Voiceless alveolar fricative

A voiceless alveolar fricative is 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 voiceless alveolar sibilant [s] has a strong hissing sound, as the s in English sin. It is one of the most common sounds in the world.
• The voiceless denti-alveolar sibilant [s̄] (an ad hoc notation), also called apico-dental, has a weaker lisping sound like English th in thin. It occurs in Spanish dialects in southern Spain (eastern Andalusia).
• The voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant [s̠], and the subform apico-alveolar [s̺], or called grave, has a weak hushing sound reminiscent of retroflex fricatives. It is used in the languages of northern Iberia, like Asturleonese, Basque, Castilian Spanish (excluding parts of Andalusia), Catalan, Galician and Northern European Portuguese. A similar retracted sibilant form is also used in Dutch, Icelandic, some Southern dialects of Swedish, Finnish and Greek. Its sound is between [s] and [ʃ].
• The voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative [θ̠] or [θ͇], using the alveolar diacritic from the Extended IPA,[1] is similar to the th in English thin. It occurs in Icelandic.
• The voiceless alveolar lateral fricative [ɬ] sounds like a voiceless, strongly articulated version of English l (somewhat like what the English cluster **hl would sound like) and is written as ll in Welsh.

The first three types are sibilants, meaning that they are made with the teeth closed and have a piercing, perceptually prominent sound.

Voiceless coronal fricatives

		Dental	Denti- alveolar	Alveolar	Post-alveolar
					Retracted	Retroflex	Palato- alveolar	Alveolo- palatal
Sibilant	plain	s̪	s̄	s͇	s̠	ʂ	ʃ	ɕ
Non-sibilant		θ		θ̠/θ͇/ɹ̝̊		ɻ̝̊
	tapped			ɾ̞̊/ɹ̥̆˔

Voiceless alveolar sibilants

Voiceless alveolar sibilant
s
IPA Number	132
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	s
Unicode (hex)	U+0073
X-SAMPA	s
Braille
Audio sample
source · help

Voiceless laminal dentalized alveolar sibilant
s̪
s̟

Voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant
s̠
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	s​̺
Unicode (hex)	U+0073 U+033A
Audio sample
source · help

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 ⟨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 sssst! or psssst!.

The voiceless alveolar sibilant [s] is one of the most common sounds cross-linguistically. If a language has fricatives, it will most likely have [s].[2] However, some languages have a related sibilant sound, such as [ʃ], but no [s]. In addition, sibilants are absent from Australian Aboriginal languages, in which fricatives are rare; even the few indigenous Australian languages that have fricatives do not have sibilants.

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.

Voiceless apico-alveolar sibilant

Occurrence in Europe

Modern

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 [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, 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 laminal articulation), as well as the Baltic languages.

There is no single IPA symbol used for this sound. The symbol ⟨s̺⟩ is often used, with a diacritic indicating an apical 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 ⟨ṣ⟩ and ⟨S⟩ are often used in the linguistic literature even when IPA symbols are used for other sounds, but ⟨ṣ⟩ is a common transcription of the retroflex sibilant [ʂ].

Medieval

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,[3] 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 [s], and in many of them, both voiceless and voiced versions of both sounds occurred. A solid evidence is 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 /s/, /ss/ or /ns/, while the non-retracted sibilants derived from earlier affricates [t͡s] and [d͡z], which in turn derived from palatalized /k/ or /t/. The situation was similar in High German, where the retracted sibilants derived largely from Proto-Germanic /s/, while the non-retracted sibilants derived from instances of Proto-Germanic /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 wizzen "to know" (Old English witan, cf. "to wit") vs. wissen "known" (Old English wissen), and weiz "white" (Old English wīt) vs. weis "way" (Old English wīs, cf. "-wise").

Description of the retracted sibilant

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 ʃ. For this reason, when borrowed into such languages or represented with non-Latin characters, it is often replaced with [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. kosztować from kosten, żur from sūr (contemporary sauer)); and in representations of Mozarabic (an extinct medieval Romance language once spoken in southern Spain) in Arabic characters. The similarity between retracted [s̺] and [ʃ] has resulted in many exchanges in Spanish between the sounds, during the medieval period when Spanish had both phonemes. Examples are jabón (formerly xabón) "soap" from Latin sapō/sapōnem, jibia "cuttlefish" (formerly xibia) from Latin sēpia, and tijeras "scissors" (earlier tixeras < medieval tiseras) from Latin cīsōrias (with initial t- due to influence from tōnsor "shaver").

One of the clearest descriptions of this sound is from Obaid:[4] "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 /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 laminal articulation.[3]

Loss of the voiceless alveolar sibilant

This distinction has since vanished from most of the languages that once had it in medieval times.

• In most dialects of Spanish, the four alveolar sibilants have merged into the non-retracted [s].
• In French and most dialects of Portuguese, the four alveolar sibilants have merged into non-retracted [s] and [z], while in European Portuguese, most other Old World Portuguese variants and some recently European-influenced dialects of Brazil all instances of coda [s̺], voiced [z̺] before voiced consonants, were backed to [ɕ] [ʑ], while in most of Brazilian Portuguese this phenomenon is much rarer, being essentially absent in the dialects that conserved the most archaic Portuguese forms and/or had a greater indigenous and/or non-Portuguese European influence.
• In the remaining dialects of Portuguese, found in northern Portugal, they merged into the retracted [s̺] [z̺], or, as in Mirandese (which is, however, not a Portuguese dialect, but belongs to Asturian-Leonese), conserved the medieval distinction.
• In central and northern Spanish, the non-retracted [s] was fronted to [θ] after merging with non-retracted [z], while the retracted [s̺] remains.
• In German, most instances of [s̺] were fronted to [s], but some were backed to become [ʃ] (initially before a consonant; in many modern High German dialects, also non-initially before a consonant), postalveolar as in European and fluminense Portuguese.

Loss-causing events

Those languages in which the sound occurs typically did not have a phonological process from which either [s] or [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, [s] was reached from -ti-, -ci-, -ce- ([ti], [ki], [ke]) clusters that eventually became [ts], [tsi], [tse] and later [s], [si], [se] (as in Latin fortia "force", civitas "city", centum "hundred"), while [ʃ] was reached:

• From a [sk] or [ks] cluster in southern Romance, as in Latin miscere > Portuguese mexer "to move", Latin fluxus > Spanish flojo "lax", Latin crescere > Italian crescere "grow", with a different pronunciation.
• from a deaffricated [tʃ] in Northern France and southern-central Portugal, as in French chat "cat", Portuguese achar "find".

In High German, [s] was reached from a [t] > [ts] > [s] process, as in German Wasser vs English water. In English, the same process of Romance [ts] > [s] occurred in Norman-imported words, accounting for modern homophones sell and cell. [ʃ] was also reached from a -sk- cluster reduction as in Romance, e.g. Old English spelling "asc" for modern "ash", German schirm vs English screen, English ship vs Danish skib.

Exceptions

Standard Modern Greek, which has apical [s̺], lacked both processes.

The Germanic-speaking regions that did not have either phenomena have normally preserved the apical [s̺], that is, Icelandic, Dutch and many Scandinavian lects. It also reached modern times in Low German, but this language has largely been replaced by Standard German.

The main Romance language to preserve the sound, Castilian Spanish, is exceptional in that it had both events that produced [s] and [ʃ], and preserved the apical S at the expense of both, that were shifted farther away. Galician changed only [s], and Catalan, as well as Ladino, still preserves all three sounds.

Reach in ancient times

Because of the widespread medieval distribution, it has been speculated that retracted [s̺] was the normal pronunciation in spoken Latin. Certain borrowings suggest that it was not far off from the sh-sound [ʃ], e.g. Aramaic Jeshua > Latin Jesus, Hebrew Shabbat > Vulgar Latin Sabato; but this could also be explained by the lack of a better sound in Latin to represent Semitic sh. 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 [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 [s] to as far as [ɕ].

[ʃ], but not [s], was developed in Italian. However, where Spanish and Catalan have apical [s̺], Italian uses the same laminal [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 [s] or [ʃ] depending on context, much as in European Portuguese, which could attest to the previous existence of [s̺] in the Italian Peninsula. The Italian pronunciation as laminal S could also be explained by the presence of [ʃ] but not [s], thus moving the pronunciation of [s̺] to the front of the mouth in an attempt to better differentiate between the two sounds.

Voiceless lamino-dental sibilant

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 Kemeyaay of the Yuman family.

Comparison between English and Spanish

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 [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 apical (for the northern Iberian sound) vs. laminal (for the more common sound), but Ladefoged and Maddieson[5] claim that English /s/ can be pronounced apical, which is evidently not the same as the apical sibilant of Iberian Spanish and Basque. Also, Adams[6] 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[6] describes the northern Iberian sibilant as "retracted". Ladefoged and Maddieson[5] appear to characterize the more common hissing variant as grooved, 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

Features of the voiceless alveolar sibilant:

• Its manner of articulation is sibilant fricative, which means it is generally produced by channeling air flow along a groove in the back of the tongue up to the place of articulation, at which point it is focused against the sharp edge of the nearly clenched teeth, causing high-frequency turbulence.
• There are at least three specific variants of [s]:
  • Dentalized laminal alveolar (commonly called "dental"), which means it is articulated with the tongue blade very close to the upper front teeth, with the tongue tip resting behind lower front teeth. The hissing effect in this variety of [s] is very strong.[7]
  • Non-retracted alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal. According to Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996) about half of English speakers use a non-retracted apical articulation.
  • Retracted alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue slightly behind the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal. Acoustically, it is close to laminal [ʂ] or (to a lesser extent) [ʃ].

• Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.

• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.

• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.

• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Examples

Dentalized laminal alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Arabic	Gulf[8]	مسجد/masiid	[mɐˈs̪iːd̪]	'mosque'
Armenian	Eastern[9]	սար/sar	[s̪ɑɾ]	'mountain'
Azerbaijani[10]		su	[s̪u]	'water'
Basque[11]		gauza	[ɡäus̪ä]	'thing'	Contrasts with an apical sibilant.[11] See Basque phonology
Belarusian[12]		стагоддзе/stagoddze	[s̪t̪äˈɣod̪d̪͡z̪ʲe]	'century'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Belarusian phonology
Bulgarian[13]		всеки/vseki	[ˈfs̪ɛki]	'everyone'	Contrasts with palatalized form.
Chinese	Mandarin[14][15]	三 sān	[s̪a̋n]	'three'	See Mandarin phonology
Czech[16]		svět	[s̪vjɛt̪]	'world'	See Czech phonology
English	Auckland[17]	sand	[s̪ɛnˑd̥]	'sand'	See English phonology
	Multicultural London[18]		[s̪anˑd̥]
French[19][20][21]		façade	[fäs̪äd̪]	'front'	See French phonology
Hungarian[22]		sziget	[ˈs̪iɡɛt̪]	'island'	See Hungarian phonology
Kashubian[23]
Kazakh[24]		сом	[s̪u̯ʊm]	'pure'
Kyrgyz[25]		сабиз/sabiz	[s̪äˈbis̪]	'carrot'
Latvian[26]		sens	[s̪en̪s̪]	'ancient'	See Latvian phonology
Macedonian[27]		скока/skoka	[ˈs̪kɔkä]	'jump'	See Macedonian phonology
Mirandese					Contrasts seven sibilants altogether, preserving medieval Ibero-Romance contrasts.
Polish[7][28]		sum	[s̪um]	'catfish'	See Polish phonology
Romanian[29]		surd	[s̪ur̪d̪]	'deaf'	See Romanian phonology
Russian[30]		волосы/volosy	[ˈvo̞ɫ̪əs̪ɨ̞]	'hair'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic[31]		Slàinte	[ˈs̪ɫ̪äːn̪t̪ʰʲə]	'cheers'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatian[32][33]		село / selo	[s̪ĕ̞lo̞]	'village'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovene[34]		svet	[s̪ʋéːt̪]	'world'	See Slovene phonology
Spanish	Iberian[35]	estar	[e̞s̪ˈt̪är]	'to be'	Allophone of /s/ before dental consonants.[35] See Spanish phonology
Swedish[36]	Central Standard[37][38]	säte	[ˈs̪ɛːt̪e]	'seat'	Retracted in some southern dialects.[39] See Swedish phonology
Toda[40][41]		[kɔs̪]		'money'
Turkish[19][42]		su	[s̪u]	'water'	See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian[43]		село/selo	[s̪ɛˈɫ̪ɔ]	'village'	See Ukrainian phonology
Upper Sorbian[44]		sowa	[ˈs̪ovä]	'owl'	See Upper Sorbian phonology
Uzbek[45]		soat	[ˈs̪o̞æt̪]	'hour'
Vietnamese	Hanoi[46]	xa	[s̪äː]	'far'	See Vietnamese phonology

Non-retracted alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		сэ/sė	[sa]	'I'
Arabic	Modern Standard[47]	جَلَسَ‎/ǧalasa	[ˈdʒælæsɐ]	'to sit'	See Arabic phonology
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		sepa	[seːpaː]	'sword'
Bengali		রাস্তা	[raːst̪a]	'street'	See Bengali phonology
Burmese		စစားဗျီ/ca carr bhye	[sə sá bjì]	'I am eating now'
Chinese	Cantonese	閃 / sim2	[siːm˧˥]	'twinkle'	See Cantonese phonology
Dutch[48][49]		staan	[s̻t̻aːn̻]	'to stand'	Laminal; may have only mid-to-low pitched friction in the Netherlands.[48][49] See Dutch phonology
Emilian and Romagnol		sèl	[ˈs̺ʲɛːl]	'salt'	Palatalized apical;[50] may be [ʂ] or [ʃ] instead.[50]
Estonian		sõna	[ˈsɤnɑ]	'word'
English		sit	[sɪt]	'sit'	See English phonology
Esperanto		Esperanto	[espeˈranto]	'Who hopes'	See Esperanto phonology
Faroese		sandur	[sandʊɹ]	'sand'
Georgian[51]		სამი/sami	[ˈsɑmi]	'three'
Hebrew		ספר‎/sefer	[ˈsefeʁ]	'book'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani		साल / سال‎/saal/sāl	[saːl]	'year'	See Hindustani phonology
Icelandic[52][53]		segi	[ˈs̺ɛːjɪ]	'I say'	Apical.[52][53] See Icelandic phonology
Japanese[54]		複数形 / fukusūkē	[ɸɯkɯsɯːkeː]	'plural'	See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		сэ/sė	[sa]	'I'
Korean		섬 / seom	[sʌːm]	'island'	See Korean phonology
Malay		satu	[satu]	'one'
Maltese		iebes	[eaˈbes]	'hard'
Marathi		साप/saap/sāp	[saːp]	'snake'	See Marathi phonology
Occitan	Limousin	maichent	[mejˈsẽ]	'bad'
Persian		سیب‎ / sib	[sib]	'apple'	See Persian phonology
Portuguese[55]		caço	[ˈkasu]	'I hunt'	See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi		ਸੱਪ/sapp	[səpː]	'snake'
Spanish[35]	Latin American	saltador	[s̻al̪t̪aˈð̞o̞r]	'jumper'	See Spanish phonology and Seseo
	Canarian
	Andalusian
	Filipino
Swahili		Kiswahili	[kiswaˈhili]	'Swahili'
Sylheti		ꠢꠂꠍꠦ/oise	[ɔise]	'done'
Vietnamese[56]		xa	[saː˧]	'far'	See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian[57]		sâlt	[sɔːt]	'salt'	See West Frisian phonology
Yi		ꌦ sy	[sɻ̩˧]	'die'

Retracted alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Asturian		pasu	[ˈpäs̺u]	'step'	Apical.
Basque[11][58]		su	[s̺u]	'fire'	Apical. Contrasts with a dentalized laminal sibilant.[11][58]
Catalan[59][60]	Most dialects	set	[ˈs̺ɛt̪]	'seven'	Apical. See Catalan phonology
	Some Valencian speakers[61]	peix	[ˈpe̠js̠ʲ]	'fish'	Normally transcribed with ⟨ʂ⟩; realized as pre-palatal [ɕ] in Standard Catalan and Valencian.
	Some Valencian speakers[61]	patisc	[päˈt̪is̠ʲk]	'I suffer'
English	Glasgow[62]	sun	[s̺ʌn]	'sun'	Working-class pronunciation, other speakers may use a non-retracted [s]
Galician		saúde	[s̺äˈuðe]	'health'	Apical.
Italian	Central Italy[63]	sali	[ˈs̠äːli]	'you go up'	Present in Lazio north of Cape Linaro,[63] most of Umbria[63] (save Perugia and the extreme south),[63] Marche and south of Potenza.[63]
	Northern Italy[64][65]				Apical.[66] Present in many areas north of the La Spezia–Rimini Line.[67][68] See Italian phonology
	Sicily[63]				Present south and west of a line drawn from Syracuse to Cefalù.[63]
Leonese		pasu	[ˈpäs̺ʊ]	'step'	Apical.
Low German[39]
Mirandese		passo	[ˈpäs̺u]	'step'	Apical. Contrasts with /s̪/.
Occitan	Gascon	dos	[d̻ys̺]	'two'	See Occitan phonology
	Languedocien		[d̻us̺]
Portuguese[55][69]	European, inland northern	cansaço	[kə̃ˈs̺äs̻u]	'weariness'	Apical. Contrasts with /s̻/. See Portuguese phonology
	European, coastal northern	cansaço	[kə̃ˈs̺äs̺u]		Merges with /s̻/. See Portuguese phonology
	Inland and southern capixaba	pescador	[pe̞s̺käˈd̻oχ]	'fisherman'	Realization of Portuguese coda sibilant, which may be postalveolars, depending on dialect
	Carioca do brejo	escadas	[is̺ˈkäd̻ɐs̺]	'stairs'
Spanish	Andean	saltador	[s̺äl̪t̪äˈð̞o̞ɾ]	'jumper'	Apical. In Andean and Paisa (except in southern parts of Antioquia) alternates with a more frequent corono-dental /s/.[70][71] See Spanish phonology and seseo
	Castilian[35]
	Paisa accent
Swedish	Blekinge[39]	säte	[ˈs̠ɛːte]	'seat'	See Swedish phonology
	Bohuslän[39]
	Halland[39]
	Scania[39]
Vietnamese	Saigon[72]	xe	[s̺ɛ˧]	'vehicle'	Apical.

Variable

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Danish[73][74][75]		sælge	[ˈseljə]	'sell'	Most often non-retracted apical, but can be dentalized laminal for some speakers.[73][74][75] See Danish phonology
Finnish[76]		sinä	[ˈsinæ]	'you'	Varies between non-retracted and retracted.[76] See Finnish phonology
German	Standard[77]	Biss	[bɪs]	'bite'	Varies between dentalized laminal, non-retracted laminal and non-retracted apical.[77] See Standard German phonology
Greek[78]		σαν / san	[sɐn]	'as'	Varies between non-retracted and retracted, depending on the environment.[78] See Modern Greek phonology
Norwegian	Urban East[79]	sand	[sɑnː]	'sand'	Most often dentalized laminal, but can be non-retracted apical for some speakers.[79] See Norwegian phonology
Italian	Standard[80]	sali	[ˈsäːli]	'you go up'	Varies between dentalized laminal and non-retracted apical.[80] See Italian phonology
	Ticino[66]				Varies between dentalized laminal and non-retracted apical.[81] Both variants may be labiodentalized.[66] See Italian phonology

Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative

Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative
θ̠
θ͇
ɹ̝̊
t̞
IPA Number	130 414
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	θ​̱
Unicode (hex)	U+03B8 U+0331
Audio sample
source · help

Voiceless alveolar tapped fricative
ɾ̞̊
ɹ̥̆˔
IPA Number	124 402A 430
Encoding
Unicode (hex)	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 ⟨θ̠⟩, occasionally ⟨θ͇⟩ (retracted or alveolarized [θ], respectively), ⟨ɹ̝̊⟩ (constricted voiceless [ɹ]), or ⟨t̞⟩ (lowered [t]).

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.[82]

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.[82]

Features

• Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence. However, it does not have 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 at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.

• Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.

• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.

• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.

• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afenmai[82]			V͈[aɾ̞̊u]	'hat'	Tapped; tense equivalent of lax /ɾ/.[82]
Dutch[83]		Geert	[ɣeːɹ̝̊t]	'Geert'	One of many possible realizations of /r/; distribution unclear. See Dutch phonology
English	Australian[84]	Italy	[ˈɪ̟θ̠əɫɪi̯]	'Italy'	Occasional allophone of /t/.[84] See Australian English phonology
	Received Pronunciation[85]		[ˈɪθ̠əlɪi̯]		Common allophone of /t/.[85]
	Irish[86]		[ˈɪθ̠ɪli]		Allophone of /t/. See English phonology
	Some American speakers[87]		[ˈɪɾ̞̊əɫi]		Tapped; possible allophone of /t/. Can be a voiceless tap [ɾ̥] or a voiced tap [ɾ] instead.[87] See English phonology
	Scouse[88][89]	attain	[əˈθ̠eɪn]	'attain'	Allophone of /t/. See English phonology
Icelandic[53][90]		þakið	[ˈθ̠äkið̠]	'the roof'	Laminal.[53][90] See Icelandic phonology
Emilian	Bolognese[66]	zidrån	[θ̠iˈdrʌn]	'lemon'	Laminal; a hypercorrective variant of /s/ for some young speakers. Either non-sibilant, or "not sibilant enough".[66]
Turkish[91]		bir	[biɾ̞̊]	'a(n)'	Tapped; word-final allophone of /ɾ/.[91] See Turkish phonology

See also

• Voiceless corono-dentoalveolar sibilant
• Tongue shape
• Apical consonant
• Laminal consonant
• Index of phonetics articles

Notes

1. Pandeli et al. (1997), p. ?.
2. Maddieson (1984), p. ?.
3. Adams (1975), p. ?.
4. Obaid (1973), p. ?.
5. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. ?.
6. Adams (1975), p. 283.
7. Puppel, Nawrocka-Fisiak & Krassowska (1977:149), cited in Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:154)
8. Qafisheh (1977), pp. 2, 9.
9. Kozintseva (1995), p. 7.
10. Axundov (1983), pp. 115, 128–131.
11. Hualde, Lujanbio & Zubiri (2010:1). Although this paper discusses mainly the Goizueta dialect, the authors state that it has "a typical, conservative consonant inventory for a Basque variety".
12. Padluzhny (1989), p. 47.
13. Klagstad Jr. (1958), p. 46.
14. Lee & Zee (2003), pp. 109–110.
15. Lin (2001), pp. 17–25.
16. Palková (1994), p. 228.
17. Bauer & Warren (2004), p. 594.
18. "English speech services | Accent of the Year / sibilants in MLE". Retrieved 2 December 2015.
19. Adams (1975), p. 288.
20. Fougeron & Smith (1999), p. 79.
21. Grønnum (2005), p. 144.
22. Szende (1999), p. 104.
23. Jerzy Treder. "Fonetyka i fonologia". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
24. Kara (2002), p. 10.
25. Kara (2003), p. 11.
26. Nau (1998), p. 6.
27. Lunt (1952), p. 1.
28. Rocławski (1976), pp. 149.
29. Ovidiu Drăghici. "Limba Română contemporană. Fonetică. Fonologie. Ortografie. Lexicologie" (PDF). Retrieved April 19, 2013.
30. Chew (2003), p. 67.
31. Lamb (2003), p. 18.
32. Kordić (2006), p. 5.
33. Landau et al. (1999), p. 67.
34. Pretnar & Tokarz (1980), p. 21.
35. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 258.
36. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 171.
37. Engstrand (1999), pp. 140–141.
38. Engstrand (2004), p. 167.
39. Adams (1975), p. 289.
40. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 157.
41. Ladefoged (2005), p. 168.
42. Zimmer & Orgun (1999), p. 154.
43. S. Buk; J. Mačutek; A. Rovenchak (2008). "Some properties of the Ukrainian writing system". Glottometrics. 16: 63–79. arXiv:0802.4198. Bibcode:2008arXiv0802.4198B.
44. Šewc-Schuster (1984), pp. 22, 38, 39.
45. Sjoberg (1963), p. 11.
46. Thompson (1987), pp. 8–9.
47. Thelwall (1990), p. 37.
48. Gussenhoven (1999), p. 75.
49. Collins & Mees (2003), p. 190.
50. Canepari (1992), p. 73.
51. Shosted & Chikovani (2006), p. 255.
52. Kress (1982:23–24) "It is never voiced, as s in sausen, and it is pronounced by pressing the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, close to the upper teeth – somewhat below the place of articulation of the German sch. The difference is that German sch is labialized, while Icelandic s is not. It is a pre-alveolar, coronal, voiceless spirant."
53. Pétursson (1971:?), cited in Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:145)
54. Okada (1999), p. 117.
55. Cruz-Ferreira (1995), p. 91.
56. Thompson (1959), pp. 458–461. sfnp error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFThompson1959 (help)
57. Sipma (1913), p. 16.
58. Hualde, J. Basque Phonology (1991) Routledge ISBN 0-415-05655-1
59. Carbonell & Llisterri (1992), p. 54.
60. Torreblanca (1988), p. 347.
61. Saborit (2009), p. 12.
62. Annexe 4: Linguistic Variables
63. Adams (1975), p. 286.
64. Adams (1975), pp. 285–286.
65. Canepari (1992), pp. 71–72.
66. Canepari (1992), p. 72.
67. Canepari (1992), p. 71.
68. Adams (1975), p. 285.
69. (in Italian) Accenti romanze: Portogallo e Brasile (portoghese) – The influence of foreign accents on Italian language acquisition Archived 2012-03-30 at the Wayback Machine
70. Montes (1992), p. 527. sfnp error: no target: CITEREFMontes1992 (help)
71. Betancourt (1993), p. 285–286. sfnp error: no target: CITEREFBetancourt1993 (help)
72. Thompson, Laurence C. (July 1959). "Saigon Phonemics". Language. 35 (3): 454–476. doi:10.2307/411232. JSTOR 411232.
73. Basbøll (2005), pp. 61 and 131.
74. Thorborg (2003:80). The author states that /s/ is pronounced with "the tip of the tongue right behind upper teeth, but without touching them." This is confirmed by the accompanying image.
75. Grønnum (2005:144). Only this author mentions both alveolar and dental realizations.
76. Suomi, Toivanen & Ylitalo (2008), p. 27.
77. Mangold (2005), p. 50.
78. Arvaniti (2007), p. 12.
79. Skaug (2003), pp. 130–131.
80. Canepari (1992), p. 68.
81. Canepari (1992), pp. 68 and 72.
82. Laver (1994), p. 263.
83. Collins & Mees (2003:199). Authors do not say where exactly it is used.
84. Loakes & McDougall (2007), pp. 1445–1448.
85. Buizza (2011), pp. 16–28.
86. Hickey (1984), pp. 234–235.
87. Laver (1994), pp. 263–264.
88. Marotta & Barth (2005), p. 385.
89. Watson (2007), pp. 352–353.
90. Grønnum (2005), p. 139.
91. Yavuz & Balcı (2011), p. 25.

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External links

• List of languages with [s] on PHOIBLE