Voiceless alveolar fricatives are 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 five types with significant perceptual differences: A voiceless alveolar sibilant (the standard symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet or IPA) has a strong hissing sound, as the s in English sink. It is one of the most common sounds in the world. A voiceless denti-alveolar sibilant or (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). A voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant , and the subform apico-alveolar , has a weak hushing sound (also called "grave" frication) reminiscent of retroflex fricatives. It is used in the languages of northern Iberia, like Asturleonese, Basque, Peninsular 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. The retracted "S" is also used in Amerindian languages such as Muscogee, Garifuna, and many varieties of Quechua. It was supposedly the standard sound of s in Classical Latin. Its sound is between and []. A voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative or (using the alveolar diacritic from the Extended IPA) is similar to the th in English thin. It occurs in Icelandic as well as an intervocalic and word-final allophone of English in dialects such as Hiberno-English and Scouse. A voiceless alveolar lateral fricative 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 by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth and have a piercing, perceptually prominent sound.
+ Voiceless coronal fricatives Inter-dental Dental Denti-alveolar Alveolar Post-alveolar Retracted Retroflex Palato-alveolar Alveolo-palatal Sibilant Non-sibilant
Voiceless alveolar sibilant A voiceless alveolar sibilant is a common consonant sound in spoken languages. It is the sound in English words such as sea and pass, and is represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet with . 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 or .
Voiceless alveolar sibilants are one of the most common sounds cross-linguistically. If a language has fricatives, it will most likely have . However, some languages have a related sibilant sound, such as , but no . In addition, sibilants are absent from most Australian Aboriginal languages, in which fricatives are rare; however, does occur in Kalaw Lagaw Ya.
Features Features of a voiceless alveolar sibilant:
There are at least three specific variants of : 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 is very strong., cited in 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 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 or (to a lesser extent) .
Occurrence
Dentalized laminal alveolar Language Word IPA Meaning NotesAcehneseseuôt'to answer'Described by Durie as a "laminal alveo-dental fricative with a wide channel area". Often desibilized into in the Greater Aceh dialect. See Acehnese phonology Arabic Gulf () 'mosque' Armenian Eastern () 'mountain' Azerbaijani 'water' Belarusian () 'century' Contrasts with palatalized form. See Belarusian phonology Bulgarian () 'everyone' Contrasts with palatalized form. Chinese Mandarin () 'three' See Mandarin phonology Chuvash () 'vessel, glass' English Auckland sand 'sand' See English phonology Multicultural London French 'front' See French phonology Hungarian 'island' See Hungarian phonology Italian Standard 'you go up' Varies between dentalized laminal and non-retracted apical. See Italian phonology Ticino Varies between dentalized laminal and non-retracted apical. Both variants may be labiodentalized. See Italian phonology Kashubian 'ground squirrel' Kazakh () 'pure' Kyrgyz () 'carrot' Latvian 'ancient' See Latvian phonology Macedonian () 'jump' See Macedonian phonology Mirandese 'blood' Contrasts seven sibilants altogether, preserving medieval Ibero-Romance contrasts. Norwegian Urban East 'sand' Most often dentalized laminal, but can be non-retracted apical for some speakers. See Norwegian phonology Polish 'catfish' See Polish phonology Romanian 'deaf' See Romanian phonology Russian () 'hair' Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology Scottish Gaelic 'cheers' See Scottish Gaelic phonology Serbo-Croatian () 'village' See Serbo-Croatian phonology Slovak 'hundred' See Slovak phonology Slovene 'world' See Slovene phonology Spanish Andalusian 'house' Present in dialects with ceceo. See Spanish phonology Iberian 'to be' Allophone of before dental consonants. See Spanish phonology Swedish Central Standard 'seat' Retracted in some southern dialects. See Swedish phonology Toda 'money' Contrasts . Voiced allophones are found in fast speech. Turkish 'water' See Turkish phonology Ukrainian () 'village' Contrasts with palatalized form. See Ukrainian phonology Upper Sorbian 'owl' Uzbek 'hour' Vietnamese Hanoi 'far' See Vietnamese phonology
Alveolar Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Adyghe () 'I' Arabic Modern Standard () 'to sit' See Arabic phonology Assyrian () 'sword' Bengali () 'street' See Bengali phonology Breton 'spirit' Burmese () 'camp' Chechen () 'picture' Chinese Cantonese () 'twinkle' See Cantonese phonology Czech 'world' See Czech phonology Danish. The author states that is pronounced with "the tip of the tongue right behind upper teeth, but without touching them." This is confirmed by the accompanying image.. Only this author mentions both alveolar and dental realizations. 'sell' Most often non-retracted apical, but can be dentalized laminal for some speakers. See Danish phonology Dutch Belgian Standard 'navigation' Laminal. See Dutch phonology Northern Standard Laminal. It is laxer than in English, has a graver frication and is sometimes labialized. It is often retracted when preconsonantal, after rounded vowels and . See Dutch phonology Emilian 'salt' Palatalized apical; may be or instead. English sit 'sit' See English phonology Esperanto 'Who hopes' See Esperanto phonology Faroese 'sand' German Standard 'bite' Varies between dentalized laminal, non-retracted laminal and non-retracted apical. See Standard German phonology Georgian () 'three' Hebrew () 'book' See Modern Hebrew phonology Hindustani / (sāl) 'year' See Hindustani phonology Italian Standard 'you go up' Varies between dentalized laminal and non-retracted apical. See Italian phonology Ticino Varies between dentalized laminal and non-retracted apical. Both variants may be labiodentalized. See Italian phonology Japanese () 'plural' See Japanese phonology Kabardian () 'I' Karen S'gaw Karen 'silver' Western Pwo 'to run' Katë 'sun' Khmer () noun: 'Spain'adjective: 'Spanish' See Khmer phonology () 'machine' Korean () 'island' See Korean phonology Malay 'one' Malayalam () 'dream' See Malayalam phonology Maltese 'hard' Marathi () 'snake' See Marathi phonology Nepali () 'Mount Everest' See Nepali phonology Odia 'equal' Occitan Limousin 'bad' Persian () 'apple' See Persian phonology Portuguese 'I hunt' See Portuguese phonology Punjabi () 'snake' Spanish Latin American 'jumper' See Spanish phonology and Seseo Canarian Andalusian Filipino Swahili 'Swahili' Sylheti () 'done' Tagalog 'taste' Tamil () 'to eat' See Tamil phonology Ticino Varies between dentalized laminal and non-retracted apical. Both variants may be labiodentalized. See Italian phonologyToki Ponasuwi'sweet'Varies. See Toki Pona phonology Vietnamese 'far' See Vietnamese phonology Yi () 'die'
Retracted alveolar Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Asturian 'step' Apical. Basque. Although this paper discusses mainly the Goizueta dialect, the authors state that it has "a typical, conservative consonant inventory for a Basque variety".Hualde, J. Basque Phonology (1991) Routledge 'fire' Apical. Contrasts with a dentalized laminal sibilant. Catalan Most dialects 'seven' Apical. See Catalan phonology Central Valencian 'zeal' Apical. Devoiced allophone of in parts of Central Valencian and Eastern Aragon. See Catalan phonology 'to use' Apical. Deaffrication of and devoiced allophone found in parts of Central Valencian and Eastern Aragon. See Catalan phonology Some Valencian speakers 'he/she goes out' Realized as pre-palatal (or [] in certain cases in some dialects) in Standard Catalan and Valencian. See Catalan phonology Dutch Netherlandic speakers 'goatee' Laminal and on the lax end of articulation spectrum. Can be labialized. If retracted is not the main allophone, may appear as such when preconsonantal, after rounded vowels and . See Dutch phonology English Glasgow sun 'sun' Working-class pronunciation, other speakers may use a non-retracted Emilian 'always' Estonian 'word' Finnish 'you' Varies between non-retracted and retracted. See Finnish phonology Galician 'health' Apical. Greek () 'Constantinople' Varies between non-retracted and retracted, depending on the environment. See Modern Greek phonology Icelandic. "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.", cited in . '(initialism) USSS' Usually apical, can alternatively be laminal. See Icelandic phonology Italian Central Italy 'you go up' Present in Lazio north of Cape Linaro, most of Umbria(save Perugia and the extreme south), Marche and south of Potenza. Northern Italy Apical. Present in many areas north of the La Spezia–Rimini Line. Derived from local languages of northern Italy.See Italian phonology Sicily Present south and west of a line drawn from Syracuse to Cefalù. Leonese 'step' Apical. Low German Mirandese 'step' Apical. Contrasts with . Occitan Gascon 'two' See Occitan phonology Languedocien Piedmontese 'pine' Apical. Portuguese European,inland northern 'weariness' Apical. Contrasts with . See Portuguese phonology European,coastal northern Merges with . See Portuguese phonology Inland andsouthern Capixaba 'fisherman' Realization of Portuguese coda sibilant, which may be postalveolars,depending on dialect Carioca do brejo 'stairs' Spanish Andean 'jumper' Apical. In Andean and Paisa (except in southern parts of Antioquia) alternates with a more frequent coronal-dental .See Spanish phonology and seseo Castilian Paisa accent Swedish Blekinge 'seat' See Swedish phonology Bohuslän Halland Scania Toda 'milk' Contrasts . Voiced allophones are found in fast speech. Vietnamese Saigon 'vehicle' Apical. West Frisian 'salt' Laminal. It is laxer than in English and has a graver frication. It varies between retracted and non-retracted, depending on the environment. See West Frisian phonology
Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative