Voiced dental fricative

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IPA – number	131
IPA – text	ð
IPA – image
Entity	ð
X-SAMPA	D
Kirshenbaum	D
Sound sample (help·info)

The voiced dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound, "eth", is ð, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is D. The dental 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 teeth, as they are with other dental consonants. It is familiar to English speakers as the 'th' sound in "then."

Many commonly spoken languages, such as German, French, Farsi, Japanese, and Chinese, lack this sound. Native speakers of those languages sometimes have difficulty enunciating or distinguishing it, and replace it with a voiced alveolar fricative or a voiced dental plosive.

[edit] Features

Features of the voiced dental 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.
• Its place of articulation is dental which means it is articulated with the tongue on either the lower or the upper teeth, or both.
• Its phonation type is voiced, which means the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation.
• 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.

[edit] Occurrence

• Indo-European
  • Albanian: i verdhë [i vɛːɾð], "gold"
  • English: this [ðɪs]
  • Gascon: que divi [ke ˈðiwi], "what I should"
  • Icelandic: iða [ɪːða], "vortex"
  • Greek: δάφνη [ˈðafni], "laurel"
  • Welsh : ysgrifenyddes /əsgriveˈnəðes/, "a female secretary"
• Afroasiatic
  • Arabic: ḏahab ذهب [ðæhæb], "gold"
  • Kabyle: ḏuḇ [ðuβ], "to be exhausted"
  • Harsusi: ḏebēr [ðebeːr], "bee"
  • Western Neo-Aramaic: aḥḥaḏ [aħːað], "one"
• Niger-Congo
  • Swahili: dhambi [ðɑmbi], "sin"
• Dravidian
  • Tamil: onpatu [onbʌðɯ], "nine"
• Austronesian
  • Fijian: ciwa [ðiwa], "nine"
• Na-Dene
  • Gwich'in: niidhàn [niːðân], "you want"
  • Hän: ë̀dhä̀ [ə̂ðɑ̂], "hide"
  • Tanacross: dhet [ðet], "liver"
  • Northern Tutchone edhó [eðǒ], "hide"
  • Southern Tutchone adhǜ [aðɨ̂], "hide"

[edit] See also

• List of phonetics topics

Consonants (List, table)	See also: IPA, Vowels
Pulmonics Bilabial Lab'den. Dental Alveolar Postalv. Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn. Epiglottal Glottal Non-pulmonics and other symbols Nasals m ɱ n̪ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ Clicks  ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ Plosives p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Implo­­sives  ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ Fricatives  ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Ejec­­tives  pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ sʼ Approximants  β̞ ʋ ð̞ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Other laterals  ɺ ɫ Trills ʙ r • ʀ • Co-articulated approximants ʍ w ɥ Flaps & Taps ѵ̟ ѵ ɾ ɽ • Co-articulated fricatives ɕ ʑ ɧ Lat. Fricatives ɬ ɮ • • • Affricates  ʦ ʣ ʧ ʤ Lat. Appr'mants l ɭ ʎ ʟ Co-articulated stops  k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m
This page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged impossible.