A 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" sound 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 . 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".
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.
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 (as in Indonesian), voiceless dental stop , or a voiceless labiodental fricative ; known respectively as th-alveolarization, th-stopping, and th-fronting.
These sounds are 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. 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. Standard Arabic, and various dialects like Mesopotamian Arabic still retain the sound and its voiced counterpart . Similarly in Spanish, is present in the Iberian (peninsular) standard pronunciation of , but absent in several dialects of Andalusian, Canarian, and Hispanic America as a whole.
On the other hand, there are a very few languages, including Turkmen and Standard Zhuang, where these sounds have replaced and are even spelled with or its orthographic equivalent.
Features
upright=0.6|thumb|class=skin-invert-image|[[Sagittal section of a voiceless dental fricative]]
Features of a voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative:
It does not have the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.
Occurrence
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan=2| Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! Notes
|-
|colspan=2| Albanian || || || 'says' ||
|-
|rowspan=5| Arabic || Modern Standard || || || 'a dress' ||Represented by . See Arabic phonology.
|-
|Eastern Libyan || || || 'three' ||
|-
|Sanʽani || || || 'it is priced' ||
|-
|Iraqi || || || 'eight' ||
|-
|Khuzestani || || || 'the second one' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Aragonese || || || 'bush' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Arapaho || || || 'five' ||
|-
|rowspan=3| Arpitan || and Savoyard || marchiê || || 'market' ||
|-
| || èthêla || || 'star' ||
|-
| || cllâf || || 'key' || Limited to (VD), Bourg-Saint-Pierre (VS), and a few other villages.
|-
|colspan=2| Assyrian || ܒܝܬܐ bèṭa || || 'house' || Mostly used in the Western, Barwari, Tel Keppe, Batnaya and Alqosh dialects; realized as in other varieties.
|-
|colspan=2| Asturian || || || 'juice' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Avestan || xšaθra || || 'kingdom' ||
|-
| colspan="2" | Bashkir
| '
|
| 'friend'
|-
|colspan=2| Berber || || || 'Berber' (language)|| This pronunciation is common in northern Morocco, central Morocco, and northern Algeria.
|-
|colspan=2| Berta ||colspan=2 align=center| || 'to eat' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Burmese || / thon: || || 'three' || Commonly realized as an affricate .
|-
| colspan="2" |Bengali
|
|
|ˈReward'
|Only occurs in loanwords. See Bengali phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Cornish || || || 'eight' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Emiliano-Romagnol || || || 'face' ||
|-
| English || Most dialects|| thin || || 'thin' || See English phonology
|-
| Galician || Most dialects || || || 'zero' || Merges with into in Western dialects. || || || 'the captains' || Intervocalic allophone of . || rowspan=1| || rowspan=1||| rowspan="1" |'to hunt' || rowspan=1|Interdental. See Spanish phonology and Seseo. This sound is not contrastive in the Americas, southern Andalusia or the Canary Islands.
|-
| Castilian || rowspan=1| || rowspan=1||| rowspan="1" |'wall' || rowspan=1| Word-final, especially in Madrid. Corresponds to in standard Spanish.
|-
|colspan=2| Swahili || || || 'value' ||Mostly occurs in Arabic loanwords originally containing this sound.
|-
|colspan=2| Tanacross || || || 'embers' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Toda || || || 'nine' ||
|-
| colspan="2" |Turkmen
|sen
|
|'you'
|Realization of the /z/ phoneme
|-
|rowspan=2| Tutchone || Northern || || ||rowspan=2| 'pants' ||
|-
| Southern || || ||
|-
|rowspan=3| Upland Yuman || Havasupai ||colspan=2 align=center| ||rowspan=3| 'five' ||
|-
| Hualapai ||colspan=2 align=center| ||
|-
| Yavapai ||colspan=2 align=center| ||
|-
| Venetian || Eastern dialects || || || 'five' || Corresponds to in other dialects.
|-
|colspan=2| Wolaytta || || || 'flower' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Welsh || || || 'seven' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Zhuang || || || 'language' ||
|-
|Zotung
|Standard dialect of Lungngo
|kacciade
|| || 'I go'
|Realized as and in Aikap and other Northern dialects. It can also be voiced depending on the preceding consonant.
|}
Voiceless dental approximant
A voiceless dental approximant is reported for some dialects of Chilean Spanish. The International Phonetic Alphabet has no dedicated symbol that represents this sound, but it may be transcribed as (a lowered ).
Features
Features of a voiceless dental approximant:
As with the dental fricatives, it may also be interdental.
Occurrence
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan=2| Language
! Word
! IPA
! Meaning
! Notes
|-
| Spanish
| Chilean
|
|
| 'partner/buddy' ()
| Allophone of ; may be either dental or interdental . In variation with numerous other allophones (depending on position) which carry various degrees of stigmatization, with up to 15 allophones of in total: three approximants , ten fricatives , one affricate , and one null phone .
|}
Voiceless denti-alveolar sibilant
A voiceless denti-alveolar sibilant is the only sibilant fricative in some dialects of Andalusian Spanish and the main realization of the phoneme in most dialects of Acehnese. It has no official symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet, though it may be transcribed as (a laminal and dentalized ) or (an advanced ). It is often represented by an ad hoc symbol such as or .
describes this sound as follows:
Features
Features of a voiceless denti-alveolar sibilant:
- 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.
Occurrence
{| class='wikitable'
! colspan='2'|Language !! Word !! IPA!! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| colspan="2" |Acehnese
|seuôt
|
|'to answer'
|See Acehnese phonology
|-
| Spanish || Andalusian