Voiceless alveolar fricative

From Freepedia

IPA – number	132
IPA – text	s
IPA – image	Image:Xsampa-s.png
entity	s
X-SAMPA	s
Kirshenbaum	s
Sound sample ▶(?)

The voiceless alveolar fricatives are a type of consonantal sound. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents these sounds depends on whether a sibilant or non-sibilant fricative is being described. The symbol for the sibilant is s, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is s. The symbol for the non-sibilant alveolar fricative is derived by means of diacritics; it can be θ̠ or ɹ̝̊.

Contents 1 The voiceless alveolar sibilant 1.1 Features 1.2 In English 2 The voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative 2.1 Features 2.2 Examples 3 See also 4 References

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.

Examples

The voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative can occur in Scouse, the dialect of English spoken in Liverpool, as an allophone of /t/. (Honeybone, 2001)

See also

• list of phonetics topics

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.

Consonants (List, table)	See also: IPA, Vowels
Pulmonics Bilabial Lab'den. Dental Alveolar Postalv. Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn. Epiglottal Glottal   Non-pulmonics and other symbols Plosives p b t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ  Clicks  ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ Nasals m ɱ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ  Implo­sives  ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ Trills ʙ r • ʀ •  Ejec­tives  pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ sʼ Flaps & Taps • • ɾ ɽ • Other laterals  ɺ ɫ Fricatives ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Co-articulated approximants  ʍ w ɥ Lat. Fricatives ɬ ɮ • • • Other fricatives  ɕ ʑ ɧ    Approximants    β̞ ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Affricates  ʦ ʣ ʧ ʤ Lat. Appr'mants l ɭ ʎ ʟ Co-articulated stops  kp ɡb ŋm
This page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged impossible.