Voiceless_retroflex_fricative

Voiceless retroflex fricative

Voiceless retroflex fricative

Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ʂ⟩ in IPA

The voiceless retroflex sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʂ⟩ which is a Latin letter s combined with a retroflex hook. Like all the retroflex consonants, the IPA letter is formed by adding a rightward-pointing hook to the bottom of ⟨s⟩ (the letter used for the corresponding alveolar consonant). A distinction can be made between laminal, apical, and sub-apical articulations. Only one language, Toda, appears to have more than one voiceless retroflex sibilant, and it distinguishes subapical palatal from apical postalveolar retroflex sibilants; that is, both the tongue articulation and the place of contact on the roof of the mouth are different.

Quick Facts ʂ, IPA Number ...

Some scholars also posit the voiceless retroflex approximant distinct from the fricative. The approximant may be represented in the IPA as ⟨ɻ̊⟩.

Features

Schematic mid-sagittal section

Features of the voiceless retroflex fricative:

  • 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 retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical subapical articulation, the tongue can be apical (pointed) or, in some fricatives, laminal (flat).
  • 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.
  • The 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

In the following transcriptions, diacritics may be used to distinguish between apical [ʂ̺] and laminal [ʂ̻].

The commonality of [ʂ] cross-linguistically is 6% in a phonological analysis of 2155 languages.[1]

More information Language, Word ...

Voiceless retroflex non-sibilant fricative

Quick Facts ɻ̝̊, ɻ̊˔ ...
Quick Facts ɻ̊, IPA Number ...

Features

Features of the voiceless retroflex 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.
  • Its place of articulation is retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical subapical articulation, the tongue can be apical (pointed) or, in some fricatives, laminal (flat).
  • 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.
  • The 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

More information Language, Word ...

See also

Notes

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    Phoible.org. (2018). PHOIBLE Online - Segments. [online] Available at: http://phoible.org/parameters.
  2. [2]
    Árnason (2011), p. 115.
  3. [3]
    Šewc-Schuster (1984), pp. 40–41
  4. [4]
    Zygis (2003), pp. 180–181, 190–191.
  5. [5]
    Sadowsky et al. (2013), p. 90.
  6. [6]
    Hamann (2004), p. 65
  7. [7]
    Karaś, Halina. "Gwary polskie - Frykatywne rż (ř)". Archived from the original on 2013-11-13. Retrieved 2013-11-06.
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    Taras, Barbara. "Gwary polskie - Gwara regionu". Archived from the original on 2013-11-13.
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    Karaś, Halina. "Gwary polskie - Szadzenie". Archived from the original on 2013-11-13.
  10. [10]
    Pop (1938), p. 31.
  11. [11]
    Kordić (2006), p. 5.
  12. [12]
    Landau et al. (1999), p. 67.
  13. [13]
    Hanulíková & Hamann (2010), p. 374.
  14. [14]
    Ladefoged (2005), p. 168.
  15. [15]
    Krishnamurti (2003), p. 66.
  16. [16]
    Lunsford (2001), pp. 16–20.
  17. [17]
    Šewc-Schuster (1984), p. 41.
  18. [18]
    Zygis (2003), p. 180.
  19. [19]
    Thompson (1959), pp. 458–461.
  20. [20]
    "Yurok consonants". Yurok Language Project. UC Berkeley. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
  21. [21]
    Merrill (2008), p. 109.
  22. [22]
    Blankenship, Barbara; Ladefoged, Peter; Bhaskararao, Peri; Chase, Nichumeno (Fall 1993). "Phonetic structures of Khonoma Angami" (PDF). Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 16 (2): 87.
  23. [23]
    Bielenberg, Brian; Zhalie, Nienu (Fall 2001). "Chokri (Phek Dialect): Phonetics and Phonology" (PDF). Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 24 (2): 85–122. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  24. [24]
    Novák, Ľubomír (2013). "Other Eastern Iranian Languages". Problem of Archaism and Innovation in the Eastern Iranian Languages (PhD dissertation). Prague: Charles University. p. 59. This sound can be transcribed also ṣ̌ʳ, the sound should be similar to Czech voiceless ř (Burki 2001), phonetically [ɻ̝̊]: voiceless retroflex non-sibilant fricative. Similar sound but voiced occurs also in the Nūristānī languages
  25. [25]
    Efimov, V. A. (2011). Baart, Joan L. G. (ed.). The Ormuri Language in Past and Present. Translated by Baart, Joan L. G. Islamabad: Forum for Language Initiatives. ISBN 978-969-9437-02-1. ...and ř for the peculiar voiceless fricativized trill that occurs in the Kaniguram dialect.... In the original work, Efimov followed Morgenstierne in using ṣ̌ʳ to represent this sound, which has been replaced here with the typographically simpler ṛ̌.

References
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