Fricative

A fricative is a type of consonant sound that is produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. This turbulent airflow creates a characteristic "hissing" or "friction" sound. Fricatives are found in many of the world's languages and can be voiced or voiceless.

Types of Fricatives

Fricatives can be classified based on their place of articulation and whether they are voiced or voiceless.

Place of Articulation

• Labiodental fricative: Produced with the lower lip against the upper teeth (e.g., /f/ and /v/ in English).
• Dental fricative: Produced with the tongue against the upper teeth (e.g., /θ/ as in "think" and /ð/ as in "this" in English).
• Alveolar fricative: Produced with the tongue against the alveolar ridge (e.g., /s/ and /z/ in English).
• Postalveolar fricative: Produced with the tongue just behind the alveolar ridge (e.g., /ʃ/ as in "sh" and /ʒ/ as in "measure" in English).
• Glottal fricative: Produced with the glottis (e.g., /h/ in English).

Voicing

• Voiceless fricatives: Produced without vibration of the vocal cords (e.g., /f/, /θ/, /s/, /ʃ/, /h/).
• Voiced fricatives: Produced with vibration of the vocal cords (e.g., /v/, /ð/, /z/, /ʒ/).

Phonetic Transcription

Fricatives are represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) with specific symbols. For example, the voiceless labiodental fricative is represented as /f/, and the voiced alveolar fricative is represented as /z/.

Examples in Languages

Fricatives are common in many languages. For instance:

• In English, common fricatives include /f/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /h/.
• In Spanish, the voiceless dental fricative /θ/ is used in some dialects, such as Castilian Spanish.
• In German, the voiceless labiodental fricative /f/ and the voiced labiodental fricative /v/ are common.

Related Pages

• Consonant
• Plosive
• Nasal consonant
• Approximant
• Affricate
• International Phonetic Alphabet
• Phonetics
• Phonology

See Also

• List of phonetics topics
• List of phonology topics