Voiced dental fricative

Voiced dental approximant
Voiced dental approximant
ð̞
ɹ̪
Audio sample
	source · help
Image

Voiced dental fricative
Voiced dental fricative
ð
IPA number	131
Audio sample
	source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ð
Unicode (hex)	U+00F0
X-SAMPA	D
Braille
Image

The voiced dental fricative is a consonant sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to English-speakers as the th sound in father. Its symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is eth, or ⟨ð⟩ and was taken from the Old English and Icelandic letter eth, which could stand for either a voiced or unvoiced (inter)dental non-sibilant fricative. Such fricatives are often called "interdental" because they are often produced with the tongue between the upper and lower teeth (as in Received Pronunciation), and not just against the back of the upper teeth, as they are with other dental consonants.

Quick Facts ð, IPA number ...

Close

Quick Facts ð̞, ɹ̪ ...

Close

The letter ⟨ð⟩ is sometimes used to represent the dental approximant, a similar sound, which no language is known to contrast with a dental non-sibilant fricative.^[1] However, the approximant can be explicitly indicated with the lowering diacritic: ⟨ð̞⟩. Very rarely used variant transcriptions of the dental approximant include ⟨ʋ̠⟩ (retracted [ʋ]), ⟨ɹ̟⟩ (advanced [ɹ]) and ⟨ɹ̪⟩ (dentalised [ɹ]). It has been proposed that either a turned ⟨ð⟩^[2] or reversed ⟨ð⟩^[3] be used as a dedicated symbol for the dental approximant, but despite occasional usage, this has not gained general acceptance.

The fricative and its unvoiced counterpart are rare phonemes. Almost all languages of Europe and Asia, such as German, lack the sound. Native speakers of languages without the sound often have difficulty enunciating or distinguishing it, and they replace it with a voiced alveolar sibilant [z], a voiced dental stop or voiced alveolar stop [d], or a voiced labiodental fricative [v]; known respectively as th-alveolarization, th-stopping, and th-fronting. As for Europe, there seems to be a great arc where the sound (and/or its unvoiced variant) is present. Most of Mainland Europe lacks the sound. However, some "periphery" languages such as Greek have the sound in their consonant inventories, as phonemes or allophones.

Within Turkic languages, Bashkir and Turkmen have both voiced and voiceless dental non-sibilant fricatives among their consonants. Among Semitic languages, they are used in Modern Standard Arabic, albeit not by all speakers of modern Arabic dialects, and in some dialects of Hebrew and Assyrian.

Features of the voiced dental 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. It does not have the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.
Its place of articulation is dental, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the upper teeth, termed respectively apical and laminal. Note that most stops and liquids described as dental are actually denti-alveolar.
Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
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.
Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

In the following transcriptions, the undertack diacritic may be used to indicate an approximant [ð̞].

More information Language, Word ...

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Albanian		idhull	[iðuɫ]	'idol'
Aleut^[4]		damo	[ðɑmo]	'house'
Arabic	Modern Standard^[5]	ذهب	[ˈðæhæb]	'gold'	See Arabic phonology. Represented by the letter ḏāl.
	Gulf
	Najdi
	Tunisian		[ˈðhæb]		See Tunisian Arabic phonology
Arpitan	Genevan [fr] and Savoyard	Genèva	[ðə'nɛːva]	'Geneva'	Generally represents the "j" and "ge/gi" phonemes in standard spelling.
Arpitan	Bressan	vachiére	[va'θiðə]	'woman cow herder'	Bressan dialect, like the Geneva and many Savoy ones, express "j" and "ge/gi" (in standard Arpitan spelling) as voiced dental fricatives. In addition, however, its dialects often express the intervocalic "r" as such as well.
Aromanian^[6]		zală	[ˈðalə]	'butter whey'	Corresponds to [z] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Assyrian		ܘܪܕܐ werda	[wεrð̞a]	'flower'	Common in the Tyari, Barwari, and Western dialects. Corresponds to [d] in other varieties.
Asturian	Some dialects	fazer	[fäˈðeɾ]	'to do'	Alternative realization of etymological ⟨z⟩. Can also be realized as [θ].
Bashkir		ҡаҙ / qađ	[qɑð]^ⓘ	'goose'
Basque^[7]		adar	[að̞ar]	'horn'	Allophone of /d/
Berta		[fɛ̀ːðɑ̀nɑ́]		'to sweep'
Burmese^[8]		အညာသား	[ʔəɲàd̪͡ðá]	'inlander'	Commonly realized as an affricate [d̪͡ð].^[9]
Catalan^[10]		cada	[ˈkaðə]	'each'	Fricative or approximant. Allophone of /d/. See Catalan phonology
Cree	Woods Cree (th-dialect)	nitha	[niða]	'I'	Reflex of Proto-Algonguian *r. Shares features of a sonorant.
Dahalo^[11]		^{[example needed]}			Weak fricative or approximant. It is a common intervocalic allophone of /d̪/, and may be simply a plosive [d̪] instead.^[11]
Elfdalian		baiða	[ˈbaɪða]	'wait'
Emilian	Bolognese	żänt	[ðæ̃:t]	'people'
English	Received Pronunciation^[12]	this	[ðɪs]	'this'
English	Western American English	this	[ð̪͆ɪs]^ⓘ	'this'	Interdental.^[12]
Extremaduran		ḥazel	[häðel]	'to do'	Realization of etymological 'z'. Can also be realized as [θ]
Fijian		ciwa	[ðiwa]	'nine'
Galician	Some dialects^[13]	fazer	[fɐˈðeɾ]	'to do'	Alternative realization of etymological ⟨z⟩. Can also be realized as [θ, z, z̺].
German	Austrian^[14]	leider	[ˈlaɛ̯ða]	'unfortunately'	Intervocalic allophone of /d/ in casual speech. See Standard German phonology
Greek		δάφνη / dáfni	[ˈðafni]	'laurel'	See Modern Greek phonology
Gwich'in		niidhàn	[niːðân]	'you want'
Hän		ë̀dhä̀	[ə̂ðɑ̂]	'hide'
Harsusi		[ðebeːr]		'bee'
Hebrew	Iraqi	אדוני	[ʔaðoˈnaj]^ⓘ	'my lord'	Commonly pronounced [d]. See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hebrew	Temani	גָּדוֹל/ğaḏol	[dʒaðol]	'large, great'	See Yemenite Hebrew
Judeo-Spanish	Many dialects	קריאדֿור / kriador	[kɾiaˈðor]	'creator'	Intervocalic allophone of /d/ in many dialects.
Kabyle		ḏuḇ	[ðuβ]	'to be exhausted'
Kagayanen^[15]		kalag	[kað̞aɡ]	'spirit'
Kurdish		^{[example needed]}			An approximant; postvocalic allophone of /d/. See Kurdish phonology.
Malay	Malaysian	azan	[a.ðan]	'azan'	Only in Arabic loanwords; usually replaced with /z/. See Malay phonology
Malayalam		'അത്'	[aðɨ̆]	'That'	Colloquial usage.
Mari	Eastern dialect	шодо	[ʃoðo]	'lung'
Norman	Jèrriais	méthe	[mɛð]	'mother'	Predominantly found in western Jèrriais dialects; otherwise realised as [ɾ], and sometimes as [l] or [z].
Northern Sámi		dieđa	[d̥ieðɑ]	'science'
Norwegian	Meldal dialect^[16]	i	[ð̩ʲ˕ː]	'in'	Syllabic palatalized frictionless approximant^[16] corresponding to /iː/ in other dialects. See Norwegian phonology
Occitan	Gascon	que divi	[ke ˈð̞iwi]	'what I should'	Allophone of /d/. See Occitan phonology
Portuguese	European^[17]	nada	[ˈn̪äðɐ]	'nothing'	Northern and central dialects. Allophone of /d/, mainly after an oral vowel.^[18] See Portuguese phonology
Sardinian		nidu	[ˈnið̞u]^ⓘ	'nest'	Allophone of /d/
Scottish Gaelic	Lewis and South Uist	Màiri	[ˈmaːðɪ]	'Mary'	Hebridean realisation of /ɾʲ/, particularly common in Lewis and South Uist; otherwise realized as [ɾʲ]^[19] or as [r̝] in southern Barra and Vatersay.
Sioux	Lakota	zapta	[ˈðaptã]	'five'	Sometimes with [z]
Spanish	Most dialects^[20]	dedo	[ˈd̪e̞ð̞o̞]	'finger'	Ranges from close fricative to approximant.^[21] Allophone of /d/. See Spanish phonology
Swahili		dhambi	[ðɑmbi]	'sin'	Mostly occurs in Arabic loanwords originally containing this sound.
Swedish	Central Standard^[22]	bada	[ˈbɑːð̞ä]	'to take a bath'	An approximant;^[22] allophone of /d/ in casual speech. See Swedish phonology
Swedish	Some dialects^[16]^{[better source needed]}	i	[ð̩ʲ˕ː]	'in'	A syllabic palatalized frictionless approximant^[16]^{[better source needed]} corresponding to /iː/ in Central Standard Swedish. See Swedish phonology
Syriac	Western Neo-Aramaic	ܐܚܕ	[aħːeð]	'to take'
Tamil		ஒன்பது	[onbäðɯ]	'nine'	Intervocalic allophone of /t/. See Tamil phonology
Tanacross		dhet	[ðet]	'liver'
Turkmen		ýyldyz	[jɯldɯð]	'star'	Realization of the /z/ phoneme
Tutchone	Northern	edhó	[eðǒ]	'hide'
Tutchone	Southern	adhǜ	[aðɨ̂]	'hide'
Venetian		mezorno	[meˈðorno]	'midday'
Welsh		bardd	[barð]	'bard'	See Welsh phonology
Zapotec	Tilquiapan^[23]	^{[example needed]}			Allophone of /d/

Close

Danish [ð] is actually a velarized alveolar approximant.^[24]^[25]

[1]
Olson et al. (2010:210)
[2]
Kenneth S. Olson, Jeff Mielke, Josephine Sanicas-Daguman, Carol Jean Pebley & Hugh J. Paterson III, 'The phonetic status of the (inter)dental approximant', Journal of the International Phonetic Association, Vol. 40, No. 2 (August 2010), pp. 201–211
[3]
Ball, Martin J.; Howard, Sara J.; Miller, Kirk (2018). "Revisions to the extIPA chart". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 48 (2): 155–164. doi:10.1017/S0025100317000147. S2CID 151863976.
[4]
"damo in English - Aleut-English Dictionary | Glosbe". glosbe.com. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
[5]
Thelwall & Sa'Adeddin (1990:37)
[6]
Pop (1938), p. 30.
[7]
Hualde (1991:99–100)
[8]
Watkins (2001:291–292)
[9]
Watkins (2001:292)
[10]
Carbonell & Llisterri (1992:55)
[11]
Maddieson et al. (1993:34)
[12]
Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 143.
[13]
"Atlas Lingüístico Gallego (ALGa) | Instituto da Lingua Galega - ILG". ilg.usc.es. 14 October 2013. Retrieved 2019-11-25.
[14]
Sylvia Moosmüller (2007). "Vowels in Standard Austrian German: An Acoustic-Phonetic and Phonological Analysis" (PDF). p. 6. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
[15]
Olson et al. (2010:206–207)
[16]
Vanvik (1979:14)
[17]
Cruz-Ferreira (1995:92)
[18]
Mateus & d'Andrade (2000:11)
[19]
"Slender 'r'/ 'an t-s'".
[20]
Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:255)
[21]
Phonetic studies such as Quilis (1981) have found that Spanish voiced stops may surface as spirants with various degrees of constriction. These allophones are not limited to regular fricative articulations, but range from articulations that involve a near complete oral closure to articulations involving a degree of aperture quite close to vocalization
[22]
Engstrand (2004:167)
[23]
Merrill (2008:109)
[24]
Grønnum (2003:121)
[25]
Basbøll (2005:59, 63)

Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, OUP Oxford, ISBN 0-19-824268-9
Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618, S2CID 249411809
Cotton, Eleanor Greet; Sharp, John (1988), Spanish in the Americas, Georgetown University Press, ISBN 978-0-87840-094-2
Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223, S2CID 249414876
Engstrand, Olle (2004), Fonetikens grunder (in Swedish), Lund: Studenlitteratur, ISBN 91-44-04238-8
Grønnum, Nina (2003), "Why are the Danes so hard to understand?", in Jacobsen, Henrik Galberg; Bleses, Dorthe; Madsen, Thomas O.; Thomsen, Pia (eds.), Take Danish - for instance: linguistic studies in honour of Hans Basbøll, presented on the occasion of his 60th birthday, Odense: Syddansk Universitetsforlag, pp. 119–130
Hualde, José Ignacio (1991), Basque phonology, New York: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-05655-7
Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996), The Sounds of the World's Languages, Oxford: Blackwell, ISBN 0-631-19815-6
Maddieson, Ian; Spajić, Siniša; Sands, Bonny; Ladefoged, Peter (1993), "Phonetic structures of Dahalo", in Maddieson, Ian (ed.), UCLA working papers in phonetics: Fieldwork studies of targeted languages, vol. 84, Los Angeles: The UCLA Phonetics Laboratory Group, pp. 25–65
Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Illustrations of the IPA: Castilian Spanish" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373 (inactive 1 November 2024){{citation}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
Mateus, Maria Helena; d'Andrade, Ernesto (2000), The Phonology of Portuguese, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-823581-X
Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 38 (1): 107–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344 (inactive 2024-11-02){{citation}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
Olson, Kenneth; Mielke, Jeff; Sanicas-Daguman, Josephine; Pebley, Carol Jean; Paterson, Hugh J. III (2010), "The phonetic status of the (inter)dental approximant", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 40 (2): 199–215, doi:10.1017/S0025100309990296, S2CID 38504322
Pop, Sever (1938), Micul Atlas Linguistic Român, Muzeul Limbii Române Cluj
Quilis, Antonio (1981), Fonética acústica de la lengua española [Acoustic phonetics of the Spanish language] (in Spanish), Gredos, ISBN 978-84-249-0131-8
Thelwall, Robin; Sa'Adeddin, M. Akram (1990), "Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 20 (2): 37–41, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004266, S2CID 249416512
Vanvik, Arne (1979), Norsk fonetikk [Norwegian phonetics] (in Norwegian), Oslo: Universitetet i Oslo, ISBN 82-990584-0-6
Watkins, Justin W. (2001), "Illustrations of the IPA: Burmese" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 31 (2): 291–295, doi:10.1017/S0025100301002122, S2CID 232344700

List of languages with [ð] on PHOIBLE

[1] [1]
Olson et al. (2010:210)

[2] [2]
Kenneth S. Olson, Jeff Mielke, Josephine Sanicas-Daguman, Carol Jean Pebley & Hugh J. Paterson III, 'The phonetic status of the (inter)dental approximant', Journal of the International Phonetic Association, Vol. 40, No. 2 (August 2010), pp. 201–211

[3] [3]
Ball, Martin J.; Howard, Sara J.; Miller, Kirk (2018). "Revisions to the extIPA chart". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 48 (2): 155–164. doi:10.1017/S0025100317000147. S2CID 151863976.

[4] [4]
"damo in English - Aleut-English Dictionary | Glosbe". glosbe.com. Retrieved 2023-07-24.

[5] [5]
Thelwall & Sa'Adeddin (1990:37)

[FOOTNOTEPop193830-6] [6]
Pop (1938), p. 30.

[7] [7]
Hualde (1991:99–100)

[8] [8]
Watkins (2001:291–292)

[9] [9]
Watkins (2001:292)

[10] [10]
Carbonell & Llisterri (1992:55)

[mad34-11] [11]
Maddieson et al. (1993:34)

[FOOTNOTELadefogedMaddieson1996143-12] [12]
Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 143.

[13] [13]
"Atlas Lingüístico Gallego (ALGa) | Instituto da Lingua Galega - ILG". ilg.usc.es. 14 October 2013. Retrieved 2019-11-25.

[14] [14]
Sylvia Moosmüller (2007). "Vowels in Standard Austrian German: An Acoustic-Phonetic and Phonological Analysis" (PDF). p. 6. Retrieved March 9, 2013.

[15] [15]
Olson et al. (2010:206–207)

[Vanvik14-16] [16]
Vanvik (1979:14)

[17] [17]
Cruz-Ferreira (1995:92)

[18] [18]
Mateus & d'Andrade (2000:11)

[19] [19]
"Slender 'r'/ 'an t-s'".

[20] [20]
Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:255)

[21] [21]
Phonetic studies such as Quilis (1981) have found that Spanish voiced stops may surface as spirants with various degrees of constriction. These allophones are not limited to regular fricative articulations, but range from articulations that involve a near complete oral closure to articulations involving a degree of aperture quite close to vocalization

[engstrand-22] [22]
Engstrand (2004:167)

[23] [23]
Merrill (2008:109)

[24] [24]
Grønnum (2003:121)

[25] [25]
Basbøll (2005:59, 63)

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]

Wikiwand in your browser!

Voiced dental fricative

Wikiwand in your browser!

Features

Occurrence

See also

Notes

References

External links