Voiceless dental fricative

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IPA – number	130
IPA – text	θ
IPA – image
Entity	θ
X-SAMPA	T
Kirshenbaum	T
Sound sample (help·info)

The voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is θ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is T. The IPA symbol is the Greek letter theta, which is used for this sound in Greek, and the sound is thus often referred to as "theta". It is familiar to English speakers as the 'th' in thing.

The dental fricatives are often called "interdental" because they are often produced with the tongue between the upper and lower teeth, and not just against the back of the teeth, as they are with other dental consonants.

Among the more than 60 languages with over 10 million speakers, only English, Standard Arabic, Castilian Spanish (i.e., as spoken in Spain only), Burmese, and Greek have the voiceless dental fricative. Speakers of languages and dialects without the sound sometimes have difficulty producing or distinguishing it from similar sounds, and typically replace it with a voiceless alveolar fricative, voiceless dental plosive, or a voiceless labiodental fricative (known respectively as th-alveolarization,^[1] th-stopping,^[2] and th-fronting.^[3])

Contents 1 Features 2 Occurrence 3 Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative 3.1 Features 3.2 Occurrence 4 See also 5 References 6 Bibliography

[edit] Features

Features of the voiceless dental fricative:

• 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.
• Its place of articulation is dental which means it is articulated with the tongue on either the lower or the upper teeth, or both.
• 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.

[edit] Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Albanian		thotë	[θɔtə]	'to say'
Arabic	Standard[4]	ثابت	[ˈθaːbit]	'firm'	See Arabic phonology
Amami		[θeda]		'sun'
Arapaho		[jɔːθɔn]		'bee'
Asu		[iðiθo]		'eye'
Berta		[θɪ́ŋɑ̀]		'to eat'
Burmese		?	[θòʊ̃]	'three'
Cornish		eth	[ɛθ]	'eight'
Emiliano-Romagnolo		faza	[ˈfaːθɐ]	'face'
English		thin	[θɪn]	'thin'	See English phonology
Galician		cero	[θeɾo]	'zero'
Greek		θάλασσα	[ˈθalasa]	'sea'	See Modern Greek phonology
Gweno		[riθo]		'eye'
Gwich’in		thał	[θaɬ]	'pants'
Hän		nihthän	[nihθɑn]	'I want'
Harsusi		[θəroː]		'two'
Hlai	Basadung	[θsio]		'one'
Kabyle		faṯ	[faθ]	'to cut'
Karen	Sgaw	[θø˧]		'three'
Karuk		[jiθa]		'one'
Kickapoo		[nɛθwi]		'three'
Kwama		[mɑ̄ˈθíl]		'to laugh'
Leonese		ceru	[θeɾu]	'zero'
Lorediakarkar		[θar]		'four'
Massa		[faθ]		'five'
Saanich		?	[teθʔəs]	'eight'
Sardinian	Nuorese	petha	[pɛθa]	'meat'
Shark Bay		[θar]		'four'
Shawnee		nthwi	[nθwɪ]	'three'
Sioux	Nakota	?	[ktũˈθa]	'four'
Spanish	Castilian[5]	cazar	[kaˈθar]	'to hunt'	See Spanish phonology
Swahili		thamini	[θɑmini]	'value'
Tanacross		thiit	[θiːtʰ]	'embers'
Toda		[wɨnboθ]		'nine'
Turkmen		sekiz	[θekið]	'eight'
Tutchone	Northern	tho	[θo]	'pants'
	Southern	thü	[θɨ]
Upland Yuman	Havasupai	[θerap]		'five'
	Hualapai	[θarap]
	Yavapai	[θerapi]
Welayta		[ɕiθθa]		'flower'
Welsh		saith	[saiθ]	'seven'
Western Neo-Aramaic		?	[θloːθa]	'three'

[edit] Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative

The voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative (also known as "slit" fricatives) 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 aren't palatalized), it can represent this sound as in a number of ways including <θ̠>, <θ͇> (retracted or alveolarized θ, respectively), or <ɹ̝̊> (constricted voiceless ɹ).

[edit] Features

• 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.
• 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.

[edit] Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
English	Scouse[6] and Hiberno-English	attain	[əˈθ̠eɪn]	'attain'	Allophone of /t/ See English phonology
Icelandic		þakið	[θ̠akið̠]	'roof'	See Icelandic phonology

[edit] See also

• List of phonetics topics

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Marotta, Giovanna; Barth, Marlen (2005), "Acoustic and sociolingustic aspects of lenition in Liverpool English", Studi Linguistici e Filologici Online 3 (2): 377–413 
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373 
• Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20 (2): 37–41 
• Wells, John C (1982), Accents of English, second, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-24224-X 

v • d • e Consonants List · Table Pulmonics Bila​bial Labio​d. Den​tal Alv. Post. Retro​fl. Pal​a​tal Ve​lar Uvu​lar Pha​ryn. Epi​glot​t. Glot​tal Non-pulmonics and other symbols [edit • talk] Nasals m ɱ n̪ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ  Clicks  ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ Plosives p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ  Impl.  ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ 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  Eject.  pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ sʼ Approxim. ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ  Affr.  p̪͡f t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ t͡ɕ d͡ʑ ʈ͡ʂ ɖ͡ʐ t͡ɬ d͡ɮ Trills ʙ r • ʀ • Other laterals  ɺ • ɫ Flaps / taps ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ ɽ • • Co-art. fricatives  ɕ ʑ ɧ Lateral Fric. ɬ ɮ • • • Co-art. approxim.  ʍ w ɥ Lateral Appr. l ɭ ʎ ʟ Co-articulated stops  k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m This table 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 to be impossible. See also IPA · Vowels