Fricative
consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together, forming a tight stricture. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of [f]; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in the case of German [x] (the final consonant of Bach); or the side of the tongue against the molars, in the case of Welsh [ɬ] (appearing twice in the name Llanelli). This turbulent airflow is called frication.
A particular subset of fricatives are sibilants, produced with higher amplitude and pitch, and with the airflow going on to strike the edge of some obstruction (such as the teeth). Examples of sibilants in English are [s, z, ʃ, ʒ].
The usage of two other terms is less standardized: "Spirant" is an older term used by some American and European phoneticians and phonologists for non-sibilant fricatives. It contrasts with the term "strident", which could just mean "sibilant", but some authors also include labiodental and uvular fricatives in the class.
Types
The airflow is not completely stopped in the production of fricative consonants. In other words, the airflow experiences friction.
Sibilant fricatives
[s] voiceless coronal sibilant, as in English sip
[z] voiced coronal sibilant, as in English zip
[ʃ] voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant, as in English ship
[ʒ] voiced palato-alveolar sibilant, as in English measure
[ɕ] voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant
[ʑ] voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant
[ʂ] voiceless retroflex sibilant
[ʐ] voiced retroflex sibilant
All sibilants are coronal, but may be dental, alveolar, postalveolar, or palatal (retroflex) within that range.
“Fricative” enters the record as consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Fricative, consonant and produced can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Fricative” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.