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Voiceless Alveolar Fricative




The voiceless alveolar fricatives are Consonant al 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 the alveolar sibilant is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is s. The IPA symbol {Link without Title} is not normally used for Dental or Postalveolar sibilants unless modified by a Diacritic ( and respectively).

  • The IPA symbol for the alveolar non-sibilant fricative is derived by means of diacritics; it can be or , or it can be , using the alveolar diacritic from the Extended IPA. (Pandeli et al 1997)




THE VOICELESS ALVEOLAR SIBILANT


The voiceless alveolar sibilant is one of the most common consonants. If a language has fricatives, it will most likely have an (Maddieson, 1984). However, [s is absent from Australian Aboriginal Languages , where fricatives are rare, and the few languages that have developed fricatives do not have sibilants.


Features


Features of the voiceless alveolar sibilant:



In English


The voiceless alveolar sibilant occurs in English , and it is the sound denoted by the letter 's' in ''sit'' or ''pass''. When a plosive such as [t or follows the [s sound, it becomes De-aspirated , sounding closer to a non-voiced [d or [g].


THE VOICELESS ALVEOLAR NON-SIBILANT FRICATIVE


Features


The features of the voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative are identical to those above, except that,

  • Its Manner Of Articulation is simple Fricative , which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing Turbulence , but without the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.



Found in

;English
The voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative can occur, as an Allophone of , in some accents of English , including Hiberno-English and Scouse , the dialect spoken in Liverpool . (Honeybone 2001, Marotta and Barth 2005, Pandeli et al 1997.)

;Icelandic
The Icelandic letter þ (thorn) is used for this sound. Þ occurs at the beginning of a word, while the Voiced Alveolar Non-sibilant Fricative ð occurs elsewhere. (Old English used the letters þ and ð (eth) indiscrimately for both the Voiceless and Voiced Dental Fricative , which had a similar Allophonic distribution; in modern English both are replaced by the diagraph "th".) Icelandic is Laminal , whereas is usually Apical .

  • Icelandic ''þakið'' "roof".



SEE ALSO




REFERENCES


  • I. Maddieson, 1984. "Patterns of sound". ''Camebridge University Press''

  • Honeybone, P. (2001), Lenition inhibition in Liverpool English, ''English Language and Linguistics'' 5.2, pp213-249.

  • Marotta, G. and Barth, M., Acoustic and sociolingustic aspects of lenition in Liverpool English, ''Studi Linguistici e Filologici Online'' 3.2, pp377-413. Available online (including sound files).

  • Pandeli, H., Eska, J., Ball, M. and Rahilly, J., Problems of phonetic transcription: the case of the Hiberno-English slit-t, ''Journal of the International Phonetic Association'' 27, pp65-75.