Fricative
A fricative is a
A particular subset of fricatives are the sibilants. When forming a sibilant, one still is forcing air through a narrow channel, but in addition, the tongue is curled lengthwise to direct the air over the edge of the teeth.[1] English [s], [z], [ʃ], and [ʒ] are examples of sibilants.
The usage of two other terms is less standardized: "Spirant" is an older term for fricatives used by some American and European phoneticians and phonologists.[3] "Strident" could mean just "sibilant", but some authors[who?] include also labiodental and uvular fricatives in the class.
Types
The airflow is not completely stopped in the production of fricative consonants. In other words, the airflow experiences friction.
Sibilants
- [s] voiceless coronal sibilant, as in English sip
- [z] voiced coronal sibilant, as in English zip
- [s̪] voiceless dental sibilant
- [z̪] voiced dental sibilant
- [s̺] voiceless apical sibilant
- [z̺] voiced apical sibilant
- [s̟] voiceless predorsal sibilant (laminal, with tongue tip at lower teeth)[4]
- [z̟] voiced predorsal sibilant (laminal)
- [s̠] voiceless postalveolar sibilant (laminal)
- [z̠] voiced postalveolar sibilant (laminal)
- [s̪]
- [ʃ] domed, partially palatalized), as in English ship
- [ʒ] voiced palato-alveolar sibilant (domed, partially palatalized), as the si in English vision
- [ɕ] voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant (laminal, palatalized)
- [ʑ] voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant (laminal, palatalized)
- [ʂ] voiceless retroflex sibilant (apical or subapical)
- [ʐ] voiced retroflex sibilant (apical or subapical)
All
Central non-sibilant fricatives
- [ɸ] voiceless bilabial fricative
- [β] voiced bilabial fricative
- [f] voiceless labiodental fricative, as in English fine
- [v] voiced labiodental fricative, as in English vine
- [θ̼] voiceless linguolabial fricative
- [ð̼] voiced linguolabial fricative
- [θ], [θ̟] voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative, as in English thing
- [ð], [ð̟] voiced dental non-sibilant fricative, as in English that
- [θ̠], [ɹ̝̊] voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative
- [ð̠], [ɹ̝] voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative
- [r̝̊] Voiceless alveolar fricative trill
- [r̝] Voiced alveolar fricative trill
- [ç] voiceless palatal fricative
- [ʝ] voiced palatal fricative
- [x] voiceless velar fricative
- [ɣ] voiced velar fricative
- [ɧ] voiceless palatal-velar fricative(articulation disputed)
The IPA also has letters for epiglottal fricatives,
- [ʜ] voiceless epiglottal fricative
- [ʢ] voiced epiglottal fricative
with allophonic trilling, but these might be better analyzed as pharyngeal trills. [5]
- [ʩ] cleft palate)
- [ʩ̬] voiced velopharyngeal fricative
Lateral fricatives
- [ɬ̪] voiceless dental lateral fricative
- [ɮ̪] voiced dental lateral fricative
- [ɬ] voiceless alveolar lateral fricative
- [ɮ] voiced alveolar lateral fricative
- [ɬ̠] voiceless postalveolar lateral fricative (Mehri)
- [ɮ̠] voiced postalveolar lateral fricative
- [ɭ˔̥] or extIPA [ꞎ] voiceless retroflex lateral fricative
- [ɭ˔] or extIPA [𝼅] Voiced retroflex lateral fricative (in Ao)
- [ʎ̥˔] or [ʎ̝̥] or extIPA [𝼆] voiceless palatal lateral fricative
- [ʎ̝] or extIPA [𝼆̬] voiced palatal lateral fricative (allophonic in Jebero)
- [ʟ̝̊] or extIPA [𝼄] voiceless velar lateral fricative
- [ʟ̝] or extIPA [𝼄̬] voiced velar lateral fricative
The lateral fricative occurs as the ll of
- ʪ or [ɬ͜s] and [θ͜ɬ] laterally lisped[s] or [θ]) (Modern South Arabian)
- ʫ or [ɮ͜z] and [ð͜ɮ] voiced lateral-median fricative(a laterally lisped [z] or [ð]) (Modern South Arabian)
IPA letters used for both fricatives and approximants
- [χ] voiceless uvular fricative
- [ʁ] voiced uvular fricative
- [ħ] voiceless pharyngeal fricative
- [ʕ] voiced pharyngeal fricative
No language distinguishes fricatives from
(The
Pseudo-fricatives
- [h] voiceless glottal transition, as in English hat
- [ɦ] breathy-voiced glottal transition
In many languages, such as English, the glottal "fricatives" are unaccompanied phonation states of the glottis, without any accompanying manner, fricative or otherwise. They may be mistaken for real glottal constrictions in a number of languages, such as Finnish.[6]
In addition, [ʍ] is usually called a "
Aspirated fricatives
Fricatives are very commonly voiced, though cross-linguistically voiced fricatives are not nearly as common as
Nasalized fricatives
Phonemically nasalized fricatives are rare. Umbundu has /ṽ/ and Kwangali and Souletin Basque have /h̃/. In Coatzospan Mixtec, [β̃, ð̃, s̃, ʃ̃] appear allophonically before a nasal vowel, and in Igbo nasality is a feature of the syllable; when /f v s z ʃ ʒ/ occur in nasal syllables they are themselves nasalized.[8]
bilabial | labio- dental |
linguo- labial |
inter- dental |
dental | denti- alveolar |
alveolar | post- alveolar |
palatal/ retroflex |
velar | uvular | pharyn- geal |
glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
central non-sibilant | ɸ β | f v fʰ vʱ |
θ̼ ð̼ | θ̟ ð̟ (θ̪͆ ð̪͆) | θ ð | θ̠ ð̠ | θ͇ ð͇ (laminal) ɹ̝̊ ɹ̝ (apical) |
ɹ̠̊˔ ɹ̠˔ | ç ʝ (laminal) ɻ̝̊ ɻ̝ (apical) |
x ɣ xʰ ɣʱ |
χ̝ ʁ̝ | ħ̝ ʕ̝ | h̝ ɦ̝ |
lateral fricative
|
ɬ̪ ɮ̪ | ɬ ɮ ɬʰ ɮʱ |
ɬ̠ ɮ̠ | 𝼆 ʎ̝ (laminal) ꞎ ɭ˔ (apical) |
𝼄 ʟ̝ | ||||||||
laminal sibilant | s̻̪ z̻̪ | s̄ z̄ (s̟ z̟) | s͇ z͇ s͇ʰ z͇ʱ |
s̠ z̠ (s̻̠ z̻̠) ʃ̻ ʒ̻ (domed) ŝ ẑ (ʆ ʓ) (closed) |
ɕ ʑ ɕʰ ʑʱ |
||||||||
apical sibilant | s̺̪ z̺̪ | s̺ z̺ | ṣ ẓ (s̺̠ z̺̠) ʃ̺ ʒ̺ ʃʰ ʒʱ |
ʂ ʐ ʂʰ ʐʱ |
|||||||||
fricative trill | r̝̊ r̝ | ʀ̝̊ ʀ̝ | ʜ ʢ | ||||||||||
fricative flap | ɾ̞̊ ɾ̞ | ||||||||||||
nasalized fricative | β̃ | f̃ ṽ | ð̃ | s̃ z̃ | ʃ̃ ʒ̃ | h̃ |
Occurrence
Until its extinction,
Voicing contrasts in fricatives are largely confined to Europe, Africa, and Western Asia. Languages of South and East Asia, such as Mandarin Chinese, Korean, and the Austronesian languages, typically do not have such voiced fricatives as [z] and [v], which are familiar to many European speakers. In some Dravidian languages they occur as allophones. These voiced fricatives are also relatively rare in indigenous languages of the Americas. Overall, voicing contrasts in fricatives are much rarer than in plosives, being found only in about a third of the world's languages as compared to 60 percent for plosive voicing contrasts.[10]
About 15 percent of the world's languages, however, have unpaired voiced fricatives, i.e. a voiced fricative without a voiceless counterpart. Two-thirds of these, or 10 percent of all languages, have unpaired voiced fricatives but no voicing contrast between any fricative pair.[11]
This phenomenon occurs because voiced fricatives have developed from lenition of plosives or fortition of approximants. This phenomenon of unpaired voiced fricatives is scattered throughout the world, but is confined to nonsibilant fricatives with the exception of a couple of languages that have [ʒ] but lack [ʃ]. (Relatedly, several languages have the voiced affricate [dʒ] but lack [tʃ], and vice versa.) The fricatives that occur most often without a voiceless counterpart are – in order of ratio of unpaired occurrences to total occurrences – [ʝ], [β], [ð], [ʁ] and [ɣ].
Acoustics
Fricatives appear in
See also
- Apical consonant
- Hush consonant
- Laminal consonant
- List of phonetics topics
Notes
- ^ There are likely to be more aspirated, murmured and nasal fricatives than shown here. ⟨s̄ ṣ ŝ⟩ are not IPA transcription.
References
- Laufer, Asher (1991), "Phonetic Representation: Glottal Fricatives", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 21 (2): 91–93, S2CID 145231104
External links
- ^ ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
- ^ "Definition of Frication". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
- ISBN 978-0-8264-8873-2.
- ^ Pountain (2014) Exploring the Spanish Language, p. 18
- ^ John Esling (2010) "Phonetic Notation", in Hardcastle, Laver & Gibbon (eds) The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences, 2nd ed., p 695.
- ^ Laufer (1991:91)
- ^ Guillaume Jacques 2011. A panchronic study of aspirated fricatives, with new evidence from Pumi, Lingua 121.9:1518-1538
- ^ Laver (1994: 255–256) Principles of Phonetics
- ^ Maddieson, Ian. 2008. "Absence of Common Consonants". In: Haspelmath, Martin & Dryer, Matthew S. & Gil, David & Comrie, Bernard (eds.) The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Munich: Max Planck Digital Library, chapter 18. Accessed on 2008-09-15.
- ISBN 0-19-925591-1.
- ISBN 0-521-26536-3.
- ISBN 978-1-4051-9103-6.
- ISBN 978-1-4051-9466-2.
- ^ Kiss, Zoltán G. (2013). "Measuring acoustic correlates of voicing in stops and fricatives". In Szigetvári, Péter (ed.). VLlxx: Papers Presented to László Varga on His 70th Birthday. Budapest: Department of English Linguistics, Eötvös Loránd University.