Voiced alveolar fricatives are consonantal sounds. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents these sounds depends on whether a sibilant or non-sibilant fricative is being described. The symbol for an alveolar sibilant is . The IPA letter is not normally used for dental or postalveolar sibilants in narrow transcription unless modified by a diacritic ( and respectively). The IPA symbol for an alveolar non-sibilant fricative is derived by means of diacritics; it can be or .
+ Voiced coronal fricatives Inter-dental Dental Denti-alveolar Alveolar Post-alveolar Retracted Retroflex Palato-alveolar Alveolo-palatal Sibilant Non-sibilant
Voiced alveolar sibilant A voiced alveolar sibilant is common across European languages, but is relatively uncommon cross-linguistically compared to its voiceless variant. Only about 28% of the world's languages contain a voiced dental or alveolar sibilant. Moreover, 85% of the languages with some form of are languages of Europe, Africa, or Western Asia.
Features
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 or laminal .
Occurrence
Dentalized laminal alveolar Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Armenian Eastern / 'decoration' Azerbaijani 'sprout' Belarusian / 'base' Contrasts with palatalized form. See Belarusian phonology Bulgarian / 'lake' Contrasts with palatalized form. English Multicultural London zoo 'zoo' See English phonology French 'zebra' See French phonology Hungarian 'pledge' See Hungarian phonology Kashubian 'hare' Kazakh / 'law' Kyrgyz / Latvian 'branch' See Latvian phonology Macedonian / 'why' See Macedonian phonology Mirandese 'learning' Contrasts seven sibilants altogether, preserving medieval Ibero-Romance contrasts. Polish 'zero' See Polish phonology Portuguese Most speakers 'United States' See Portuguese phonology Romanian 'dice' See Romanian phonology Russian / 'to pick up' Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology Serbo-Croatian / 'loan' See Serbo-Croatian phonology Slovak 'winter' Slovene 'winter' Turkish 'eye' See Turkish phonology Ukrainian (PDF ram-verlag.eu) / 'tooth' Contrasts with palatalized form. See Ukrainian phonology Upper Sorbian 'goat' Uzbek 'victory' Vietnamese Hanoi 'skin' See Vietnamese phonology
Alveolar Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Adyghe / 'one' Albanian 'fire' Arabic Standard / 'visitor' See Arabic phonology Assamese / 'chili' Assyrian / 'bell' Bengali / 'obligatory' Only occurs in loanwords. See Bengali phonology Breton 'church' Chechen / 'music' Czech 'winter' See Czech phonology Emilian Bolognese 'reason' Palatalized apical; may be or instead. English zoo 'zoo' Absent from some Scottish and Asian dialects. See English phonology Esperanto 'cousin' See Esperanto phonology Georgian ზარი / zari 'bell' Greek Athens dialect / 'dizziness' See Modern Greek phonology Hebrew / 'wolf' See Modern Hebrew phonology Hindustani Hindi / 'land' May be replaced in Hindi by . See Hindustani phonology Urdu / Irish 'zoo' Only used in loanwords. (loan consonant) See Irish phonology Japanese / 'everything' Might be replaced with . See Japanese phonology Kabardian 'one' Kalaw Lagaw Ya 'go' Kashmiri / / 'to know' Khmer / noun: 'Belgium', 'Belgian(s)'adjective: 'Belgian' See Khmer phonology Konda 'to sleep' Malay 'difference' Maltese 'zeal' Marathi / 'if' See Marathi phonology. Nepali / 'thousand' Coda and intervocalic allophone of and . / 'paper' / 'to explain' / 'middle' Occitan Limousin 'young' See Occitan phonologyPersian 'day' Portuguese 'house' See Portuguese phonology Punjabi Gurmukhi / 'thousand' May be replaced by in Gurmukhi (Indian) varieties. Shahmukhi / Spanish Andalusian 'communism' Allophone of before voiced consonants, when it is not debuccalized to . Present in dialects which realize as a non-retracted alveolar fricative. Before it is dental . Latin American Filipino Swahili 'must' Tamil Jaffna Tamil 'letter' Was only reported for 1 speaker in the sample but he pronounced it regularly. West Frisian 'to say' It never occurs in word-initial positions. See West Frisian phonology Yi / 'generation' Yiddish / 'son' Zapotec Tilquiapan 'went to grab'
Retracted alveolar Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Catalan Most dialects 'zeal' Apical. See Catalan phonology} Some dialects 'to use' Apical. Deaffrication found in some dialects (including Standard Valencian). See Catalan phonology Galician 'same' Apical. Allophone of before voiced consonants. Before it is pronounced dentally . Greek / 'mass' See Modern Greek phonology Italian Central Italy 'case' Present in Lazio north of Cape Linaro, most of Umbria (save Perugia and the extreme south) and Marche south of the Potenza. Northern Italy Apical. Present in many areas north of the La Spezia–Rimini Line. See Italian phonology Sicily Present south and west of a line drawn from Syracuse to Cefalù. Low German Maldivian 'giraffe' Mirandese 'to exist' Apical. Mirandese and neighboring Portuguese dialects were the only surviving oral tradition to preserve all seven mediaeval Ibero-Romance sibilants: , , / , / , , /-- , -- Occitan Gascon 'barracks' See Occitan phonology Languedocien 'to see' Piedmontese 'friend' Apical. See Piemontese phonology Portuguese Coastal Northern European Merges with non-retracted . See Portuguese phonology Inland Northern European Apical. Contrasts with non-retracted . See Portuguese phonology Spanish Andean 'same' Apical. Allophone of before voiced consonants. Before it is pronounced dentally . See Spanish phonology Castilian Paisa Region
Variable Language Word IPA Meaning Notes German Standard 'clean' Varies between dentalized laminal, non-retracted laminal and non-retracted apical. See Standard German phonology Italian Standard 'case' 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 Dutch Belgian Standard 'soap' Laminal. See Dutch phonology Northern Standard Laminal; may have only mid-to-low pitched friction. If not the main allophone, it is often retracted when preconsonantal, after rounded vowels and . See Dutch phonology 'full', 'fed (up)'
Voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative
A voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative (also known as a slit fricative) is a consonantal sound in some spoken languages. As the International Phonetic Alphabet does not have separate symbols for non-sibilant alveolar fricatives, this sound can be transcribed by use of diacritics, such as (a retracted ) or (a raised , also often part of the affricate ). Additional symbols include (with the alveolar diacritic, in extIPA) and (a lowered ).
Features However, it does not have the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.
Occurrence Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Czech 'four' May be a fricative trill or a tapped fricative (see below) instead. It contrasts with and . See Czech phonology Dahalo 'work' Apical; only weakly fricated. It is a common intervocalic allophone of , and may dental or a plosive instead. Dutch. Authors do not say where exactly it is used. 'for' One of many possible realizations of ; distribution unclear. See Dutch phonology Emilian Bolognese 'case' Laminal English Scouse maid 'maid' Allophone of . See English phonology South African round 'round' Apical, present in some urban dialects. See South African English phonology Extreme Southern Italian Sicilian 'rare' Corresponds to in standard Italian, as well as word-initial , and may be geminated. Described as a 'non-sulcalized sonorant', articulated without contact; may be closer to an approximant, depending on the speaker. Calabro Salentino Icelandic, cited in 'good (inflexion)' Usually apical, may be closer to an approximant;: "[It is] doubtful whether the voiced fricatives are to be classified as such, rather than as approximants." "The weakness of the articulation of the voiced sounds makes them at times more like approximants, and they are very easily deleted intervocalically in natural speech[.]" variably removed from the front teeth, up to (nearly) spot on . See Icelandic phonology Manx 'big' Pre-consonantal and word-final realization of , in free variation with other allophones. Scottish Gaelic Southern Hebridean 'to rise' Apical and strongly palatalized. Corresponds to in Skye and some mainland dialects, in Lewis, in southern Barra and in Tiree. Wester Ross 'kettle' Apical and strongly palatalized. Allophone of after non-front vowels. Swedish Central Standard 'wander' Allophone of around the Stockholm area. See Swedish phonology
Voiced alveolar tapped fricative
A few languages also have a voiced alveolar tapped fricative, which is simply a very brief alveolar non-sibilant fricative, with the tongue making the gesture for a tapped stop but not making full contact. It can be indicated in the IPA with the lowering diacritic to show that full occlusion does not occur, such as (though this may also symbolize an "approximant tap"). Flapped fricatives are theoretically possible but are not attested. Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Aragonese Chistabino 'air' Common realization of . Tacana Turkish 'dream' Word-initial allophone of . See Turkish phonology
See also Apical consonant Laminal consonant Index of phonetics articles
Notes
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