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

Voiceless dental fricative
Voiceless dental fricative
θ
IPA number	130
Audio sample
	source · 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 most 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 lowercase 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 "interdental" because they are often produced with the tongue between the upper and lower teeth, and not just against the back of the upper or lower teeth, as they are with other dental consonants.

This sound and its voiced counterpart are rare phonemes, occurring in 4% of languages in a phonological analysis of 2,155 languages.^[1] Among the more than 60 languages with over 10 million speakers, only English, northern varieties of the Berber languages of North Africa, Standard Peninsular Spanish, various dialects of Arabic, Swahili (in words derived from Arabic), and Greek have the voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative.^{[citation needed]} Speakers of languages and dialects without the sound sometimes have difficulty producing or distinguishing it from similar sounds, especially if they have had no chance to acquire it in childhood, and typically replace it with a voiceless alveolar fricative (/s/) (as in Indonesian), voiceless dental stop (/t/), or a voiceless labiodental fricative (/f/); known respectively as th-alveolarization, th-stopping,^[2] and th-fronting.^[3]

The sound is known to have disappeared from a number of languages, e.g. from most of the Germanic languages or dialects, where it is retained only in Scots, English, and Icelandic, but it is alveolar in the last of these.^[4]^[5] Among non-Germanic Indo-European languages as a whole, the sound was also once much more widespread, but is today preserved in a few languages including the Brythonic languages, Peninsular Spanish, Galician, Venetian, Tuscan, Albanian, some Occitan dialects and Greek. It has likewise disappeared from many modern vernacular varieties of Arabic, like Egyptian Arabic. Classical Arabic (used in reciting the Quran) still retains the sound.

Features

Features of the voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative:

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 place of articulation is dental, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the upper 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.
Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with 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]	cllâf	[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 Western, Barwari, Tel Keppe, Batnaya and Alqosh dialects; realized as [t] in other varieties.
Asturian		zusmiu	[ˈθusmju]	'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	Most dialects	thin	[θɪn]^ⓘ	'thin'	See English phonology
Galician	Most dialects^[12]	cero	[ˈθɛɾo]	'zero'	Merges with /s/ into [s] in Western dialects.^[12] 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
Hebrew	Yemenite	עברית	[ʕivˈriːθ]	'Hebrew' (language)	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hlai	Basadung	[θsio]		'one'
Italian	Tuscan^[13]	i capitani	[iˌhäɸiˈθäːni]	'the captains'	Intervocalic allophone of /t/.^[13] 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.
Occitan	Vivaro-Alpine	chin	[θĩ]	'dog'	Limited to Vénosc, in the Isère department.
Old Persian		𐎧𐏁𐎠𐎹𐎰𐎡𐎹 xšāyaθiya	[xʃaːjaθija]	'king'	This sound does not occur in modern Persian.
Saanich		TÁŦES	[teθʔəs]	'eight'
Sardinian	Nuorese	petha	[pɛθa]	'meat'
Shark Bay		[θar]		'four'
Shawnee		nthwi	[nθwɪ]	'three'
Sioux	Nakoda	ktusa	[ktũˈθa]	'four'
Spanish	European^[14]	cazar	[käˈθ̪͆äɾ]	'to hunt'	Interdental. See Spanish phonology and Seseo. This sound is not contrastive in the Americas, southern Andalusia or the Canary Islands.
Spanish	Castilian	pared	[paˈɾeθ]	'wall'	Word-final, especially in Madrid.^[15]^[16] 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'
Turkmen		sen	[θɛn]	'you'	Realization of the /z/ phoneme
Tutchone	Northern	tho	[θo]	'pants'
Tutchone	Southern	thü	[θɨ]	'pants'
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

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 place of articulation is denti-alveolar, which means it is articulated with a flat tongue against the alveolar ridge and upper teeth.
It is normally laminal, which means it is pronounced with the blade of the tongue.^[17]
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.
Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Spanish	Andalusian^[17]	casa	[ˈkäs̻̪ä]	'house'	Present in dialects with ceceo. See Spanish phonology

Notes

^ Phoible.org. (2018). PHOIBLE Online - Segments. [online] Available at: http://phoible.org/parameters.
^ Wells (1982:565–66, 635)
^ Wells (1982:96–97, 328–30, 498, 500, 553, 557–58, 635)
^ Pétursson (1971:?), cited in Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:145)
^ Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:144–145)
^ Thelwall (1990:37)
^ [[#CITEREF|]]:224)
^ Versteegh (2001:159)
^ Watkins (2001:291–292)
^ Watkins (2001:292)
^ Fig. 11 La zeta bolognese (in Italian)
^ ^a ^b Regueira (1996:119–120)
^ ^a ^b Hall (1944:75)
^ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:255)
^ García Mouton & Molina Martos (2016:283–296)
^ Molina Martos (2016:347–367)
^ ^a ^b Dalbor (1980:9)

References

Dalbor, John B. (1980), "Observations on Present-Day Seseo and Ceceo in Southern Spain", Hispania, 63 (1), American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese: 5–19, doi:10.2307/340806, JSTOR 340806
Einhorn, E. (1974), Old French: A Concise Handbook, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-09838-6
Hall, Robert A. Jr. (1944). "Italian phonemes and orthography". Italica. 21 (2). American Association of Teachers of Italian: 72–82. doi:10.2307/475860. JSTOR 475860.
Hickey, Raymond (1984), "Coronal Segments in Irish English", Journal of Linguistics, 20 (2): 233–250, doi:10.1017/S0022226700013876, S2CID 145672742
Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (2nd ed.), Blackwell
Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
Marotta, Giovanna; Barth, Marlen (2005), "Acoustic and sociolingustic aspects of lenition in Liverpool English" (PDF), Studi Linguistici e Filologici Online, 3 (2): 377–413, archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-02-25, retrieved 2008-11-15
Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
Pétursson, Magnus (1971), "Étude de la réalisation des consonnes islandaises þ, ð, s, dans la prononciation d'un sujet islandais à partir de la radiocinématographie", Phonetica, 33 (4): 203–216, doi:10.1159/000259344, S2CID 145316121
Regueira, Xosé Luís (1996), "Galician", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 26 (2): 119–122, doi:10.1017/s0025100300006162, S2CID 241094214
Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 20 (2): 37–41, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004266, S2CID 243640727
Versteegh, Kees (2001), The Arabic Language, Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0748614363
Watkins, Justin W. (2001), "Illustrations of the IPA: Burmese" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 31 (2): 291–295, doi:10.1017/S0025100301002122, S2CID 232344700
Wells, John C (1982), Accents of English, vol. second, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-24224-X
Molina Martos, Isabel (December 2016), "Variación de la -/d/ final de palabra en Madrid: ¿prestigio abierto o encubierto?", Boletín de filología (in Spanish), 51 (2): 347–367, doi:10.4067/S0718-93032016000200013
García Mouton, Pilar; Molina Martos, Isabel (1 January 2016), "La –/d/ final en el atlas dialectal de Madrid (ADIM): un cambio en marcha", Lapurdum (in Spanish) (19): 283–296, doi:10.4000/lapurdum.3375, hdl:10261/265245