Voiceless dental fricative

Voiceless dental fricative
θ
IPA Number130
Encoding
Entity (decimal)θ
Unicode (hex)U+03B8
X-SAMPAT

The voiceless alveolar stop is a type of consonant. The letter for this sound in the International Phonetic Alphabet is ⟨θ⟩. The X-SAMPA symbol for this sound is ⟨T⟩. The English language has this sound, and it is the sound represented by the "th" in thing and thanks.

Features

  • The airstream mechanism is pulmonic. This means that this sound is produced by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.
  • The phonation is voiceless. This means that this sound 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.
  • The place of articulation (where the sound is produced) is dental. This means that this sound is produced with the tongue at the upper teeth, the lower teeth, or both the upper teeth and the lower teeth. (Many stops and liquids that are called dental consonants are actually denti-alveolar consonants.)
  • The manner of articulation (how the sound is produced) is fricative. This means that this sound is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, to make turbulence.

Examples

Language Word IPA Meaning
Albanian thotë [θɔtə] 'says'
Arabic Modern Standard[1] ثَوْب audio speaker icon[θawb] (help·info) 'a dress'
Eastern Libya ثِلاثة [θɪˈlæːθæ] 'three'
Sanaa, Yemen يِثَمَّن [jɪˈθæmːæn] 'it is priced'
Iraq ثمانْية [θ(ɪ)ˈmæːnjæ] 'eight'
Khuzestan, Iran[2] الثانْية [ɪθˈθæːnjæ] 'the second one'
Arapaho yoo3on [jɔːθɔn] 'five'
Assyrian ܒܝܬܐ bèṭa [beːθa] 'house'
Avestan 𐬑𐬱𐬀𐬚𐬭𐬀 xšaθra [xʃaθra] 'kingdom'
Bashkir дуҫ / duθ audio speaker icon[duθ] (help·info) 'friend'
Berber Ṯmaziɣṯ [θmæzɪɣθ] 'Berber (language)'(noun)
Berta [θɪ́ŋɑ̀] 'to eat'
Burmese[3] သုံး / thon: [θòʊ̯̃] 'three'
Catalan theta [ˈθetɐ] 'theta'
Cornish eth [ɛθ] 'eight'
Emiliano-Romagnol[4] fâza [ˈfaːθɐ] 'face'
English Received Pronunciation[5] thin [θɪn] 'thin'
Western American English audio speaker icon[θ̪͆ɪn]
Galician Most dialects[6] cero [ˈθɛɾo] 'zero'
Greek θάλασσα [ˈθalasa] 'sea'
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'
Yemenite [ʕivˈriːθ]
Hlai Basadung [θsio] 'one'
Icelandic það [θaːð] 'that'
Italian Tuscan[7] i capitani [iˌhäɸiˈθäːni] 'the captains'
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'
Massa [faθ] 'five'
Occitan Gascon macipon [maθiˈpu] '(male) child'
Vivaro-Alpine chin [θĩ] 'dog'
Early Old French améṭ [aˈmeːθ] 'loved, beloved (masculine)'
Old Persian 𐏋 XŠ / xšāyaθiya [xʃaːjaθija] 'Shah'
Saanich TÁŦES [teθʔəs] 'eight'
Sardinian Nuorese petha [pɛθa] 'meat'
Shark Bay [θar] 'four'
Shawnee nthwi [nθwɪ] 'three'
Sioux Nakoda ktusa [ktũˈθa] 'four'
Spanish European Spanish[8] cazar [käˈθ̪͆är] 'to hunt'
Swahili thamini [θɑˈmini] 'value'
Tanacross thiit [θiːtʰ] 'embers'
Toda உஇனபஒத [wɨnboθ] 'nine'
Turkmen sekiz [θekið] 'eight'
Tutchone Northern tho [θo] 'pants'
Southern thü [θɨ]
Upland Yuman Havasupai [θerap] 'five'
Hualapai [θarap]
Yavapai [θerapi]
Venetian Eastern dialects çinque [ˈθiŋkwe] 'five'
Wolaytta shiththa [ɕiθθa] 'flower'
Welsh saith [saiθ] 'seven'
Yi

Ꙑ́ъюьа

[θɤjuja] 'million'
Zhuang saw [θaːu˨˦] 'language'
Zotung Standard dialect of Lungngo kacciade [kəˈθʲaːðɛ] 'I go'

Notes

  1. ↑ Thelwall (1990:37)
  2. ↑ Versteegh (2001:159)
  3. ↑ Watkins (2001:291–292)
  4. ↑ Fig. 11 La zeta bolognese (in Italian)
  5. ↑ Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 143.
  6. ↑ Regueira (1996:119–120)
  7. ↑ Hall (1944:75)
  8. ↑ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:255)

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 978-0-631-19815-4.
  • 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 2022-02-24
  • 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