Voiceless alveolar fricative
The
voiceless alveolar fricatives are
consonantal sounds. 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 alveolar
sibilant is , 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 ( and respectively).
*The IPA symbol for the alveolar
non-sibilant fricative is derived by means of diacritics; it can be or , or it can be , using the alveolar diacritic from the Extended IPA. (Pandeli et al 1997)
coronal
fricatives | dental | alveolar | postalveolar |
|---|
| sibilant | | | |
| non-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].
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
;EnglishThe voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative can occur, as an
allophone of , in some accents of
English, including
Hiberno-English and
Scouse, the dialect spoken in
Liverpool. (Honeybone 2001, Marotta and Barth 2005, Pandeli et al 1997.)
;IcelandicThe
Icelandic letter
þ (thorn) is used for this sound. Þ occurs at the beginning of a word, while the
voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative ð occurs elsewhere. (Old English used the letters þ and ð (eth) indiscrimately for both the
voiceless and
voiced dental fricative, which had a similar
allophonic distribution; in modern English both are replaced by the
digraph "th".) Icelandic is
laminal, whereas is usually
apical.
*Icelandic
þakið "roof".
*
List of phonetics topics* 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.
