Voiceless dental fricative

Template:Short description Template:Infobox IPA

The voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to most 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 Template:Angbr IPA, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is T. The IPA symbol is the lowercase Greek letter theta, which is used for this sound in post-classical 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.

This sound and its voiced counterpart are rare phonemes, occurring in 4% of languages in a phonological analysis of 2,155 languages.<ref>Phoible.org. (2018). PHOIBLE Online - Segments. [online] Available at: http://phoible.org/parameters.</ref> Among the more than 60 languages with over 10 million speakers, only English, northern varieties of the Berber languages 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.Template: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 ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}) (as in Indonesian), voiceless dental stop ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}), or a voiceless labiodental fricative ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}); known respectively as th-alveolarization, th-stopping,<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> and th-fronting.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt, cited in Template:Harvcoltxt</ref><ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> 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 modern vernacular varieties of Arabic, like Egyptian Arabic. Standard Arabic, and various dialects like Mesopotamian Arabic still retain the sound and its voiced counterpart {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.

FeaturesEdit

Features of the voiceless 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:Voiceless Template:Oral Template:Central articulation Template:Pulmonic

OccurrenceEdit

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Albanian		lang}}	main}}	'says'
Arabic	Modern Standard<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	lang}}	Template:Audio-IPA	'a dress'	Represented by Template:Angbr. See Arabic phonology.
	Eastern Libya	lang}}	main}}	'three'
	Sanaa, Yemen<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>Template:Full citation needed	lang}}	main}}	'it is priced'
	Iraq	lang}}	main}}	'eight'
	Khuzestan, Iran<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	lang}}	main}}	'the second one'
Aragonese		lang}}	main}}	'bush'
Arapaho		lang}}	main}}	'five'
Arpitan	Template:Ill and Savoyard	marchiê	main}}	'market'
	Template:Ill	èthêla	main}}	'star'
	Template:Ill	cllâf	main}}	'key'	Limited to Template:Ill (VD), Bourg-Saint-Pierre (VS), and a few other villages.
Assyrian		ܒܝܬܐ bèṭa	main}}	'house'	Mostly used in the Western, Barwari, Tel Keppe, Batnaya and Alqosh dialects; realized as Template:IPAblink in other varieties.
Asturian		lang}}	main}}	'juice'
Avestan		lang}} xšaθra	main}}	'kingdom'	Ancient dead sacred language.
Bashkir		lang}}	Template:Audio-IPA	'friend'
Berber		lang}}	main}}	'Berber (language)'(noun)	This pronunciation is common in northern Morocco, central Morocco, and northern Algeria.
Berta		{{#invoke:IPA\|main}}		'to eat'
Burmese<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		lang}} / thon:	main}}	'three'	Commonly realized as an affricate Template:IPAblink.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
Cornish		lang}}	main}}	'eight'
Emiliano-Romagnol<ref>Fig. 11 La zeta bolognese Template:In lang</ref>		lang}}	main}}	'face'
English	Most dialects	thin	Template:Audio-IPA	'thin'	See English phonology
Galician	Most dialects<ref name="regueira">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	lang}}	main}}	'zero'	main}} into Template:IPAblink in Western dialects.<ref name="regueira"/> See Galician phonology
Greek		lang}}	main}}	'sea'	See Modern Greek phonology
Gweno		{{#invoke:IPA\|main}}		'eye'
Gwich’in		lang}}	main}}	'pants'
Halkomelem		lang}}	main}}	'tree'
Hän		lang}}	main}}	'I want'
Harsusi		{{#invoke:IPA\|main}}		'two'
Hebrew	Iraqi	{{#invoke:Lang\|lang}}	main}}	'Hebrew' (language)	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hebrew	Yemenite	{{#invoke:Lang\|lang}}	main}}	'Hebrew' (language)	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hlai	Basadung	{{#invoke:IPA\|main}}		'one'
Italian	Tuscan<ref name="hall">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	lang}}	main}}	'the captains'	main}}.<ref name="hall"/> See Italian phonology and Tuscan gorgia
Kabyle		lang}}	main}}	'light'(noun)
Karen	Sgaw	သၢ	main}}	'three'
Karuk		yiθa	main}}	'one'
Kickapoo		neθwi	main}}	'three'
Kwama		{{#invoke:IPA\|main}}		'to laugh'
Leonese		ceru	main}}	'zero'
Lorediakarkar		{{#invoke:IPA\|main}}		'four'
Malay		lang}}	main}}	'Tuesday'	main}} sound and this sound must be learned separately by the speakers. See Malay phonology.
Massa		{{#invoke:IPA\|main}}		'five'
Occitan	Gascon	macipon	main}}	'(male) child'	Limited the sub-dialects of the region of Castillonais, in the Ariège department.
Occitan	Vivaro-Alpine	chin	main}}	'dog'	Limited to Vénosc, in the Isère department.
Old Persian		lang}} xšāyaθiya	main}}	'king'	This sound does not occur in modern Persian.
Saanich		TÁŦES	main}}	'eight'
Sardinian	Nuorese	lang}}	main}}	'meat'
Scottish Gaelic	Tayinloan and Jura	lang}}	main}}	'stream'	main}} before {{#invoke:IPA\|main}} in certain Argyll dialects.
Shark Bay		{{#invoke:IPA\|main}}		'four'
Shawnee		lang}}	main}}	'three'
Sioux	Nakoda	ktusa	main}}	'four'
Spanish	European<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	{{#invoke:Lang\|lang}}	{{#invoke:IPA\|main}}	'to hunt'	Interdental. See Spanish phonology and Seseo. This sound is not contrastive in the Americas, southern Andalusia or the Canary Islands.
Spanish	Castilian	{{#invoke:Lang\|lang}}	{{#invoke:IPA\|main}}	'wall'	Word-final, especially in Madrid.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref><ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> Corresponds to {{#invoke:IPA\|main}} in standard Spanish.
Swahili		lang}}	main}}	'value'	Mostly occurs in Arabic loanwords originally containing this sound.
Tanacross		lang}}	main}}	'embers'
Toda			main}}	'nine'
Turkmen		sen	main}}	'you'	Realization of the /z/ phoneme
Tutchone	Northern	lang}}	main}}	'pants'
Tutchone	Southern	lang}}	main}}	'pants'
Upland Yuman	Havasupai	{{#invoke:IPA\|main}}		'five'
	Hualapai	{{#invoke:IPA\|main}}
	Yavapai	{{#invoke:IPA\|main}}
Venetian	Eastern dialects	lang}}	main}}	'five'	main}} in other dialects.
Wolaytta		lang}}	main}}	'flower'
Welsh		lang}}	main}}	'seven'
Zhuang		lang}}	main}}	'language'
Zotung	Standard dialect of Lungngo	kacciade	{{#invoke:IPA\|main}}	'I go'	main}} and {{#invoke:IPA\|main}} in Aikap and other Northern dialects. It can also be voiced depending on the preceding consonant.

Voiceless denti-alveolar sibilantEdit

Template:Infobox IPA

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 Template:Angbr IPA or Template:Angbr IPA (using the Template:Angbr IPA, the diacritic marking a laminal consonant, and Template:Angbr IPA, the diacritic marking a dental consonant). It is usually represented by an ad-hoc symbol such as Template:Angbr IPA, Template:Angbr IPA, or Template:Angbr IPA (advanced diacritic).

Template:Harvcoltxt describes this sound as follows: "{{#invoke:IPA|main}} 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 {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, 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 {{#invoke:IPA|main}} ... Canfield has referred, quite correctly, in our opinion, to this {{#invoke:IPA|main}} as "the lisping coronal-dental," and Amado Alonso remarks how close it is to the post-dental {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, suggesting a combined symbol {{#invoke:IPA|main}} to represent it".

FeaturesEdit

Features of the voiceless denti-alveolar sibilant:

Template:Sibilant

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 laminal, which means it is pronounced with the blade of the tongue.<ref name=Dalbor>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>

Template:Voiceless Template:Oral Template:Fricative Template:Pulmonic