}}⟩Template:Nowrap end<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> be used as a dedicated symbol for the dental approximant, but despite occasional usage, this has not gained general acceptance.

The fricative and its unvoiced counterpart are rare phonemes. Almost all languages of Europe and Asia, such as German, lack the sound. Native speakers of languages without the sound often have difficulty enunciating or distinguishing it, and they replace it with a voiced alveolar sibilant {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, a voiced dental stop or voiced alveolar stop {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, or a voiced labiodental fricative {{#invoke:IPA|main}}; known respectively as th-alveolarization, th-stopping, and th-fronting. As for Europe, there seems to be a great arc where the sound (and/or its unvoiced variant) is present. Most of Mainland Europe lacks the sound. However, some "periphery" languages such as Greek have the sound in their consonant inventories, as phonemes or allophones.

Within Turkic languages, Bashkir and Turkmen have both voiced and voiceless dental non-sibilant fricatives among their consonants. Among Semitic languages, they are used in Modern Standard Arabic, albeit not by all speakers of modern Arabic dialects, and in some dialects of Hebrew and Assyrian.

Features

Features of the voiced dental non-sibilant fricative:

Template:Fricative It does not have the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant. Template:Dental Template:Voiced Template:Oral Template:Central articulation Template:Pulmonic

Occurrence

In the following transcriptions, the undertack diacritic may be used to indicate an approximant {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Albanian		lang}}	main}}	'idol'
Aleut<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation		CitationClass=web }}</ref>|| {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}|| {{#invoke:IPA|main}}|| 'house' ||
Arabic	Modern Standard<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}	{{#invoke:IPA|main}}	'gold'	See Arabic phonology. Represented by the letter ḏāl.
	Gulf
	Najdi
	Tunisian		main}}		See Tunisian Arabic phonology
Arpitan	Template:Ill and Savoyard	Genèva	main}}	'Geneva'	Generally represents the "j" and "ge/gi" phonemes in standard spelling.
	Bressan	vachiére	main}}	'woman cow herder'	Bressan dialect, like the Geneva and many Savoy ones, express "j" and "ge/gi" (in standard Arpitan spelling) as voiced dental fricatives. In addition, however, its dialects often express the intervocalic "r" as such as well.
AromanianTemplate:Sfnp		lang}}	main}}	'butter whey'	Corresponds to Template:IPAblink in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Assyrian		ܘܪܕܐ werda	main}}]	'flower'	Common in the Tyari, Barwari, and Western dialects. Corresponds to Template:IPAblink in other varieties.
Asturian	Some dialects	lang}}	main}}	'to do'	Alternative realization of etymological Template:Angbr. Can also be realized as Template:IPAblink.
Bashkir		{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} / {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}	Template:Audio-IPA	'goose'
Basque<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		lang}}	main}}	'horn'	main}}
Berta		{{#invoke:IPA|main}}		'to sweep'
Burmese<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		lang}}	main}}	'inlander'	Commonly realized as an affricate Template:IPAblink.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
Catalan<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		lang}}	main}}	'each'	main}}. See Catalan phonology
Cree	Woods Cree (th-dialect)	lang}}	main}}	'I'	Reflex of Proto-Algonguian *r. Shares features of a sonorant.
Dahalo<ref name="mad34">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		Template:Example needed			main}}, and may be simply a plosive Template:IPAblink instead.<ref name="mad34"/>
Elfdalian		lang}}	main}}	'wait'
Emilian	Bolognese	żänt	main}}	'people'
English	Received PronunciationTemplate:Sfnp	this	main}}	'this'
	Western American English		Template:Audio-IPA		Interdental.Template:Sfnp
Extremaduran		lang}}	main}}	'to do'	main}}
Fijian		lang}}	main}}	'nine'
Galician	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	lang}}	main}}	'to do'	Alternative realization of etymological Template:Angbr. Can also be realized as {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.
German	Austrian<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> || {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} || {{#invoke:IPA|main}} || 'unfortunately' || Intervocalic allophone of {{#invoke:IPA|main}} in casual speech. See Standard German phonology
Greek		lang}} / Template:Transliteration	main}}	'laurel'	See Modern Greek phonology
Gwich'in		lang}}	main}}	'you want'
Hän		lang}}	main}}	'hide'
Harsusi		{{#invoke:IPA|main}}		'bee'
Hebrew	Iraqi	lang}}	Template:Audio-IPA	'my lord'	Commonly pronounced Template:IPAblink. See Modern Hebrew phonology
	Temani	lang}}/ğaḏol	main}}	'large, great'	See Yemenite Hebrew
Judeo-Spanish	Many dialects	lang}} / {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}	main}}	'creator'	main}} in many dialects.
Kabyle		lang}}	main}}	'to be exhausted'
Kagayanen<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		lang}}	main}}	'spirit'
Kurdish		Template:Example needed			main}}. See Kurdish phonology.
Malay	Malaysian	azan	main}}	'azan'	main}}. See Malay phonology
Malayalam		'അത്'	main}}	'That'	Colloquial usage.
Mari	Eastern dialect	lang}}	main}}	'lung'
Norman	Jèrriais	lang}}	main}}	'mother'	main}}, and sometimes as {{#invoke:IPA|main}} or {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.
Northern Sámi		lang}}	main}}	'science'
Norwegian	Meldal dialect<ref name="Vanvik14">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	lang}}	main}}	'in'	main}} in other dialects. See Norwegian phonology
Occitan	Gascon	lang}}	main}}	'what I should'	main}}. See Occitan phonology
Portuguese	European<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	lang}}	main}}	'nothing'	main}}, mainly after an oral vowel.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> See Portuguese phonology
Sardinian		lang}}	Template:Audio-IPA	'nest'	main}}
Scottish Gaelic	Many Outer Hebrides dialects<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	lang}}	main}}	'Mary'	Often slightly palatalized. Common Hebridean realisation of /ɾʲ/, standard in Lewis<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> and also common in Harris, Benbecula and South Uist; otherwise realized as {{#invoke:IPA|main}},<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> as Template:IPAblink in southern Barra, or as Template:IPAblink in Tiree.
Sioux	Lakota	lang}}	main}}	'five'	main}}
Spanish	Most dialects<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	lang}}	main}}	'finger'	Ranges from close fricative to approximant.<ref>Phonetic studies such as Template:Harvcoltxt have found that Spanish voiced stops may surface as spirants with various degrees of constriction. These allophones are not limited to regular fricative articulations, but range from articulations that involve a near complete oral closure to articulations involving a degree of aperture quite close to vocalization</ref> Allophone of {{#invoke:IPA|main}}. See Spanish phonology
Swahili		lang}}	main}}	'sin'	Mostly occurs in Arabic loanwords originally containing this sound.
Swedish	Central Standard<ref name="engstrand">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	lang}}	main}}	'to take a bath'	main}} in casual speech. See Swedish phonology
	Some dialects<ref name="Vanvik14"/>Template:Better source needed	lang}}	main}}	'in'	A syllabic palatalized frictionless approximant<ref name="Vanvik14"/>Template:Better source needed corresponding to {{#invoke:IPA|main}} in Central Standard Swedish. See Swedish phonology
Syriac	Western Neo-Aramaic	lang}}	main}}	'to take'
Tamil		lang}}	main}}	'nine'	main}}. See Tamil phonology
Tanacross		lang}}	main}}	'liver'
Turkmen		ýyldyz	main}}	'star'	main}} phoneme
Tutchone	Northern	lang}}	main}}	'hide'
	Southern	lang}}	main}}
Venetian		lang}}	main}}	'midday'
Welsh		lang}}	main}}	'bard'	See Welsh phonology
Zapotec	Tilquiapan<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	Template:Example needed			main}}

Danish {{#invoke:IPA|main}} is actually a velarized alveolar approximant.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref><ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>

See also

• Voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative
• Template:Section link
• Index of phonetics articles

References

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External links

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