Voiceless retroflex fricative

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IPA – number 136
IPA – text
IPA – image
Entity ʂ
X-SAMPA s`
Kirshenbaum s.

The voiceless retroflex 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, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is s`. Like all the retroflex consonants, the IPA symbol is formed by adding a rightward pointing hook extending from the bottom of the symbol used for the equivalent alveolar consonant, in this case the voiceless alveolar fricative which has the symbol s. The IPA symbol is thus a lowercase letter s with a rightward tail protruding from the lower left of the letter. Compare s and ʂ.

IPA – number	136
IPA – text
IPA – image
Entity	ʂ
X-SAMPA	s`
Kirshenbaum	`s.`

Features

Features of the voiceless retroflex fricative:

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 retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up, but more generally means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical sub-apical (curled) articulation, the tongue contact can be apical (pointed) or laminal (flat).
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.

Found in

Laminal

Laminal retroflex fricatives are found in Polish (spelled sz), Russian, and Standard Mandarin (spelled sh in Pinyin).

Polish kasza [ˈkas̠a] 'groats'

Apical

Apical articulations are typical of Indic languages and Northwest Caucasian languages which distinguish more than one postalveolar fricative.

Sanskrit akṣara [ˈakʂ̺əɾə] 'letter of the alphabet'
Ubykh [ʂ̺a] 'head'

Sub-apical

Sub-apical articulations are typical of the Dravidian languages.

Telugu akṣaramu [akʂəɾamu] 'letter of the alphabet'

Castilian Spanish also replaces the voiceless denti-alveolar silibant with this sound; in contrast to the Latin American dialects and some peninsular dialects. For example the word "dos" [dɔʐ] 'two'. Note however that the sound occurs in all positions (initial, final and intervocalic).

For many people to which this sound is foreign, it might actually sound like a hiss, or even a whistle. Many also make the incorrect assumption that this phone is a result of a speech impediment or lisp.

Voiceless retroflex fricative

Features

Found in

See also