Voiceless postalveolar fricative
The
voiceless palato-alveolar fricative or
domed postalveolar fricative is a type of
consonantal sound, used in some
spoken languages. The symbol in the
International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is (which is different from the
integral symbol ∫), and the equivalent
X-SAMPA symbol is
S. An alternative symbol used in some older and American linguistic literature is š, an
s with
háček.
Features of the voiceless postalveolar fricative:
* Its
manner of articulation is
sibilant fricative, which means it is produced by directing air flow through a groove in the tongue at the place of articulation and directing it over the sharp edge of the teeth, causing high-frequency
turbulence.
* Its
place of articulation is
palato-alveolar, that is, domed (partially
palatalized)
postalveolar, which means it is articulated with the front of the
tongue behind the
alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue bunched up ("domed") at the
palate.
* Its
phonation type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
* It is an
oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
* It is a
central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
* The
airstream mechanism is
pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the
lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the
glottis or the mouth.
The voiceless postalveolar fricative occurs in English, and it is the sound denoted by the letters 'sh' in
shoe, the letters 'ssi' in
passion, the letters 'ch' in
cache, or the letters 'ti' in
donation. In English (as in French, but unlike Russian) the sound is
labialized, , although few transcriptions bother with this level of detail.
*
š in
Czech,
Slovak,
Serbian,
Croatian,
Slovenian*
sz in
Polish*
ŝ in
Esperanto*
sch in
German*
s in
Hungarian*
x in
Catalan*
ch in
French*
sc in
Italian (and a few related languages) and
Old English*
ş in
Turkish and
Romanian*
x or
ch in
Portuguese*
ш in
Russian*
List of phonetics topics
