Voiceless dental fricative

Voiceless dental fricative
θ
IPA Number	130
Audio sample
help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	θ
Unicode (hex)	U+03B8
X-SAMPA	T
Braille

The voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to English speakers as the 'th' in think. Though rather rare as a phoneme among the world's languages, it is encountered in some of the most widespread and influential ones. 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 post-classical Greek, and the sound is thus often referred to as "theta".

The dental non-sibilant fricatives are often called "

• 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. It does not have the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.
• Its
  teeth, termed respectively apical and laminal. Note that most stops and liquids described as dental are actually denti-alveolar
  .
• 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
  intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles
  , as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Albanian		thotë	[θɔtə]	'says'
Arabic	Modern Standard[6]	ثَوْب	[θawb]ⓘ	'a dress'	Represented by ⟨ ث⟩. See Arabic phonology .
	Eastern Libya	ثِلاثة	[θɪˈlæːθæ]	'three'
	Sanaa, Yemen[7][full citation needed]	يِثَمَّن	[jɪˈθæmːæn]	'it is priced'
	Iraq	ثمانْية	[θ(ɪ)ˈmæːnjæ]	'eight'
	Khuzestan, Iran[8]	الثانْية	[ɪθˈθæːnjæ]	'the second one'
Aragonese		arbuzo	[arˈbuθo]	'bush'
Arapaho		yoo3on	[jɔːθɔn]	'five'
Arpitan	Genevan [fr] and Savoyard	marchiê	[maʁθ'ia]	'market'
	Fribourgeois [fr ]	èthêla	[e'θɛːla]	'star'
	Valaisan [fr ]	clâf	[θo]	'key'	Limited to l'Étivaz [fr] (VD), Bourg-Saint-Pierre (VS), and a few other villages.
Assyrian		ܒܝܬܐ bèṭa	[beːθa]	'house'	Mostly used in the t ] in other varieties.
Asturian		zumu	[ˈθumu]	'juice'
Avestan		𐬑𐬱𐬀𐬚𐬭𐬀‎ xšaθra	[xʃaθra]	'kingdom'	Ancient dead sacred language.
Bashkir		дуҫ / duθ	[duθ]ⓘ	'friend'
Berber		Ṯmaziɣṯ	[θmæzɪɣθ]	'Berber (language)'(noun)	This pronunciation is common in northern Morocco, central Morocco, and northern Algeria.
Berta		[θɪ́ŋɑ̀]		'to eat'
Burmese[9]		သုံး / thon:	[θòʊ̯̃]	'three'	Commonly realized as an affricate [t̪͡θ].[10]
Cornish		eth	[ɛθ]	'eight'
Emiliano-Romagnol[11]		fâza	[ˈfaːθɐ]	'face'
English	Received Pronunciation[12]	thin	[θɪn]	'thin'
	Western American		[θ̪͆ɪn]ⓘ		Interdental.[12]
Galician	Most dialects[13]	cero	[ˈθɛɾo]	'zero'	Merges with /s/ into [s] in Western dialects.[13] See Galician phonology
Greek		θάλασσα	[ˈθalasa]	'sea'	See Modern Greek phonology
Gweno		[riθo]		'eye'
Gwich’in		thał	[θaɬ]	'pants'
Halkomelem		θqet	[θqet]	'tree'
Hän		nihthän	[nihθɑn]	'I want'
Harsusi		[θəroː]		'two'
Hebrew	Iraqi	עברית	[ʕibˈriːθ]	'Hebrew' (language)	See Modern Hebrew phonology
	Yemenite		[ʕivˈriːθ]
Hlai	Basadung	[θsio]		'one'
Italian	Tuscan[14]	i capitani	[iˌhäɸiˈθäːni]	'the captains'	Intervocalic allophone of /t/.[14] See Italian phonology and Tuscan gorgia
Kabyle		ṯafaṯ	[θafaθ]	'light'(noun)
Karen	Sgaw	သၢ	[θə˧]	'three'
Karuk		yiθa	[jiθa]	'one'
Kickapoo		neθwi	[nɛθwi]	'three'
Kwama		[mɑ̄ˈθíl]		'to laugh'
Leonese		ceru	[θeɾu]	'zero'
Lorediakarkar		[θar]		'four'
Malay		Selasa	[θəlaθa]	'Tuesday'	Mostly occurs in Arabic loanwords originally containing this sound, but the writing is not distinguished from the Arabic loanwords with the [s] sound and this sound must be learned separately by the speakers. See Malay phonology.
Massa		[faθ]		'five'
Occitan	Gascon	macipon	[maθiˈpu]	'(male) child'	Limited the sub-dialects of the region of Castillonais, in the Ariège department.
	Vivaro-Alpine	chin	[θĩ]	'dog'	Limited to Vénosc, in the Isère department.
Old Persian		𐎧𐏁𐎠𐎹𐎰𐎡𐎹 xšāyaθiya	[xʃaːjaθija]	'king'	Ancient dead language.
Saanich		TÁŦES	[teθʔəs]	'eight'
Sardinian	Nuorese	petha	[pɛθa]	'meat'
Shark Bay		[θar]		'four'
Shawnee		nthwi	[nθwɪ]	'three'
Sioux	Nakoda	ktusa	[ktũˈθa]	'four'
Spanish	European[15]	cazar	[käˈθ̪͆äɾ]	'to hunt'	Interdental. See Spanish phonology and Seseo. This sound is not contrastive in the Americas, southern Andalusia or the Canary Islands.
	Castilian	pared	[paˈɾeθ]	'wall'	Word-final, especially in Madrid.[16][17] Corresponds to [ð] in standard Spanish.
Swahili		thamini	[θɑˈmini]	'value'	Mostly occurs in Arabic loanwords originally containing this sound.
Tanacross		thiit	[θiːtʰ]	'embers'
Toda		உஇனபஒத	[wɨnboθ]	'nine'
Tutchone	Northern	tho	[θo]	'pants'
	Southern	thü	[θɨ]
Upland Yuman	Havasupai	[θerap]		'five'
	Hualapai	[θarap]
	Yavapai	[θerapi]
Venetian	Eastern dialects	çinque	[ˈθiŋkwe]	'five'	Corresponds to /s/ in other dialects.
Wolaytta		shiththa	[ɕiθθa]	'flower'
Welsh		saith	[saiθ]	'seven'
Zhuang		saw	[θaːu˨˦]	'language'
Zotung	Standard dialect of Lungngo	kacciade	[kəˈθʲaːðɛ]	'I go'	Realized as [sʲ] and [t] in Aikap and other Northern dialects. It can also be voiced depending on the preceding consonant.

Voiceless denti-alveolar sibilant

Voiceless denti-alveolar sibilant
s̻̪
s̪̻
s̟
Encoding
X-SAMPA	s_m_d
Image

The voiceless denti-alveolar sibilant is the only sibilant fricative in some dialects of Andalusian Spanish. It has no official symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet, though its features would be transcribed ⟨s̻̪⟩ or ⟨s̪̻⟩ (using the ⟨◌̻⟩, the diacritic marking a laminal consonant, and ⟨◌̪⟩, the diacritic marking a dental consonant). It is usually represented by an ad-hoc symbol such as ⟨s̄⟩, ⟨θˢ̣⟩, or ⟨s̟⟩ (advanced diacritic).

Dalbor (1980) describes this sound as follows: "[s̄] is a voiceless, corono-dentoalveolar groove fricative, the so-called s coronal or s plana because of the relatively flat shape of the tongue body.... To this writer, the coronal [s̄], heard throughout Andalusia, should be characterized by such terms as "soft," "fuzzy," or "imprecise," which, as we shall see, brings it quite close to one variety of /θ/ ... Canfield has referred, quite correctly, in our opinion, to this [s̄] as "the lisping coronal-dental," and Amado Alonso remarks how close it is to the post-dental [θ̦], suggesting a combined symbol [θˢ̣] to represent it".

Features

Features of the voiceless denti-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.
• Its
  alveolar ridge
  and upper teeth.
• It is normally laminal, which means it is pronounced with the blade of the tongue.^[18]
• 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.
• 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.
• The
  intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles
  , as in most sounds.

• Voiced dental fricative
• Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative
• Voiced dental sibilant
• Voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant
• Sibilant consonant#Possible combinations
• Pronunciation of English th
• Index of phonetics topics

Notes

References