Editing Fricative

{{short description|Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel}}
{{IPA notice}}
A '''fricative''' is a [[consonant]] [[manner of articulation|produced]] by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two [[Place of articulation|articulators]] close together.<ref name=":0">{{SOWL}}</ref> These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of {{IPA|[f]}}; the back of the tongue against the [[soft palate]] in the case of [[German language|German]] {{IPA|[x]}} (the final consonant of ''[[Bach]]''); or the side of the tongue against the [[molar (tooth)|molar]]s, in the case of [[Welsh language|Welsh]] {{IPA|[ɬ]}} (appearing twice in the name ''[[Llanelli]]''). This turbulent airflow is called '''frication'''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of Frication |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frication|access-date=27 May 2021 |publisher=[[Merriam-Webster]]}}</ref> 

A particular subset of fricatives are the [[sibilant]]s. When forming a sibilant, one still is forcing air through a narrow channel, but in addition, the tongue is curled lengthwise to direct the air over the edge of the teeth.<ref name=":0" /> English {{IPA|[s]}}, {{IPA|[z]}}, {{IPA|[ʃ]}}, and {{IPA|[ʒ]}} are examples of sibilants.

The usage of two other terms is less standardized: "'''Spirant'''" is an older term for fricatives used by some American and European phoneticians and phonologists for non-sibilant fricatives.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Critical Introduction to Phonetics|last=Lodge|first=Ken|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|year=2009|isbn=978-0-8264-8873-2|location=New York|pages=36}}</ref> "'''Strident'''" could mean just "sibilant", but some authors{{Who|date=May 2019}} include also [[Labiodental consonant|labiodental]] and [[Uvular consonant|uvular]] fricatives in the class.

==Types==
The airflow is not completely stopped in the production of fricative consonants. In other words, the airflow experiences [[friction]].

===Sibilants===
* {{IPA|[s]}} [[voiceless alveolar fricative|voiceless coronal sibilant]], as in English ''s''ip
* {{IPA|[z]}} [[voiced alveolar fricative|voiced coronal sibilant]], as in English ''z''ip
** {{IPA|[s̪]}} [[voiceless dental sibilant]]
** {{IPA|[z̪]}} [[voiced dental sibilant]]
** {{IPA|[s̺]}} [[voiceless apicoalveolar fricative|voiceless apical sibilant]]
** {{IPA|[z̺]}} [[voiced apicoalveolar fricative|voiced apical sibilant]]
** {{IPA|[s̟]}} voiceless predorsal sibilant ([[laminal consonant|laminal]], with tongue tip at lower teeth)<ref>Pountain (2014) ''Exploring the Spanish Language'', p. 18</ref>
** {{IPA|[z̟]}} voiced predorsal sibilant (laminal)
** {{IPA|[s̠]}} [[voiceless postalveolar fricative|voiceless postalveolar sibilant]] (laminal)
** {{IPA|[z̠]}} [[voiced postalveolar fricative|voiced postalveolar sibilant]] (laminal)
* {{IPA|[ʃ]}} [[voiceless postalveolar fricative|voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant]] ([[domed consonant|domed]], partially palatalized), as in English ''sh''ip
* {{IPA|[ʒ]}} [[voiced postalveolar fricative|voiced palato-alveolar sibilant]] (domed, partially palatalized), as the ''si'' in English vi''si''on
* {{IPA|[ɕ]}} [[voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative|voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant]] (laminal, palatalized)
* {{IPA|[ʑ]}} [[voiced alveolo-palatal fricative|voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant]] (laminal, palatalized)
* {{IPA|[ʂ]}} [[voiceless retroflex fricative|voiceless retroflex sibilant]] ([[apical consonant|apical]] or [[subapical consonant|subapical]])
* {{IPA|[ʐ]}} [[voiced retroflex fricative|voiced retroflex sibilant]] (apical or subapical)

All [[sibilants]] are [[coronal consonant|coronal]], but may be [[dental consonant|dental]], [[alveolar consonant|alveolar]], [[postalveolar consonant|postalveolar]], or [[palatal consonant|palatal]] ([[retroflex consonant|retroflex]]) within that range. However, at the postalveolar place of articulation, the tongue may take several shapes: domed, [[laminal consonant|laminal]], or [[apical consonant|apical]], and each of these is given a separate symbol and a separate name. Prototypical retroflexes are [[subapical consonant|subapical]] and palatal, but they are usually written with the same symbol as the apical postalveolars. The alveolars and dentals may also be either apical or laminal, but this difference is indicated with diacritics rather than with separate symbols.

===Central non-sibilant fricatives===
* {{IPA|[ɸ]}} [[voiceless bilabial fricative]]
* {{IPA|[β]}} [[voiced bilabial fricative]]
* {{IPA|[f]}} [[voiceless labiodental fricative]], as in English ''f''ine
* {{IPA|[v]}} [[voiced labiodental fricative]], as in English ''v''ine
* {{IPA|[θ̼]}} [[voiceless linguolabial fricative]]
* {{IPA|[ð̼]}} [[voiced linguolabial fricative]]
* {{IPA|[θ], [θ̟]}} [[voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative]], as in English ''th''ing
* {{IPA|[ð], [ð̟]}} [[voiced dental non-sibilant fricative]], as in English ''th''at
* {{IPA|[θ̠], [ɹ̝̊]}} [[voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative]]
* {{IPA|[ð̠], [ɹ̝]}} [[voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative]]
* {{IPA|[r̝̊]}} [[Voiceless alveolar fricative trill]]
* {{IPA|[r̝]}} [[Voiced alveolar fricative trill]]
* {{IPA|[ç]}} [[voiceless palatal fricative]]
* {{IPA|[ʝ]}} [[voiced palatal fricative]]
* {{IPA|[x]}} [[voiceless velar fricative]]
* {{IPA|[ɣ]}} [[voiced velar fricative]]
* {{IPA|[ɧ]}} [[voiceless palatal-velar fricative]] (articulation disputed)

The IPA also has letters for epiglottal fricatives,
* {{IPA|[ʜ]}} [[voiceless epiglottal fricative]]
* {{IPA|[ʢ]}} [[voiced epiglottal fricative]]
with allophonic trilling, but these might be better analyzed as pharyngeal trills.<ref>John Esling (2010) "Phonetic Notation", in Hardcastle, Laver & Gibbon (eds) ''The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences'', 2nd ed., p 695.</ref>

* {{IPA|[ʩ]}} [[voiceless velopharyngeal fricative]] (often occurs with a [[cleft palate]])
* {{IPA|[ʩ̬]}} [[voiceless velopharyngeal fricative|voiced velopharyngeal fricative]]

===Lateral fricatives===
* {{IPA|[ɬ̪]}} [[voiceless dental lateral fricative]]
* {{IPA|[ɮ̪]}} [[voiced dental lateral fricative]]
* {{IPA|[ɬ]}} [[voiceless alveolar lateral fricative]]
* {{IPA|[ɮ]}} [[voiced alveolar lateral fricative]]
* {{IPA|[ɬ̠]}} [[voiceless postalveolar lateral fricative]] ([[Mehri language|Mehri]])
* {{IPA|[ɮ̠]}} [[voiced postalveolar lateral fricative]]
* {{IPA|[ɭ˔̥]}} or extIPA {{IPA|[ꞎ]}} [[voiceless retroflex lateral fricative]]
* {{IPA|[ɭ˔]}} or extIPA {{IPA|[𝼅]}} [[Voiced retroflex lateral fricative]] (in [[Ao language|Ao]])
* {{IPA|[ʎ̥˔]}} or {{IPA|[ʎ̝̥]}} or extIPA {{IPA|[𝼆]}} [[voiceless palatal lateral fricative]] 
* {{IPA|[ʎ̝]}} or extIPA {{IPA|[𝼆̬]}} [[voiced palatal lateral fricative]] (allophonic in [[Jebero language|Jebero]])
* {{IPA|[ʟ̝̊]}} or extIPA {{IPA|[𝼄]}} [[voiceless velar lateral fricative]] 
* {{IPA|[ʟ̝]}} or extIPA {{IPA|[𝼄̬]}} [[voiced velar lateral fricative]]

The lateral fricative occurs as the ''ll'' of [[Welsh phonology|Welsh]], as in ''[[Lloyd (name)|Lloyd]]'', ''[[Llewellyn (name)|Llewelyn]]'', and ''[[Machynlleth]]'' ({{IPA|[maˈxənɬɛθ]}}, a town), as the unvoiced 'hl' and voiced 'dl' or 'dhl' in the several languages of Southern Africa  (such as [[Xhosa language|Xhosa]] and [[Zulu language|Zulu]]), and in Mongolian.

* {{IPA|ʪ}} or {{IPA|[ɬ͜s]}} and {{IPA|[θ͜ɬ]}} [[voiceless lateral-median fricative]] (a [[lateral lisp|laterally lisped]] {{IPA|[s]}} or {{IPA|[θ]}}) (Modern South Arabian)
* {{IPA|ʫ}} or {{IPA|[ɮ͜z]}} and {{IPA|[ð͜ɮ]}} [[voiced lateral-median fricative]] (a laterally lisped {{IPA|[z]}} or {{IPA|[ð]}}) (Modern South Arabian)

===IPA letters used for both fricatives and approximants===
* {{IPA|[χ]}} [[voiceless uvular fricative]]
* {{IPA|[ʁ]}} [[voiced uvular fricative]]
* {{IPA|[ħ]}} [[voiceless pharyngeal fricative]]
* {{IPA|[ʕ]}} [[voiced pharyngeal fricative]]

No language distinguishes fricatives from [[approximants]] at these places, so the same symbol is used for both. For the pharyngeal, approximants are more numerous than fricatives. A fricative realization may be specified by adding the [[raised (phonetics)|uptack]] to the letters, {{IPA|[χ̝, ʁ̝, ħ̝, ʕ̝]}}. Likewise, the [[lowered (phonetics)|downtack]] may be added to specify an approximant realization, {{IPA|[χ̞, ʁ̞, ħ̞, ʕ̞]}}.

(The [[bilabial approximant]] and [[dental approximant]] do not have dedicated symbols either and are transcribed in a similar fashion: {{IPA|[β̞, ð̞]}}. However, the base letters are understood to specifically refer to the fricatives.)

===Pseudo-fricatives===

* {{IPA|[h]}} [[voiceless glottal fricative|voiceless glottal transition]], as in English ''hat''
* {{IPA|[ɦ]}} [[voiced glottal fricative|breathy-voiced glottal transition]]

In many languages, such as English or Korean, the glottal "fricatives" are unaccompanied [[phonation]] states of the glottis, without any accompanying [[manner of articulation|manner]], fricative or otherwise. They may be mistaken for real glottal constrictions in a number of languages, such as [[Finnish language|Finnish]].<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Laufer|1991|p=91}}</ref>

==={{anchor|Aspiration}}Aspirated fricatives===
Fricatives are very commonly voiced, though cross-linguistically voiced fricatives are not nearly as common as [[tenuis consonant|tenuis]] ("plain") fricatives.  Other [[phonation]]s are common in languages that have those phonations in their stop consonants.  However, phonemically [[aspirated consonant|aspirated]] fricatives are rare.  {{IPA|/s~sʰ/}} contrasts with a tense, unaspirated {{IPA|/s͈/}} in [[Korean language|Korean]]; aspirated fricatives are also found in a few [[Sino-Tibetan languages]], in some [[Oto-Manguean languages]], in the Siouan language [[Ofo language|Ofo]] ({{IPA|/sʰ/}} and {{IPA|/fʰ/}}), and in the (central?) [[Chumash languages]] ({{IPA|/sʰ/}} and {{IPA|/ʃʰ/}}). The record may be [[Cone Tibetan language|Cone Tibetan]], which has four contrastive aspirated fricatives: {{IPA|/sʰ/}} {{IPA|/ɕʰ/}}, {{IPA|/ʂʰ/}}, and {{IPA|/xʰ/}}.<ref>Guillaume Jacques 2011. A panchronic study of aspirated fricatives, with new evidence from Pumi, ''Lingua'' 121.9:1518-1538</ref>

===Nasalized fricatives===
Phonemically [[nasalization|nasalized]] fricatives are rare. [[Umbundu]] has {{IPA|/ṽ/}} and Kwangali and [[Souletin dialect|Souletin Basque]] have {{IPA|/h̃/}}. In [[Coatzospan Mixtec]], {{IPA|[β̃, ð̃, s̃, ʃ̃]}} appear allophonically before a nasal vowel, and in Igbo nasality is a feature of the syllable; when {{IPA|/f v s z ʃ ʒ/}} occur in nasal syllables they are themselves nasalized.<ref>Laver (1994: 255&ndash;256) ''Principles of Phonetics''</ref>

----
{|class="wikitable"
|+Types of fricative{{efn|There are likely to be more aspirated, murmured and nasal fricatives than shown here. {{angbr IPA|s̄ ṣ ŝ}} are not IPA transcription.}}
! ||bilabial||labio-<br>dental||linguo-<br>labial||inter-<br>dental||dental||denti-<br>alveolar||alveolar||post-<br>alveolar||palatal/<br>retroflex||velar||uvular||pharyn-<br>geal||glottal
|-align=center
!central non-sibilant
|rowspan=2|{{IPA|ɸ β}}||rowspan=2|{{IPA|f v}} <br>{{IPA|fʰ vʱ}}||{{IPA|θ̼ ð̼}}||{{nowrap|{{IPA|θ̟ ð̟  (θ̪͆ ð̪͆)}}}}||{{IPA|θ ð}}||{{IPA|θ̠ ð̠}}||{{nowrap|{{IPA|θ͇ ð͇}} <small>(laminal)</small>}}<br>{{IPA|ɹ̝̊ ɹ̝}} <small>(apical)</small>||{{IPA|ɹ̠̊˔ ɹ̠˔}}||{{IPA|ç ʝ}} <small>(laminal)</small><br>{{IPA|ɻ̝̊ ɻ̝}} <small>(apical)</small>||{{IPA|x ɣ}} <br>{{IPA|xʰ ɣʱ}}||{{IPA|χ̝ ʁ̝}}||{{IPA|ħ̝ ʕ̝}}||{{IPA|h̝}} <br>{{IPA|ɦ̝}}
|-align=center
![[lateral fricative]]
| || ||{{IPA|ɬ̪ ɮ̪}}|| ||{{IPA|ɬ ɮ}}<br>{{IPA|ɬʰ ɮʱ}}|| {{IPA|ɬ̠ ɮ̠}} ||{{nowrap|{{IPA|𝼆 ʎ̝}} <small>(laminal)</small>}}<br>{{IPA|ꞎ ɭ˔}} <small>(apical)</small>||{{IPA|𝼄 ʟ̝}}||
!colspan=2|
|-align=center
!laminal [[sibilant]]
!colspan=4| 
|{{IPA|s̻̪ z̻̪}} ||{{nowrap|{{IPA|s̄ z̄}} ({{IPA|s̟ z̟}})}}||{{IPA|{{IPA|s͇ z͇}}}} <br>{{IPA|s͇ʰ z͇ʱ}}||{{IPA|s̠ z̠}} ({{IPA|s̻̠ z̻̠}})<br>{{nowrap|{{IPA|ʃ̻ ʒ̻}} <small>(domed)</small>}}<br>{{nowrap|{{IPA|ŝ ẑ}} ({{IPA|ʆ ʓ}}) <small>(closed)</small>}}||{{IPA|ɕ ʑ}} <br>{{IPA|ɕʰ ʑʱ}}
!colspan=4| 
|-align=center
!apical sibilant
!colspan=4| 
|{{IPA|s̺̪ z̺̪}}
!
|{{IPA|s̺ z̺}}||{{nowrap|{{IPA|ṣ ẓ}} ({{IPA|s̺̠ z̺̠}})}}<br>{{IPA|ʃ̺ ʒ̺}}<br>ʃʰ ʒʱ||{{IPA|ʂ ʐ}} <br>{{IPA|ʂʰ ʐʱ}}
!colspan=4| 
|-align=center
![[fricative trill (disambiguation)|fricative trill]]
|colspan=6| ||{{IPA|r̝̊ r̝}}
|
!colspan=2| 
|{{IPA|ʀ̝̊ ʀ̝}}
|{{IPA|ʜ ʢ}}
!
|-align=center
![[fricative flap (disambiguation)|fricative flap]]
|colspan=6| ||{{IPA|ɾ̞̊ ɾ̞}}
|
!colspan=2| 
|
|
!
|-align=center
!nasalized fricative
| {{IPA|ɸ̃ β̃}}||{{IPA|f̃ ṽ}}|| || ||{{IPA|θ̃ ð̃}}|| ||{{IPA|s̃ z̃}}||{{IPA|ʃ̃ ʒ̃}}|| || || || ||{{IPA|h̃}}
|}

==Occurrence==
Until its extinction, [[Ubykh language|Ubykh]] may have been the language with the most fricatives (29 not including {{IPA|/h/}}), some of which did not have dedicated symbols or diacritics in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]. This number actually outstrips the number of all consonants in English (which has 24 consonants). By contrast, approximately 8.7% of the world's languages have no phonemic fricatives at all.<ref>Maddieson, Ian. 2008. "[http://wals.info/feature/18 Absence of Common Consonants]". In: Haspelmath, Martin & Dryer, Matthew S. & Gil, David & Comrie, Bernard (eds.) ''The World Atlas of Language Structures Online''. Munich: Max Planck Digital Library, chapter 18. Accessed on 2008-09-15.</ref> This is a typical feature of [[Australian Aboriginal languages]], where the few fricatives that exist result from changes to [[Plosive consonant|plosive]]s or [[approximant consonant|approximant]]s, but also occurs in some indigenous languages of [[Papuan languages|New Guinea]] and South America that have especially small numbers of consonants. However, whereas {{IPA|[h]}} is ''entirely'' unknown in indigenous Australian languages, most of the other languages without true fricatives do have {{IPA|[h]}} in their consonant inventory.

Voicing contrasts in fricatives are largely confined to Europe, Africa, and Western Asia. Languages of South and East Asia, such as [[Mandarin Chinese]], [[Korean language|Korean]], and the [[Austronesian languages]], typically do not have such voiced fricatives as {{IPA|[z]}} and {{IPA|[v]}}, which are familiar to many European speakers. In some [[Dravidian languages]] they occur as allophones. These voiced fricatives are also relatively rare in indigenous languages of the Americas. Overall, voicing contrasts in fricatives are much rarer than in plosives, being found only in about a third of the world's languages as compared to 60 percent for plosive voicing contrasts.<ref>Maddieson, Ian. "Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives", in Martin Haspelmath et al. (eds.) ''The World Atlas of Language Structures'', pp. 26–29. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. {{ISBN|0-19-925591-1}}.</ref>

About 15 percent of the world's languages, however, have ''unpaired voiced fricatives'', i.e. a voiced fricative without a voiceless counterpart. Two-thirds of these, or 10 percent of all languages, have unpaired voiced fricatives but no voicing contrast between any fricative pair.<ref>Maddieson, Ian. ''Patterns of Sounds''. Cambridge University Press, 1984. {{ISBN|0-521-26536-3}}.</ref>

This phenomenon occurs because voiced fricatives have developed from [[lenition]] of plosives or [[fortition]] of approximants. This phenomenon of unpaired voiced fricatives is scattered throughout the world, but is confined to nonsibilant fricatives with the exception of a couple of languages that have {{IPA|[ʒ]}} but lack {{IPA|[ʃ]}}. (Relatedly, several languages have the [[voiced postalveolar affricate|voiced affricate]] {{IPAblink|dʒ}} but lack {{IPA|[tʃ]}}, and vice versa.) The fricatives that occur most often without a voiceless counterpart are – in order of ratio of unpaired occurrences to total occurrences – {{IPA|[ʝ]}}, {{IPA|[β]}}, {{IPA|[ð]}}, {{IPA|[ʁ]}} and {{IPA|[ɣ]}}.

==Acoustics==
Fricatives appear in [[waveforms]] as somewhat random noise caused by the turbulent airflow, upon which a periodic pattern is overlaid if voiced.<ref>{{cite book|last=Zsiga|first=Elizabeth C.|author-link=Elizabeth Zsiga|year=2013|title=The Sounds of Language: An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|page=129|isbn=978-1-4051-9103-6}}</ref> Fricatives produced in the front of the mouth tend to have energy concentration at higher frequencies than ones produced in the back.<ref>{{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Keith|year=2012|title=Acoustic and Auditory Phonetics|edition=3rd|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|pages=162–3|isbn=978-1-4051-9466-2}}</ref> The centre of gravity (''CoG''), i.e. the average frequency in a spectrum weighted by the amplitude (also known as ''spectral mean''), may be used to determine the place of articulation of a fricative relative to that of another.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kiss|first=Zoltán G.|year=2013|chapter=Measuring acoustic correlates of voicing in stops and fricatives|editor-last=Szigetvári|editor-first=Péter|title=VLlxx: Papers Presented to László Varga on His 70th Birthday|location=Budapest|publisher=Department of English Linguistics, Eötvös Loránd University|chapter-url=http://seas3.elte.hu/VLlxx/gkiss.html}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Affricate]]
* [[Apical consonant]]
* [[Hush consonant]]
* [[Laminal consonant]]
* [[List of phonetics topics]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin}}

* {{citation
|last=Laufer
|first=Asher
|year=1991
|title=Phonetic Representation: Glottal Fricatives
|journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association
|volume=21
|issue=2
|pages=91–93
|doi=10.1017/S0025100300004448
|s2cid=145231104
}}
{{refend}}
== External links ==
* [http://calleteach.wordpress.com/2010/01/10/sounds-of-english-fricatives/ Fricatives in English]

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