Fricative: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 17:49, 7 May 2026

Template:IPA notice A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together.^[1] These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of [f]; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in the case of German [x] (the final consonant of Bach); or the side of the tongue against the molars, in the case of Welsh [ɬ] (appearing twice in the name Llanelli). This turbulent airflow is called frication.^[2]

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 for non-sibilant fricatives.^[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.

Sibilant fricatives

[s] voiceless coronal sibilant, as in English sip
[z] voiced coronal sibilant, as in English zip
[ʃ] voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant, as in English ship
[ʒ] voiced palato-alveolar sibilant, as in English measure
[ɕ] voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant
[ʑ] voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant
[ʂ] voiceless retroflex sibilant
[ʐ] voiced retroflex sibilant

All sibilants are coronal, but may be dental, alveolar, postalveolar, or palatal (retroflex) within that range. However, alongside the differences in place of articulation, they exhibit a variety of tongue shapes. Prototypical retroflexes are subapical and palatal, but they are usually written with the same symbol as the apical postalveolars. The alveolars and dentals may also be either apical or laminal, but this difference is indicated with diacritics rather than with separate symbols.

Non-sibilant fricatives

Median 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)

Epiglottal fricatives

[ʜ] voiceless epiglottal fricative
[ʢ] voiced epiglottal fricative

Epiglottal fricatives have also been re-analyzed instead as pharyngeal trills.^[4]

Velopharyngeal fricatives

[ʩ] in extIPA voiceless velopharyngeal fricative (often occurs with a cleft palate)
[ʩ̬] in extIPA 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)^[circular?]
[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 Welsh, as in Lloyd, Llewelyn, and Machynlleth ([maˈxənɬɛθ], a town), as the unvoiced 'hl' and voiced 'dl' or 'dhl' in the several languages of Southern Africa (such as Xhosa and Zulu), and in Mongolian.

ʪ or [ɬ͜s] and [θ͜ɬ] voiceless lateral-median fricative (a 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)

Guttural fricatives

No language distinguishes fricatives from approximants at these places, so the same symbol is used for both (depending on the recognition of voiceless approximants for the voiceless fricatives). For the pharyngeals, approximants are generally more common than fricatives. A fricative realization may be specified by adding an uptack to the letters, [χ̝, ʁ̝, ħ̝, ʕ̝], or conversely, a downtack may be added to specify an approximant realization, [χ̞, ʁ̞, ħ̞, ʕ̞].

(The bilabial approximant and dental approximant do not have dedicated symbols either and are transcribed in a similar fashion: [β̞, ð̞]. However, the base letters are generally understood to specifically refer to the fricatives.)

Glottal pseudo-fricatives

[h] voiceless glottal transition, as in English hat
[ɦ] breathy-voiced glottal transition

In many languages, such as English or Korean, 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.^[5]

Aspirated fricatives

Fricatives are very commonly voiced, though cross-linguistically voiced fricatives are not nearly as common as tenuis ("plain") fricatives. Other phonations are common in languages that have those phonations in their stop consonants. However, phonemically aspirated fricatives are rare. /s~sʰ/ contrasts with a tense, unaspirated /s͈/ in Korean; aspirated fricatives are also found in a few Sino-Tibetan languages, in some Oto-Manguean languages, in the Siouan language Ofo (/sʰ/ and /fʰ/), and in the (central?) Chumash languages (/sʰ/ and /ʃʰ/). The record may be Cone Tibetan, which has four contrastive aspirated fricatives: /sʰ/ /ɕʰ/, /ʂʰ/, and /xʰ/.^[6]

Nasalized fricatives

Phonemically nasalized fricatives are rare. Template:Cnspan 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.^[7] A similar feature exists in Eperara, where [β̃] is an allophone of /w/ in nasal syllables.

Types of fricative^{[lower-alpha 1]}
	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	ɸ β	f v fʰ vʱ			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	ɸ̃ β̃	f̃ ṽ			θ̃ ð̃		s̃ z̃	ʃ̃ ʒ̃					h̃

Occurrence

Until its extinction, Ubykh may have been the language with the most fricatives (29 not including /h/), some of which did not have dedicated symbols or diacritics in the IPA. This number actually outstrips the number of all consonants in English (which has 24 consonants). By contrast, approximately 8.7% of the world's languages have no phonemic fricatives at all.^[8] This is a typical feature of Australian Aboriginal languages, where the few fricatives that exist result from changes to plosives or approximants, but also occurs in some indigenous languages of New Guinea and South America that have especially small numbers of consonants. However, whereas [h] is entirely unknown in indigenous Australian languages, most of the other languages without true fricatives do have [h] in their consonant inventory.

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.^[9]

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.^[10]

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 waveforms as somewhat random noise caused by the turbulent airflow, upon which a periodic pattern is overlaid if voiced.^[11] Fricatives produced in the front of the mouth tend to have energy concentration at higher frequencies than ones produced in the back.^[12] The centre of gravity (CoG), i.e. the average frequency in a spectrum weighted by the amplitude (also known as spectral mean), may be used to determine the place of articulation of a fricative relative to that of another.^[13]

Notes

↑ There are likely to be more aspirated, murmured and nasalized fricatives than shown here. ⟨s̄ ṣ ŝ⟩ are not IPA transcription.

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Template:SOWL
↑ "Definition of Frication". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
↑ Lodge, Ken (2009). A Critical Introduction to Phonetics. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-8264-8873-2.
↑ 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.
↑ Maddieson, Ian. "Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives", in Martin Haspelmath et al. (eds.) The World Atlas of Language Structures, pp. 26–29. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-19-925591-1.
↑ Maddieson, Ian. Patterns of Sounds. Cambridge University Press, 1984. ISBN 0-521-26536-3.
↑ Zsiga, Elizabeth C. (2013). The Sounds of Language: An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 129. ISBN 978-1-4051-9103-6.
↑ Johnson, Keith (2012). Acoustic and Auditory Phonetics (3rd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 162–3. 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.

Sources

Laufer, Asher (1991), "Phonetic Representation: Glottal Fricatives", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 21 (2): 91–93, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004448, S2CID 145231104

External links

Fricatives in English

Template:IPA navigation Template:Articulation navbox

[8] There are likely to be more aspirated, murmured and nasalized fricatives than shown here. ⟨s̄ ṣ ŝ⟩ are not IPA transcription.

[:0-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Template:SOWL

[2] "Definition of Frication". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 27 May 2021.

[3] Lodge, Ken (2009). A Critical Introduction to Phonetics. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-8264-8873-2.

[4] John Esling (2010) "Phonetic Notation", in Hardcastle, Laver & Gibbon (eds) The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences, 2nd ed., p 695.

[5] Laufer (1991:91)

[6] Guillaume Jacques 2011. A panchronic study of aspirated fricatives, with new evidence from Pumi, Lingua 121.9:1518-1538

[7] Laver (1994: 255–256) Principles of Phonetics

[9] 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.

[10] Maddieson, Ian. "Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives", in Martin Haspelmath et al. (eds.) The World Atlas of Language Structures, pp. 26–29. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-19-925591-1.

[11] Maddieson, Ian. Patterns of Sounds. Cambridge University Press, 1984. ISBN 0-521-26536-3.

[12] Zsiga, Elizabeth C. (2013). The Sounds of Language: An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 129. ISBN 978-1-4051-9103-6.

[13] Johnson, Keith (2012). Acoustic and Auditory Phonetics (3rd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 162–3. ISBN 978-1-4051-9466-2.

[14] 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.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[lower-alpha 1]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 The airflow is not completely stopped in the production of fricative consonants. In other words, the airflow experiences [[friction]].
-===Sibilants===
+===<span class="anchor" id="Sibilants"></span>Sibilant fricatives===
-* {{IPA|[s]}} [[voiceless alveolar fricative|voiceless coronal sibilant]], as in English ''s''ip
+{{main|Sibilant}}
-* {{IPA|[z]}} [[voiced alveolar fricative|voiced coronal sibilant]], as in English ''z''ip
+* {{IPA|[s]}} [[voiceless alveolar fricative|voiceless coronal sibilant]], as in English '''''s'''ip''
-** {{IPA|[s̪]}} [[voiceless dental sibilant]]
+* {{IPA|[z]}} [[voiced alveolar fricative|voiced coronal sibilant]], as in English '''''z'''ip''
-** {{IPA|[z̪]}} [[voiced dental sibilant]]
+* {{IPA|[ʃ]}} [[voiceless postalveolar fricative|voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant]], as in English '''''sh'''ip''
-** {{IPA|[s̺]}} [[voiceless apicoalveolar fricative|voiceless apical sibilant]]
+* {{IPA|[ʒ]}} [[voiced postalveolar fricative|voiced palato-alveolar sibilant]], as in English ''mea'''s'''ure''
-** {{IPA|[z̺]}} [[voiced apicoalveolar fricative|voiced apical sibilant]]
+* {{IPA|[ɕ]}} [[voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative|voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant]]
-** {{IPA|[s̟]}} voiceless predorsal sibilant ([[laminal consonant|laminal]], with tongue tip at lower teeth)<ref>Pountain (2014) ''Exploring the Spanish Language'', p. 18</ref>
+* {{IPA|[ʑ]}} [[voiced alveolo-palatal fricative|voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant]]
-** {{IPA|[z̟]}} voiced predorsal sibilant (laminal)
+* {{IPA|[ʂ]}} [[voiceless retroflex fricative|voiceless retroflex sibilant]]
-** {{IPA|[s̠]}} [[voiceless postalveolar fricative|voiceless postalveolar sibilant]] (laminal)
+* {{IPA|[ʐ]}} [[voiced retroflex fricative|voiced retroflex sibilant]]
-** {{IPA|[z̠]}} [[voiced postalveolar fricative|voiced postalveolar sibilant]] (laminal)
-* {{IPA|[ʃ]}} [[voiceless postalveolar fricative|voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant]] ([[domed consonant|domed]], partially palatalized), as in English ''sh''ip
-* {{IPA|[ʒ]}} [[voiced postalveolar fricative|voiced palato-alveolar sibilant]] (domed, partially palatalized), as the ''si'' in English vi''si''on
-* {{IPA|[ɕ]}} [[voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative|voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant]] (laminal, palatalized)
-* {{IPA|[ʑ]}} [[voiced alveolo-palatal fricative|voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant]] (laminal, palatalized)
-* {{IPA|[ʂ]}} [[voiceless retroflex fricative|voiceless retroflex sibilant]] ([[apical consonant|apical]] or [[subapical consonant|subapical]])
-* {{IPA|[ʐ]}} [[voiced retroflex fricative|voiced retroflex sibilant]] (apical or subapical)
-All [[sibilants]] are [[coronal consonant|coronal]], but may be [[dental consonant|dental]], [[alveolar consonant|alveolar]], [[postalveolar consonant|postalveolar]], or [[palatal consonant|palatal]] ([[retroflex consonant|retroflex]]) within that range. However, at the postalveolar place of articulation, the tongue may take several shapes: domed, [[laminal consonant|laminal]], or [[apical consonant|apical]], and each of these is given a separate symbol and a separate name. Prototypical retroflexes are [[subapical consonant|subapical]] and palatal, but they are usually written with the same symbol as the apical postalveolars. The alveolars and dentals may also be either apical or laminal, but this difference is indicated with diacritics rather than with separate symbols.
+All [[sibilants]] are [[coronal consonant|coronal]], but may be [[dental consonant|dental]], [[alveolar consonant|alveolar]], [[postalveolar consonant|postalveolar]], or [[palatal consonant|palatal]] ([[retroflex consonant|retroflex]]) within that range. However, alongside the differences in place of articulation, they exhibit a variety of [[sibilant shape|tongue shapes]]. Prototypical retroflexes are [[subapical consonant|subapical]] and palatal, but they are usually written with the same symbol as the apical postalveolars. The alveolars and dentals may also be either apical or laminal, but this difference is indicated with diacritics rather than with separate symbols.
-===Central non-sibilant fricatives===
+===Non-sibilant fricatives===
+====<span class="anchor" id="Central non-sibilant fricatives"></span><span class="anchor" id="Median non-sibilant fricatives"></span>Median fricatives====
 * {{IPA|[ɸ]}} [[voiceless bilabial fricative]]
 * {{IPA|[β]}} [[voiced bilabial fricative]]
@@ Line 49: / Line 43: @@
 * {{IPA|[ɧ]}} [[voiceless palatal-velar fricative]] (articulation disputed)
-The IPA also has letters for epiglottal fricatives,
+====Epiglottal fricatives====
 * {{IPA|[ʜ]}} [[voiceless epiglottal fricative]]
 * {{IPA|[ʢ]}} [[voiced epiglottal fricative]]
-with allophonic trilling, but these might be better analyzed as pharyngeal trills.<ref>John Esling (2010) "Phonetic Notation", in Hardcastle, Laver & Gibbon (eds) ''The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences'', 2nd ed., p 695.</ref>
+Epiglottal fricatives have also been re-analyzed instead as pharyngeal trills.<ref>John Esling (2010) "Phonetic Notation", in Hardcastle, Laver & Gibbon (eds) ''The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences'', 2nd ed., p 695.</ref>
-* {{IPA|[ʩ]}} [[voiceless velopharyngeal fricative]] (often occurs with a [[cleft palate]])
+====Velopharyngeal fricatives====
-* {{IPA|[ʩ̬]}} [[voiceless velopharyngeal fricative|voiced velopharyngeal fricative]]
+* {{IPA|[ʩ]}} in extIPA [[velopharyngeal consonant|voiceless velopharyngeal fricative]] (often occurs with a [[cleft palate]])
+* {{IPA|[ʩ̬]}} in extIPA [[velopharyngeal consonant|voiced velopharyngeal fricative]]
-===Lateral fricatives===
+====Lateral fricatives====
 * {{IPA|[ɬ̪]}} [[voiceless dental lateral fricative]]
 * {{IPA|[ɮ̪]}} [[voiced dental lateral fricative]]
 * {{IPA|[ɬ]}} [[voiceless alveolar lateral fricative]]
 * {{IPA|[ɮ]}} [[voiced alveolar lateral fricative]]
-* {{IPA|[ɬ̠]}} [[voiceless postalveolar lateral fricative]] ([[Mehri language|Mehri]])
+* {{IPA|[ɬ̠]}} [[voiceless postalveolar lateral fricative]] ([[Mehri language|Mehri]]){{fix|text=circular?|title=No citation that it occurs and the article about Mehri mentions it, but doesn't appear to cite a source that claims Mehri has it. Based off of sources outside of Wikipedia, it appears to be alveolar.|link=WP:CIRCULAR|date=October 2025}}
 * {{IPA|[ɮ̠]}} [[voiced postalveolar lateral fricative]]
 * {{IPA|[ɭ˔̥]}} or extIPA {{IPA|[ꞎ]}} [[voiceless retroflex lateral fricative]]
@@ Line 76: / Line 71: @@
 * {{IPA|ʫ}} or {{IPA|[ɮ͜z]}} and {{IPA|[ð͜ɮ]}} [[voiced lateral-median fricative]] (a laterally lisped {{IPA|[z]}} or {{IPA|[ð]}}) (Modern South Arabian)
-===IPA letters used for both fricatives and approximants===
+====<span class="anchor" id="IPA letters used for both fricatives and approximants"></span>Guttural fricatives====
 * {{IPA|[χ]}} [[voiceless uvular fricative]]
 * {{IPA|[ʁ]}} [[voiced uvular fricative]]
@@ Line 82: / Line 77: @@
 * {{IPA|[ʕ]}} [[voiced pharyngeal fricative]]
-No language distinguishes fricatives from [[approximants]] at these places, so the same symbol is used for both. For the pharyngeal, approximants are more numerous than fricatives. A fricative realization may be specified by adding the [[raised (phonetics)|uptack]] to the letters, {{IPA|[χ̝, ʁ̝, ħ̝, ʕ̝]}}. Likewise, the [[lowered (phonetics)|downtack]] may be added to specify an approximant realization, {{IPA|[χ̞, ʁ̞, ħ̞, ʕ̞]}}.
+No language distinguishes fricatives from [[approximants]] at these places, so the same symbol is used for both (depending on the recognition of [[voiceless approximant]]s for the voiceless fricatives). For the pharyngeals, approximants are generally more common than fricatives. A fricative realization may be specified by adding an [[raised (phonetics)|uptack]] to the letters, {{IPA|[χ̝, ʁ̝, ħ̝, ʕ̝]}}, or conversely, a [[lowered (phonetics)|downtack]] may be added to specify an approximant realization, {{IPA|[χ̞, ʁ̞, ħ̞, ʕ̞]}}.
-(The [[bilabial approximant]] and [[dental approximant]] do not have dedicated symbols either and are transcribed in a similar fashion: {{IPA|[β̞, ð̞]}}. However, the base letters are understood to specifically refer to the fricatives.)
+(The [[bilabial approximant]] and [[dental approximant]] do not have dedicated symbols either and are transcribed in a similar fashion: {{IPA|[β̞, ð̞]}}. However, the base letters are generally understood to specifically refer to the fricatives.)
-===Pseudo-fricatives===
+====<span class="anchor" id="Pseudo-fricatives"></span>Glottal pseudo-fricatives====
 * {{IPA|[h]}} [[voiceless glottal fricative|voiceless glottal transition]], as in English ''hat''
@@ Line 93: / Line 88: @@
 In many languages, such as English or Korean, the glottal "fricatives" are unaccompanied [[phonation]] states of the glottis, without any accompanying [[manner of articulation|manner]], fricative or otherwise. They may be mistaken for real glottal constrictions in a number of languages, such as [[Finnish language|Finnish]].<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Laufer|1991|p=91}}</ref>
-==={{anchor|Aspiration}}Aspirated fricatives===
+===<span class="anchor" id="Aspiration"></span>Aspirated fricatives===
 Fricatives are very commonly voiced, though cross-linguistically voiced fricatives are not nearly as common as [[tenuis consonant|tenuis]] ("plain") fricatives.  Other [[phonation]]s are common in languages that have those phonations in their stop consonants.  However, phonemically [[aspirated consonant|aspirated]] fricatives are rare.  {{IPA|/s~sʰ/}} contrasts with a tense, unaspirated {{IPA|/s͈/}} in [[Korean language|Korean]]; aspirated fricatives are also found in a few [[Sino-Tibetan languages]], in some [[Oto-Manguean languages]], in the Siouan language [[Ofo language|Ofo]] ({{IPA|/sʰ/}} and {{IPA|/fʰ/}}), and in the (central?) [[Chumash languages]] ({{IPA|/sʰ/}} and {{IPA|/ʃʰ/}}). The record may be [[Cone Tibetan language|Cone Tibetan]], which has four contrastive aspirated fricatives: {{IPA|/sʰ/}} {{IPA|/ɕʰ/}}, {{IPA|/ʂʰ/}}, and {{IPA|/xʰ/}}.<ref>Guillaume Jacques 2011. A panchronic study of aspirated fricatives, with new evidence from Pumi, ''Lingua'' 121.9:1518-1538</ref>
 ===Nasalized fricatives===
-Phonemically [[nasalization|nasalized]] fricatives are rare. [[Umbundu]] has {{IPA|/ṽ/}} and Kwangali and [[Souletin dialect|Souletin Basque]] have {{IPA|/h̃/}}. In [[Coatzospan Mixtec]], {{IPA|[β̃, ð̃, s̃, ʃ̃]}} appear allophonically before a nasal vowel, and in Igbo nasality is a feature of the syllable; when {{IPA|/f v s z ʃ ʒ/}} occur in nasal syllables they are themselves nasalized.<ref>Laver (1994: 255&ndash;256) ''Principles of Phonetics''</ref>
+{{distinguish|Nasal fricative}}
+Phonemically [[nasalization|nasalized]] fricatives are rare. {{cnspan|[[Umbundu]] has {{IPA|/ṽ/}}, [[Kwangali language|Kwangali]]|date=February 2026|reason=not according to our articles}} and [[Souletin dialect|Souletin Basque]] have {{IPA|/h̃/}}. In [[Coatzospan Mixtec]], {{IPA|[β̃, ð̃, s̃, ʃ̃]}} appear allophonically before a nasal vowel, and in [[Igbo language|Igbo]] nasality is a feature of the syllable; when {{IPA|/f v s z ʃ ʒ/}} occur in nasal syllables they are themselves nasalized.<ref>Laver (1994: 255&ndash;256) ''Principles of Phonetics''</ref> A similar feature exists in [[Eperara]], where {{IPA|[β̃]}} is an allophone of {{IPA|/w/}} in nasal syllables.
 ----
 {|class="wikitable"
-|+Types of fricative{{efn|There are likely to be more aspirated, murmured and nasal fricatives than shown here. {{angbr IPA|s̄ ṣ ŝ}} are not IPA transcription.}}
+|+Types of fricative{{efn|There are likely to be more aspirated, murmured and nasalized fricatives than shown here. {{angbr IPA|s̄ ṣ ŝ}} are not IPA transcription.}}
 ! ||bilabial||labio-<br>dental||linguo-<br>labial||inter-<br>dental||dental||denti-<br>alveolar||alveolar||post-<br>alveolar||palatal/<br>retroflex||velar||uvular||pharyn-<br>geal||glottal
 |-align=center
@@ Line 157: / Line 153: @@
 ==See also==
 * [[Affricate]]
+* [[Grooved fricative]]
 * [[Apical consonant]]
 * [[Hush consonant]]

Fricative: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 17:49, 7 May 2026

Contents

Types

Sibilant fricatives

Non-sibilant fricatives

Median fricatives

Epiglottal fricatives

Velopharyngeal fricatives

Lateral fricatives

Guttural fricatives

Glottal pseudo-fricatives

Aspirated fricatives

Nasalized fricatives

Occurrence

Acoustics

See also

Notes

References

Sources

External links

Navigation menu

Fricative: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 17:49, 7 May 2026

Types

Sibilant fricatives

Non-sibilant fricatives

Median fricatives

Epiglottal fricatives

Velopharyngeal fricatives

Lateral fricatives

Guttural fricatives

Glottal pseudo-fricatives

Aspirated fricatives

Nasalized fricatives

Occurrence

Acoustics

See also

Notes

References

Sources

External links

Navigation menu

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