Voiceless alveolar fricative
Encyclopedia : V : VO : VOI : Voiceless alveolar fricative
| IPA – number | 132 |
| IPA – text | |
| IPA – image | 
|
| Entity | s |
| X-SAMPA | s |
| Kirshenbaum | s |
- The symbol for the alveolar sibilant is s, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is s. The IPA symbol [s] is not normally used for dental or postalveolar sibilants unless modified by a diacritic ([s̪] and [s̠] respectively).
- The IPA symbol for the alveolar non-sibilant fricative is derived by means of diacritics; it can be θ̠ or ɹ̝̊, or it can be [θ͇], using the alveolar diacritic from the Extended IPA. (Pandeli et al 1997)
| coronal fricatives | dental | alveolar | postalveolar |
|---|---|---|---|
| sibilant | |||
| non-sibilant |
The voiceless alveolar sibilant
The voiceless alveolar sibilant is one of the most common consonants. If a language has fricatives, it will most likely have an [s] (Maddieson, 1984). However, [s] is absent from Australian Aboriginal languages, where fricatives are rare, and the few languages that have developed fricatives do not have sibilants.
Features
Features of the voiceless alveolar sibilant:
- Its manner of articulation is sibilant fricative, which means it is produced by directing air flow through a groove in the tongue at the place of articulation and directing it over the sharp edge of the teeth, causing high-frequency turbulence.
- 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.
In English
The voiceless alveolar sibilant occurs in English, and it is the sound denoted by the letter 's' in sit or pass. When a plosive such as [p], [t] or [k] follows the [s] sound, it becomes de-aspirated, sounding closer to a non-voiced [b], [d] or [g].
The voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative
Features
The features of the voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative are identical to those above, except that,
- 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.
Found in
- English
- Icelandic
- Icelandic þakið [θ̠akið̠] "roof".
See also
References
- I. Maddieson, 1984. "Patterns of sound". Camebridge University Press
- Honeybone, P. (2001), Lenition inhibition in Liverpool English, English Language and Linguistics 5.2, pp213-249.
- Marotta, G. and Barth, M., Acoustic and sociolingustic aspects of lenition in Liverpool English, Studi Linguistici e Filologici Online 3.2, pp377-413. [Available online] (including sound files).
- Pandeli, H., Eska, J., Ball, M. and Rahilly, J., Problems of phonetic transcription: the case of the Hiberno-English slit-t, Journal of the International Phonetic Association 27, pp65-75.
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