The voiceless alveolar fricatives are a type of fricative consonant pronounced with the tip or blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (gum line) just behind the teeth. This refers to a class of sounds, not a single sound. There are at least six types with significant perceptual differences:
The first three types are sibilants, meaning that they are made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth and have a piercing, perceptually prominent sound.
| Dental | Denti- alveolar | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retracted | Retroflex | Palato- alveolar | Alveolo- palatal | |||||
| Sibilant | plain | pronounced as /s̪/ | pronounced as /s̟/ | pronounced as /s͇/ | pronounced as /s̠/ | pronounced as /ʂ/ | pronounced as /ʃ/ | pronounced as /ɕ/ |
| Non-sibilant | pronounced as /θ/ | pronounced as /θ͇/ | pronounced as /ɻ̝̊/ | |||||
| tapped | pronounced as /ɾ̞̊/ | |||||||
| place of articulation | passive (mouth) | (IPA|s̪) | dental |
|---|---|---|---|
| (IPA|s̟) | advanced (denti-alveolar) | ||
| (IPA|s͇) | alveolar | ||
| (IPA|s̠) | retracted (postalveolar) | ||
| active (tongue) | (IPA|s̺) | apical | |
| (IPA|s̻) | laminal | ||
| (IPA|ʂ) | retroflex | ||
| secondary | (IPA|sʲ) | palatalized coronal | |
| (IPA|ɕ) | alveolo-palatal | ||
| (IPA|ʃ) | palato-alveolar | ||
| (IPA|sʷ) | labialized coronal | ||
| (IPA|sˠ) | velarized coronal | ||
| (IPA|sˤ) | pharyngealized coronal | ||
| voice-onset time | (IPA|sʰ) | aspirated coronal | |
| (IPA|) | --> | ||
| Ipa Symbol: | s |
| Above: | Voiceless alveolar sibilant |
| Ipa Number: | 132 |
| Decimal1: | 115 |
| X-Sampa: | s |
| Kirshenbaum: | s |
| Braille: | s |
| Above: | Voiceless dentalized alveolar sibilant |
| Ipa Symbol: | s̪ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | s̟ |
| Ipa Number: | 130 |
| X-Sampa: | s_d |
| Above: | Voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant |
| Decimal1: | 115 |
| Decimal2: | 826 |
| Ipa Symbol: | s̠ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | sᶴ |
The voiceless alveolar sibilant is a common consonant sound in vocal languages. It is the sound in English words such as sea and pass, and is represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet with (IPA|s). It has a characteristic high-pitched, highly perceptible hissing sound. For this reason, it is often used to get someone's attention, using a call often written as or .
The voiceless alveolar sibilant pronounced as /[s]/ is one of the most common sounds cross-linguistically. If a language has fricatives, it will most likely have pronounced as /[s]/. However, some languages have a related sibilant sound, such as pronounced as /[ʃ]/, but no pronounced as /[s]/. In addition, sibilants are absent from most Australian Aboriginal languages, in which fricatives are rare; however, pronounced as /[s]/ does occur in Kalaw Lagaw Ya.
The voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant (commonly termed the voiceless apico-alveolar sibilant) is a fricative that is articulated with the tongue in a hollow shape, usually with the tip of the tongue (apex) against the alveolar ridge. It is a sibilant sound and is found most notably in a number of languages in a linguistic area covering northern and central Iberia. It is most well known from its occurrence in the Spanish of this area. In the Middle Ages, it occurred in a wider area, covering Romance languages spoken throughout France, Portugal, and Spain, as well as Old High German and Middle High German.
In Romance languages, it occurs as the normal voiceless alveolar sibilant in Astur-Leonese, Castilian Spanish, Catalan, Galician, northern European Portuguese, and some Occitan dialects. It also occurs in Basque and Mirandese, where it is opposed to a different voiceless alveolar sibilant, the more common pronounced as /[s]/; the same distinction occurs in a few dialects of northeastern Portuguese. Outside this area, it also occurs in a few dialects of Latin American Spanish (e.g. Antioqueño and Pastuso, in Colombia).
Amongst Germanic languages, it occurs in Dutch (and closely related Low German), Icelandic, many dialects in Scandinavia, and working-class Glaswegian English.
It also occurs in Modern Greek (with a articulation), as well as the Baltic languages.
There is no single IPA symbol used for this sound. The symbol (IPA|s̺) is often used, with a diacritic indicating an pronunciation. However, that is potentially problematic in that not all alveolar retracted sibilants are apical (see below), and not all apical alveolar sibilants are retracted. The ad hoc non-IPA symbols (IPA|ṣ) and (IPA|S) are often used in the linguistic literature even when IPA symbols are used for other sounds, but (IPA|ṣ) is a common transcription of the retroflex sibilant pronounced as /[ʂ]/.
In medieval times, it occurred in a wider area, including the Romance languages spoken in most or all of France and Iberia (Old Spanish, Galician-Portuguese, Catalan, French, etc.), as well as in the Old and Middle High German of central and southern Germany, and most likely Northern Germany as well. In all of these languages, the retracted "apico-alveolar" sibilant was opposed to a non-retracted sibilant much like modern English pronounced as /[s]/, and in many of them, both voiceless and voiced versions of both sounds occurred. A solid type of evidence consists of different spellings used for two different sibilants: in general, the retracted "apico-alveolar" variants were written (s) or (ss), while the non-retracted variants were written (z), (c) or (ç). In the Romance languages, the retracted sibilants derived from Latin pronounced as //s//, pronounced as //ss// or pronounced as //ns//, while the non-retracted sibilants derived from earlier affricates pronounced as /[t͡s]/ and pronounced as /[d͡z]/, which in turn derived from palatalized pronounced as //k// or pronounced as //t//. The situation was similar in High German, where the retracted sibilants derived largely from Proto-Germanic pronounced as //s//, while the non-retracted sibilants derived from instances of Proto-Germanic pronounced as //t// that were shifted by the High German sound shift. Minimal pairs were common in all languages. Examples in Middle High German, for example, were German, Middle High (ca.1050-1500);: wizzen "to know" (Old English English, Old (ca.450-1100);: witan, cf. "to wit") vs. German, Middle High (ca.1050-1500);: wissen "known" (Old English English, Old (ca.450-1100);: wissen), and German, Middle High (ca.1050-1500);: wīz "white" (Old English English, Old (ca.450-1100);: wīt) vs. German, Middle High (ca.1050-1500);: wīs(e) "way" (Old English English, Old (ca.450-1100);: wīs, cf. "-wise").
Often, to speakers of languages or dialects that do not have the sound, it is said to have a "whistling" quality, and to sound similar to palato-alveolar pronounced as /link/. For this reason, when borrowed into such languages or represented with non-Latin characters, it is often replaced with pronounced as /[ʃ]/. This occurred, for example, in English borrowings from Old French (e.g. push from pousser, cash from caisse); in Polish borrowings from medieval German (e.g. Polish: kosztować from kosten, Polish: żur from sūr (contemporary German: sauer)); and in representations of Mozarabic (an extinct medieval Romance language once spoken in southern Spain) in Arabic characters. The similarity between retracted pronounced as /[s̺]/ and pronounced as /[ʃ]/ has resulted in many exchanges in Spanish between the sounds, during the medieval period when Spanish had both phonemes. Examples are Spanish; Castilian: jabón (formerly xabón) "soap" from Latin Latin: sapō/Latin: sapōnem, Spanish; Castilian: jibia "cuttlefish" (formerly xibia) from Latin Latin: sēpia, and Spanish; Castilian: tijeras "scissors" (earlier tixeras < medieval tiseras) from Latin Latin: cīsōrias (with initial t- due to influence from Latin: tōnsor "shaver").
One of the clearest descriptions of this sound is from Obaid: "There is a Castilian s, which is a voiceless, concave, apicoalveolar fricative: The tip of the tongue turned upward forms a narrow opening against the alveoli of the upper incisors. It resembles a faint pronounced as //ʃ// and is found throughout much of the northern half of Spain".
Many dialects of Modern Greek have a very similar-sounding sibilant that is pronounced with a articulation.
This distinction has since vanished from most of the languages that once had it in medieval times.
Those languages in which the sound occurs typically did not have a phonological process from which either pronounced as /[s]/ or pronounced as /[ʃ]/ appeared, two similar sounds with which ⟨s̺⟩ was eventually confused. In general, older European languages only had a single pronunciation of s.
In Romance languages, pronounced as /[s]/ was reached from -ti-, -ci-, -ce- (pronounced as /[ti]/, pronounced as /[ki]/, pronounced as /[ke]/) clusters that eventually became pronounced as /[ts]/, pronounced as /[tsi]/, pronounced as /[tse]/ and later pronounced as /[s]/, pronounced as /[si]/, pronounced as /[se]/ (as in Latin fortia "force", civitas "city", centum "hundred"), while pronounced as /[ʃ]/ was reached:
In High German, pronounced as /[s]/ was reached through a pronounced as /[t]/ > pronounced as /[ts]/ > pronounced as /[s]/ process, as in German Wasser compared to English water. In English, the same process of Romance pronounced as /[ts]/ > pronounced as /[s]/ occurred in Norman-imported words, accounting for modern homophones sell and cell. pronounced as /[ʃ]/ was also reached from a -sk- cluster reduction as in Romance, e.g. Old English spelling asc for modern ash, German schiff and English ship compared to Danish skib.
Standard Modern Greek, which has apical pronounced as /[s̺]/, lacked both processes.
The Germanic-speaking regions that did not have either phenomenon have normally preserved the apical pronounced as /[s̺]/, that is, Icelandic, Dutch and many Scandinavian lects. It is also found in a minority of Low German dialects.
The main Romance language to preserve the sound, Castilian Spanish, is exceptional in that it had both events that produced pronounced as /[s]/ and pronounced as /[ʃ]/, and preserved the apical S at the expense of both, that were shifted farther away. Galician, Catalan and Ladino changed only pronounced as /[s]/.
Because of the widespread medieval distribution, it has been speculated that retracted pronounced as /[s̺]/ was the normal pronunciation in spoken Latin. Certain borrowings suggest that it was not far off from the sh-sound pronounced as /[ʃ]/, e.g. Aramaic Jeshua > Greek Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs) > Latin Jesus, Hebrew Shabbat > Latin sabbatum; but this could also be explained by the lack of a better sound in Latin to represent Semitic š. It equally well could have been an areal feature inherited from the prehistoric languages of Western Europe, as evidenced by its occurrence in modern Basque.
For the same reasons, it can be speculated that retracted pronounced as /[s̺]/ was the pronunciation of Proto-Germanic s. Its presence in many branches of Indo-European and its presence particularly in the more conservative languages inside each branch (e.g. Icelandic, Spanish), as well as being found in disparate areas, such as the Baltic languages and Greece, suggests it could have ultimately been the main allophone of Proto-Indo-European s, known for ranging from pronounced as /[s]/ to as far as pronounced as /[ɕ]/.
pronounced as /[ʃ]/, but not pronounced as /[s]/, was developed in Italian. However, where Spanish and Catalan have apical pronounced as /[s̺]/, Italian uses the same laminal pronounced as /[s]/ that occurs in standard forms of English: evidence, it could be argued, that S was not pronounced apically in Latin. But Neapolitan has a medieval S becoming either pronounced as /[s]/ or pronounced as /[ʃ]/ depending on context, much as in European Portuguese, which could attest to the previous existence of pronounced as /[s̺]/ in the Italian Peninsula. The Italian pronunciation as laminal S could also be explained by the presence of pronounced as /[ʃ]/ but not pronounced as /[s]/, thus moving the pronunciation of pronounced as /[s̺]/ to the front of the mouth in an attempt to better differentiate between the two sounds.
A voiceless laminal dental or dentialveolar sibilant contrasts with a voiceless apical alveolar or post-alveolar sibilant in Basque and several languages of California, including Luiseño of the Uto-Aztecan family and Kumeyaay of the Yuman family.
The term "voiceless alveolar sibilant" is potentially ambiguous in that it can refer to at least two different sounds. Various languages of northern Iberia (e.g., Astur-Leonese, Catalan, Basque, Galician, Portuguese and Spanish) have a so-called "voiceless apico-alveolar sibilant" that lacks the strong hissing of the pronounced as /[s]/ described in this article but has a duller, more "grave" sound quality somewhat reminiscent of a voiceless retroflex sibilant. Basque, Mirandese and some Portuguese dialects in northeast Portugal (as well as medieval Spanish and Portuguese in general) have both types of sounds in the same language.
There is no general agreement about what actual feature distinguishes these sounds. Spanish phoneticians normally describe the difference as (for the northern Iberian sound) vs. (for the more common sound), but Ladefoged and Maddieson claim that English pronounced as //s// can be pronounced apically, which is evidently not the same as the apical sibilant of Iberian Spanish and Basque. Also, Adams asserts that many dialects of Modern Greek have a laminal sibilant with a sound quality similar to the "apico-alveolar" sibilant of northern Iberia.
Some authors have instead suggested that the difference lies in tongue shape. Adams describes the northern Iberian sibilant as "retracted". Ladefoged and Maddieson appear to characterize the more common hissing variant as , and some phoneticians (such as J. Catford) have characterized it as sulcal (which is more or less a synonym of "grooved"), but in both cases, there is some doubt about whether all and only the "hissing" sounds actually have a "grooved" or "sulcal" tongue shape.
Features of the voiceless alveolar sibilant:
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [[Arabic alphabet|مسجد]] | pronounced as /[mɐˈs̪d͡ʒɪd̪]/ | 'mosque' | ||||
| Armenian: [[Armenian alphabet|'''ս'''ար]] | 'mountain' | |||||
| Azerbaijani: [[Azerbaijani alphabet|'''s'''u]] | pronounced as /[s̪u]/ | 'water' | ||||
| Basque[2] | Basque: [[Basque alphabet|gau'''z'''a]] | pronounced as /[ɡäus̪ä]/ | 'thing' | Contrasts with an apical sibilant. See Basque phonology | ||
| Belarusian: [[Belarusian alphabet|'''с'''тагоддзе]] | pronounced as /[s̪t̪äˈɣod̪d̪͡z̪ʲe]/ | 'century' | Contrasts with palatalized form. See Belarusian phonology | |||
| Bulgarian: [[Bulgarian alphabet|в'''с'''еки]] | pronounced as /[ˈfs̪ɛkʲi]/ | 'everyone' | Contrasts with palatalized form. | |||
| [[Chinese characters|三]] | pronounced as /[s̪a̋n]/ | 'three' | See Mandarin phonology | |||
| Czech: [[Czech orthography|'''s'''vět]] | pronounced as /[s̪vjɛt̪]/ | 'world' | See Czech phonology | |||
| Chuvash | Chuvash: [[Cyrillic script|'''с'''авăт/savët]] | [s̪aʋət] | 'vessel, glass' | |||
| pronounced as /[s̪ɛnˑd̥]/ | 'sand' | See English phonology | ||||
| Multicultural London[3] | pronounced as /[s̪anˑd̥]/ | |||||
| French: [[French orthography|fa'''ç'''ade]] | pronounced as /[fäs̪äd̪]/ | 'front' | See French phonology | |||
| Hungarian: [[Hungarian orthography|'''sz'''iget]] | pronounced as /[ˈs̪iɡɛt̪]/ | 'island' | See Hungarian phonology | |||
| Standard | Italian: [[Italian alphabet|'''s'''ali]] | pronounced as /[ˈsäːli]/ | 'you go up' | Varies between dentalized laminal and non-retracted apical. See Italian phonology | ||
| Varies between dentalized laminal and non-retracted apical. Both variants may be labiodentalized. See Italian phonology | ||||||
| Kashubian[4] | ||||||
| Kazakh: [[Kazakh alphabets|'''с'''ом/sum]] | pronounced as /[s̪u̯ʊm]/ | 'pure' | ||||
| Kirghiz; Kyrgyz: [[Kyrgyz alphabet|'''с'''аби'''з''']] | pronounced as /[s̪äˈbis̪]/ | 'carrot' | ||||
| Latvian: [[Latvian alphabet|'''s'''en'''s''']] | pronounced as /[s̪en̪s̪]/ | 'ancient' | See Latvian phonology | |||
| Macedonian: [[Macedonian alphabet|'''с'''кока]] | pronounced as /[ˈs̪kɔkä]/ | 'jump' | See Macedonian phonology | |||
| Contrasts seven sibilants altogether, preserving medieval Ibero-Romance contrasts. | ||||||
| Norwegian: [[Norwegian alphabet|'''s'''and]] | pronounced as /[sɑnː]/ | 'sand' | Most often dentalized laminal, but can be non-retracted apical for some speakers. See Norwegian phonology | |||
| Polish: [[Polish orthography|'''s'''um]] | 'catfish' | See Polish phonology | ||||
| Romanian[5] | Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: [[Romanian alphabet|'''s'''urd]] | pronounced as /[s̪ur̪d̪]/ | 'deaf' | See Romanian phonology | ||
| Russian: [[Russian alphabet|воло'''с'''ы]] | 'hair' | Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology | ||||
| Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: [[Scottish Gaelic alphabet|'''S'''làinte]] | pronounced as /[ˈs̪ɫ̪äːn̪t̪ʰʲə]/ | 'cheers' | See Scottish Gaelic phonology | |||
| [[Serbian Cyrillic alphabet|'''с'''ело]] ([[Gaj's Latin alphabet|'''s'''elo]]) | pronounced as /[s̪ĕ̞lo̞]/ | 'village' | See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |||
| Slovak | sto | pronounced as /[stɔ]/ | 'hundred' | See Slovak phonology | ||
| Slovenian: [[Slovene orthography|'''s'''vet]] | pronounced as /[s̪ʋêːt̪]/ | 'world' | See Slovene phonology | |||
| Spanish; Castilian: [[Spanish alphabet|e'''s'''tar]] | pronounced as /[e̞s̪ˈt̪äɾ]/ | 'to be' | Allophone of pronounced as //s// before dental consonants. See Spanish phonology | |||
| Central Standard | Swedish: [[Swedish alphabet|'''s'''äte]] | pronounced as /[ˈs̪ɛːt̪e]/ | 'seat' | Retracted in some southern dialects. See Swedish phonology | ||
| Toda | கொ'''வ்''' | pronounced as /[kɔs̪]/ | 'money' | Contrasts pronounced as //θ s̪ s̠ ʃ ʂ//. Voiced allophones are found in fast speech. | ||
| Turkish: [[Turkish alphabet|'''s'''u]] | pronounced as /[s̪u]/ | 'water' | See Turkish phonology | |||
| Ukrainian: [[Ukrainian alphabet|'''с'''ело]] | pronounced as /[s̪ɛˈɫ̪ɔ]/ | 'village' | Contrasts with palatalized form. See Ukrainian phonology | |||
| Upper Sorbian: '''s'''owa | pronounced as /[ˈs̪owä]/ | 'owl' | ||||
| Uzbek: '''s'''oät | pronounced as /[ˈs̪o̞æt̪]/ | 'hour' | ||||
| Hanoi | Vietnamese: [[Vietnamese alphabet|'''x'''a]] | pronounced as /[s̪äː]/ | 'far' | See Vietnamese phonology | ||
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adyghe; Adygei: [[Cyrillic script|'''с'''э]]/sė | pronounced as /[sa]/ | 'I' | ||||
| Arabic: [[Arabic alphabet|'''جَلَ'''س]]|rtl=yes/ǧalasa | pronounced as /[ˈdʒælæsɐ]/ | 'to sit' | See Arabic phonology | |||
| Assyrian | ܣܝܦܐ [[Syriac alphabet|'''s'''èpa]] | pronounced as /[seːpaː]/ | 'sword' | |||
| Bengali: [[Bengali alphabet|রা'''স্তা''']] | pronounced as /[raːst̪a]/ | 'street' | See Bengali phonology | |||
| စစားဗျီ/ca carr bhye | pronounced as /[sə sá bjì]/ | 'I am eating now' | ||||
| Chechen: [[Cyrillic script|'''с'''урт]] / Chechen: '''s'''urt | pronounced as /[suʊrt]/ | 'picture' | ||||
| [[Chinese characters|閃]] / '''s'''im2 | pronounced as /[siːm˧˥]/ | 'twinkle' | See Cantonese phonology | |||
| Danish[6] [7] | Danish: [[Danish alphabet|'''s'''ælge]] | pronounced as /[ˈseljə]/ | 'sell' | Most often non-retracted apical, but can be dentalized laminal for some speakers. See Danish phonology | ||
| Belgian Standard | Dutch; Flemish: [[Dutch orthography|'''s'''taan]] | pronounced as /[staːn]/ | 'to stand' | Laminal. See Dutch phonology | ||
| Belgian Standard | Dutch; Flemish: [[Dutch orthography|'''s'''taan]] | pronounced as /[staːn]/ | 'to stand' | Laminal. See Dutch phonology | ||
| Northern Standard | Laminal. It is laxer than in English, has a graver friction and is sometimes labialized. It is retracted when preconsonantal, after rounded vowels and pronounced as //r//. See Dutch phonology | |||||
| Italian: [[Italian alphabet|'''s'''èl]] | pronounced as /[ˈs̺ʲɛːl]/ | 'salt' | Palatalized apical; may be pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ instead. | |||
| 'sit' | See English phonology | |||||
| Esperanto: [[Esperanto orthography|E'''s'''peranto]] | pronounced as /[espeˈranto]/ | 'Who hopes' | See Esperanto phonology | |||
| Faroese: '''s'''andur | pronounced as /[sandʊɹ]/ | 'sand' | ||||
| German: [[German orthography|Bi'''ss''']] | pronounced as /[bɪs]/ | 'bite' | Varies between dentalized laminal, non-retracted laminal and non-retracted apical. See Standard German phonology | |||
| Georgian: [[Georgian alphabet|'''ს'''ამი]]/sami | pronounced as /[ˈsɑmi]/ | 'three' | ||||
| Hebrew: [[Hebrew alphabet|'''ס'''פר]]|rtl=yes/sefer | pronounced as /[ˈsefeʁ]/ | 'book' | See Modern Hebrew phonology | |||
| Hindi: [[Devanagari|साल]] / | pronounced as /[saːl]/ | 'year' | See Hindustani phonology | |||
| Standard | Italian: [[Italian alphabet|'''s'''ali]] | pronounced as /[ˈsäːli]/ | 'you go up' | Varies between dentalized laminal and non-retracted apical. See Italian phonology | ||
| Varies between dentalized laminal and non-retracted apical. Both variants may be labiodentalized. See Italian phonology | ||||||
| Japanese: [[Kanji|複数形]] / Japanese: [[Romanization of Japanese|fuku'''s'''ūkē]] | pronounced as /[ɸɯkɯ̊sɯːkeː]/ | 'plural' | See Japanese phonology | |||
| Kabardian: [[Cyrillic script|'''с'''э]]/sė | pronounced as /[sa]/ | 'I' | ||||
| Central Khmer: [[Khmer script|អេស្ប៉ាញ]] / | pronounced as /[ʔeːˈspaːɲ]/ | noun: 'Spain' adjective: 'Spanish' | See Khmer phonology | |||
| Central Khmer: [[Khmer script|ម៉ាស៊ីន]] / | pronounced as /[maːˈsiːn]/ | 'machine' | ||||
| Korean: [[Korean alphabet|섬]] / Korean: [[Romanization of Korean|'''s'''eom]] | pronounced as /[sʌːm]/ | 'island' | See Korean phonology | |||
| Malay: [[Malay alphabet|'''s'''atu]] | pronounced as /[satu]/ | 'one' | ||||
| Maltese: [[Maltese alphabet|iebe'''s''']] | pronounced as /[eaˈbes]/ | 'hard' | ||||
| Marathi: [[Devanagari|साप]] | pronounced as /[saːp]/ | 'snake' | See Marathi phonology | |||
| Nepali | pronounced as /[sʌɡʌrmät̪ʰä]/ | 'Mount Everest' | See Nepali phonology | |||
| Oriya: [[Odia script|'''ସ'''ମାନ]] | pronounced as /[sɔmänɔ]/ | 'equal' | ||||
| Occitan (post 1500);: mai'''ch'''ent | pronounced as /[mejˈsẽ]/ | 'bad' | ||||
| Persian: [[Persian alphabet|سیب]]|rtl=yes / Persian: '''s'''ib | pronounced as /[sib]/ | 'apple' | See Persian phonology | |||
| Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|ca'''ç'''o]] | pronounced as /[ˈkasu]/ | 'I hunt' | See Portuguese phonology | |||
| Panjabi; Punjabi: [[Gurmukhi|ਸੱਪ]]/sapp | pronounced as /[səpː]/ | 'snake' | ||||
| Latin American | Spanish; Castilian: [[Spanish orthography|'''s'''altador]] | pronounced as /[s̻a̠l̪t̪a̠ˈð̞o̞r]/ | 'jumper' | See Spanish phonology and Seseo | ||
| Canarian | ||||||
| Andalusian | ||||||
| Filipino | ||||||
| Swahili: Ki'''s'''wahili | pronounced as /[kiswaˈhili]/ | 'Swahili' | ||||
| [[Sylheti Nagari|ꠢꠂ'''ꠍꠦ''']]/oise | pronounced as /[ɔise]/ | 'done' | ||||
| Tagalog: [[Filipino orthography|la'''s'''a]] | pronounced as /[ˈlasɐ]/ | 'taste' | ||||
| Varies between dentalized laminal and non-retracted apical. Both variants may be labiodentalized. See Italian phonology | ||||||
| Vietnamese: [[Vietnamese alphabet|'''x'''a]] | pronounced as /[saː˧]/ | 'far' | See Vietnamese phonology | |||
| Sichuan Yi; Nuosu: [[Yi script|ꌦ]] Sichuan Yi; Nuosu: [[Yi script|'''s'''y]] | pronounced as /[sɹ̩˧]/ | 'die' | ||||
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asturian; Bable; Leonese; Asturleonese: pa'''s'''u | pronounced as /[ˈpäs̺u]/ | 'step' | Apical. | |||
| Basque: '''s'''u | pronounced as /[s̺u]/ | 'fire' | Apical. Contrasts with a dentalized laminal sibilant. | |||
| Bengali[8] | Bengali: [[Bengali alphabet|'''শ''']]/śô | pronounced as /[s̠ɔː]/ | 'hundred' | See Bengali phonology | ||
| Most dialects | Catalan; Valencian: [[Catalan orthography|'''s'''et]] | pronounced as /[ˈs̺ɛt̪]/ | 'seven' | Apical. See Catalan phonology | ||
| Some Valencian speakers | Catalan; Valencian: [[Catalan orthography|pei'''x''']] | pronounced as /[ˈpe̠js̠ʲ]/ | 'fish' | Normally transcribed with (IPA|ʂ); realized as pre-palatal pronounced as /link/ in Standard Catalan and Valencian. | ||
| Catalan; Valencian: [[Catalan orthography|pati'''s'''c]] | pronounced as /[päˈt̪is̠ʲk]/ | 'I suffer' | ||||
| Glasgow[9] | pronounced as /[s̺ʌn]/ | 'sun' | Working-class pronunciation, other speakers may use a non-retracted pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Emilian | sèinpar | pronounced as /[ˈs̠æ̃.pər]/ | 'always' | |||
| Estonian[10] | Estonian: [[Estonian alphabet|'''s'''õna]] | pronounced as /[ˈsɤnɑ]/ | 'word' | |||
| Finnish: [[Finnish alphabet|'''s'''inä]] | pronounced as /[ˈsinæ]/ | 'you' | Varies between non-retracted and retracted. See Finnish phonology | |||
| Galician: '''s'''aúde | pronounced as /[s̺äˈuðe]/ | 'health' | Apical. | |||
| Greek, Modern (1453-);: [[Greek alphabet|'''σ'''αν]] / Greek, Modern (1453-);: [[Romanization of Greek|'''s'''an]] | pronounced as /[sɐn]/ | 'as' | Varies between non-retracted and retracted, depending on the environment. See Modern Greek phonology | |||
| Icelandic[11] [12] | Icelandic: [[Icelandic orthography|'''s'''egi]] | pronounced as /[ˈs̺ɛːjɪ]/ | 'I say' | Apical. See Icelandic phonology | ||
| Central Italy | Italian: [[Italian alphabet|'''s'''ali]] | pronounced as /[ˈs̠äːli]/ | 'you go up' | Present in Lazio north of Cape Linaro, most of Umbria (save Perugia and the extreme south), Marche and south of Potenza. | ||
| Northern Italy | Apical. Present in many areas north of the La Spezia–Rimini Line. Derived from local languages of northern Italy. See Italian phonology | |||||
| Present south and west of a line drawn from Syracuse to Cefalù. | ||||||
| Asturian; Bable; Leonese; Asturleonese: pa'''s'''u | pronounced as /[ˈpäs̺ʊ]/ | 'step' | Apical. | |||
| Mirandese: [[Portuguese orthography|pa'''ss'''o]] | pronounced as /[ˈpäs̺u]/ | 'step' | Apical. Contrasts with pronounced as //s̪//. | |||
| Occitan (post 1500);: do'''s''' | pronounced as /[d̻ys̺]/ | 'two' | See Occitan phonology | |||
| pronounced as /[d̻us̺]/ | ||||||
| Asturian; Bable; Leonese; Asturleonese: '''s'''apin | pronounced as /[s̠apiŋ]/ | 'pine' | Apical. | |||
| Portuguese[13] | European, inland northern | Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|can'''s'''aço]] | pronounced as /[kɐ̃ˈs̺as̻u]/ | 'weariness' | Apical. Contrasts with pronounced as //s̻//. See Portuguese phonology | |
| European, coastal northern | pronounced as /[kɐ̃ˈs̺as̺u]/ | Merges with pronounced as //s̻//. See Portuguese phonology | ||||
| Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|pe'''s'''cador]] | pronounced as /[pe̞s̺käˈd̻oχ]/ | 'fisherman' | Realization of Portuguese coda sibilant, which may be postalveolars, depending on dialect | |||
| Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|e'''s'''cada'''s''']] | pronounced as /[is̺ˈkäd̻ɐs̺]/ | 'stairs' | ||||
| Spanish; Castilian: [[Spanish orthography|'''s'''altador]] | pronounced as /[s̺äl̪t̪äˈð̞o̞ɾ]/ | 'jumper' | Apical. In Andean and Paisa (except in southern parts of Antioquia) alternates with a more frequent coronal-dental pronounced as //s//. See Spanish phonology and seseo | |||
| Castilian | ||||||
| Paisa accent | ||||||
| Swedish: [[Swedish alphabet|'''s'''äte]] | pronounced as /[ˈs̠ɛːte]/ | 'seat' | See Swedish phonology | |||
| Bohuslän | ||||||
| Halland | ||||||
| Scania | ||||||
| Toda | pōs̠ | pronounced as /[po:s̠]/ | 'milk' | Contrasts pronounced as //θ s̪ s̠ ʃ ʂ//. Voiced allophones are found in fast speech. | ||
| Vietnamese | Saigon | xe | pronounced as /[s̺ɛ˧]/ | 'vehicle' | Apical. | |
| Western Frisian: '''s'''âlt | pronounced as /[sɔːt]/ | 'salt' | Laminal. It is laxer than in English and has a graver friction. It varies between retracted and non-retracted, depending on the environment. See West Frisian phonology | |||
| Ipa Number: | 130 414 |
| Decimal1: | 952 |
| Decimal2: | 817 |
| Ipa Symbol: | θ̠ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | θ͇ |
| Ipa Symbol3: | ɹ̝̊ |
| Ipa Symbol4: | t̞ |
| Above: | Voiceless alveolar approximant |
| Ipa Symbol: | ɹ̥ |
| Ipa Number: | 151 402A |
| Xsampa: | r\_0 |
| Above: | Voiceless alveolar tapped fricative |
| Ipa Symbol: | ɾ̞̊ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | ɹ̥̆˔ |
| Ipa Number: | 124 402A 430 |
| Unicode: | U+027E U+031E U+030A |
The voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative (also known as a "slit" fricative) is a consonantal sound. As the International Phonetic Alphabet does not have separate symbols for the alveolar consonants (the same symbol is used for all coronal places of articulation that are not palatalized), this sound is usually transcribed (IPA|θ̠), occasionally (IPA|θ͇) (retracted or alveolarized pronounced as /[θ]/, respectively), (IPA|ɹ̝̊) (constricted voiceless pronounced as /[ɹ]/), or (IPA|t̞) (lowered pronounced as /[t]/).
Some scholars also posit the voiceless alveolar approximant distinct from the fricative. The approximant may be represented in the IPA as (IPA|ɹ̥).
Few languages also have the voiceless alveolar tapped fricative, which is simply a very brief apical alveolar non-sibilant fricative, with the tongue making the gesture for a tapped stop but not making full contact. This can be indicated in the IPA with the lowering diacritic to show full occlusion did not occur.
Tapped fricatives are occasionally reported in the literature, though these claims are not generally independently confirmed and so remain dubious.
Flapped fricatives are theoretically possible but are not attested.
However, it does not have the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.
| Language | Word | Meaning | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| aru | pronounced as /[aɾ̞̊u]/ | 'hat' | Tapped; tense equivalent of lax pronounced as //ɾ//. | |||
| Dutch[14] | Dutch; Flemish: [[Dutch orthography|Gee'''r'''t]] | pronounced as /[ɣeːɹ̝̊t]/ | 'Geert' | One of many possible realizations of pronounced as //r//; distribution unclear. See Dutch phonology | ||
| [[Italian alphabet|'''z'''idrån]] | pronounced as /[θ̠iˈdrʌn]/ | 'lemon' | ||||
| pronounced as /[ˈɪ̟θ̠əɫɪi̯]/ | 'Italy' | Occasional allophone of pronounced as //t//. See Australian English phonology | ||||
| Received Pronunciation | pronounced as /[ˈɪθ̠əli]/ | Common allophone of pronounced as //t//. | ||||
| Irish | Allophone of pronounced as //t//. See English phonology | |||||
| Newfoundland[15] [16] | ||||||
| Some American speakers | pronounced as /[ˈɪɾ̞̊ɨ̞ɫi]/ | Tapped; possible allophone of pronounced as //t//. Can be a voiceless tap pronounced as /link/ or a voiced tap pronounced as /link/ instead. See English phonology | ||||
| General American | trap | pronounced as /[ˈt̠ɹ̝̊æp̚]/ | 'trap' | Common allophone of pronounced as //r// following pronounced as //t// or pronounced as /[tʰ]/. Phonologically interchangeable with pronounced as //tʃɹ-//. Dialectal in English English. See English phonology | ||
| Some English English speakers | pronounced as /[ˈt̠ɹ̝̊æʔp]/ | |||||
| New Zealand | pronounced as /[ˈt̠ɹ̝̊e̞p]/ | |||||
| Faroese | eiturkoppur | pronounced as /[ˈaiːtʊɹ̥ˌkʰɔʰpːʊɹ]/ | 'spider' | Devoiced approximant allophone of pronounced as //r//. See Faroese phonology | ||
| Icelandic: [[Icelandic orthography|'''þ'''akið]] | pronounced as /[ˈθ̠äkið̠] / | 'the roof' | Laminal. See Icelandic phonology | |||
| Turkish: [[Turkish alphabet|bi'''r''']] | pronounced as /[biɾ̞̊]/ | 'a(n)' | Tapped; word-final allophone of pronounced as //ɾ//. See Turkish phonology | |||
| Ipa Symbol: | ʪ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | θ̠ˡ |
| Ipa Symbol3: | ɬ͡θ̠ |
| Ipa Symbol4: | ɬ͡s |
| Above: | Voiceless dental lateral–median fricative |
| Ipa Symbol: | ʪ̪ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | θˡ |
| Ipa Symbol3: | ɬ̪͡θ |
The voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative (also known as a "lisp" fricative) is a consonantal sound. Consonants is pronounced with simultaneous lateral and central airflow.
However, it does not have the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.
| Language | Word | Meaning | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic[17] [18] [19] | Al-Rubūah dialect | Arabic: الضيم | pronounced as /[aθˡˁːajm]/ | 'anguish'[20] | Classical Arabic pronounced as /
|
| [dialect missing] | Arabic: '''ظ'''امئ | pronounced as /[ʪæːmiː]/ | 'thirsty' | Classical and Modern Standard Arabic pronounced as /[ðˤ]/ | |
pronounced as /navigation/