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| Sibilant | |
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| Ⓢ |
Sibilants (fromLatin:sibilans'hissing') arefricative andaffricate consonants of higheramplitude andpitch, made bydirecting a stream of air with the tongue towards theteeth.[1] Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of theEnglish wordssip,zip,ship, andgenre. The symbols in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet used to denote the sibilant sounds in these words are, respectively,[s][z][ʃ][ʒ]. Sibilants have a characteristically intense sound, which accounts for theirparalinguistic use in getting one's attention (e.g. calling someone using "psst!" or quieting someone using "shhhh!").
A broader category isstridents, which include more fricatives than sibilants such asuvulars. Sibilants are a higher pitched subset of the stridents. The English sibilants are:
while the English stridents are:
as/f/ and/v/ are stridents but not sibilants because they are lower in pitch.[2][3]
Some linguistics use the terms "stridents" and "sibilants" interchangeably to refer to the greateramplitude andpitch compared to other fricatives.[4]
"Stridency" refers to theperceptualintensity of the sound of a sibilant consonant, orobstacle fricatives oraffricates, which refers to the critical role of the teeth in producing the sound as an obstacle to the airstream. Non-sibilant fricatives and affricates produce their characteristic sound directly with the tongue or lips etc. and the place of contact in the mouth, without secondary involvement of the teeth.[citation needed]
The characteristic intensity of sibilants means that small variations in tongue shape and position are perceivable, with the result that there are many sibilant types that contrast in various languages.
Sibilants are louder than their non-sibilant counterparts, and most of their acoustic energy occurs at higher frequencies than non-sibilant fricatives—usually around 8,000 Hz.[5]
All sibilants arecoronal consonants (made with the tip or front part of the tongue). However, there is a great deal of variety among sibilants as to tongue shape, point of contact on the tongue, and point of contact on the upper side of the mouth.
The following variables affect sibilant sound quality, and, along with their possible values, are ordered from sharpest (highest-pitched) to dullest (lowest-pitched):
Generally, the values of the different variables co-occur so as to produce an overall sharper or duller sound. For example, a laminal denti-alveolar grooved sibilant occurs inPolish, and a subapical palatal retroflex sibilant occurs inToda.
The main distinction is the shape of the tongue. Most sibilants have agroove running down the centerline of the tongue that helps focus the airstream, but it is not known how widespread this is.[clarification needed] In addition, the following tongue shapes are described, from sharpest and highest-pitched to dullest and lowest-pitched:
The latter three post-alveolar types of sounds are often known as "hushing" sounds because of their quality, as opposed to the "hissing" alveolar sounds. The alveolar sounds in fact occur in several varieties, in addition to the normal sound of Englishs:
Speaking non-technically,[tone] the retroflex consonant[ʂ] sounds somewhat like a mixture between the regular English[ʃ] of "ship" and a strong American "r"; while the alveolo-palatal consonant[ɕ] sounds somewhat like a mixture of English[ʃ] of "ship" and the[sj] in the middle of "miss you".
Sibilants can be made at anycoronal articulation[citation needed], i.e. the tongue can contact the upper side of the mouth anywhere from the upper teeth (dental) to thehard palate (palatal), with the in-between articulations beingdenti-alveolar,alveolar andpostalveolar.
The tongue can contact the upper side of the mouth with the very tip of the tongue (anapical articulation, e.g.[ʃ̺]); with the surface just behind the tip, called theblade of the tongue (alaminal articulation, e.g.[ʃ̻]); or with the underside of the tip (asubapical articulation). Apical and subapical articulations are alwaystongue-up, with the tip of the tongue above the teeth, while laminal articulations can be either tongue-up ortongue-down, with the tip of the tongue behind the lower teeth. This distinction is particularly important forretroflex sibilants, because all three varieties can occur, with noticeably different sound qualities.
For tongue-down laminal articulations, an additional distinction can be made depending on where exactly behind the lower teeth the tongue tip is placed. A little ways back from the lower teeth is a hollow area (or pit) in the lower surface of the mouth. When the tongue tip rests in this hollow area, there is an empty space below the tongue (asublingual cavity), which results in a relatively duller sound. When the tip of the tongue rests against the lower teeth, there is no sublingual cavity, resulting in a sharper sound. Usually, the position of the tip of the tongue correlates with the grooved vs. hushing tongue shape so as to maximize the differences. However, the palato-alveolar sibilants in theNorthwest Caucasian languages such asUbykh are an exception. These sounds have the tongue tip resting directly against the lower teeth, which gives the sounds a quality that Catford describes as "hissing-hushing". Ladefoged and Maddieson[1] term this a "closed laminal postalveolar" articulation, and transcribe them (following Catford) as[ŝ,ẑ], although this is not an IPA notation.
The following table shows the types of sibilant fricatives defined in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet:
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Diacritics can be used for finer detail. For example, apical and laminal alveolars can be specified as[s̺]vs[s̻]; adental (or more likelydenti-alveolar) sibilant as[s̪]; a palatalized alveolar as[sʲ]; and a generic "retracted sibilant" as[s̠], a transcription frequently used for the sharper-quality types of retroflex consonants (e.g. the laminal "flat" type and the "apico-alveolar" type). There is no diacritic to denote the laminal "closed" articulation of palato-alveolars in theNorthwest Caucasian languages, but they are sometimes provisionally transcribed as[ŝẑ].
The attested possibilities, with exemplar languages, are as follows. Note that the IPA diacritics are simplified; some articulations would require two diacritics to be fully specified, but only one is used in order to keep the results legible without the need forOpenType IPA fonts. Also,Ladefoged has resurrected an obsolete IPA symbol, the under dot, to indicateapical postalveolar (normally included in the category ofretroflex consonants), and that notation is used here. (Note that the notations̠,ṣ is sometimes reversed; either may also be called 'retroflex' and writtenʂ.)
| IPA | Tongue shape | Place of articulation (mouth) | Place of articulation (tongue) | Exemplifying languages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [s̺̪z̺̪] | hollow | dental | apical | southeast EuropeanSpanishs/z,Kumeyaay |
| [s̪z̪] | denti-alveolar | laminal | Polishs, z;Basquez, tz | |
| [s̺z̺] | alveolar | apical | northern peninsularSpanishs; Basques, ts; Mandarins, z, c (apical, dental or alveolar) | |
| [sz] | apical or laminal | Englishs, z (alveolar, laminal or apical); American or southwest EuropeanSpanishs/z | ||
| [s̻z̻] | laminal | Toda,Ubykh,Abkhaz | ||
| [ʃʒ] | domed | postalveolar | apical or laminal | Englishsh, ch, j, zh and Frenchch, j ([ʃʷʒʷ]) |
| [ʃ̻ʒ̻] | laminal | Toda;Basquex, tx | ||
| [ɕʑ] | palatalized | Mandarinx, j, q; Polishś, ć, ź, dź; Ubykh;Abkhaz | ||
| [ŝẑ]1 | hollow (no cavity) | Ubykh;Abkhaz | ||
| [s̠ẕ], [ʂ̻ʐ̻] | hollow or flat (cavity under tongue) | Polishsz, cz, ż, dż ([ʂ̻ʷ,tʂ̻ʷ,ʐ̻ʷ,dʐ̻ʷ]); Mandarinsh, zh, ch | ||
| [ʂʐ], [ṣẓ], etc.2 | hollow | apical | Ubykh;Abkhaz; Kumeyaay; Toda;Russian | |
| [ʂʐ] | curled | palatal (orpostalveolar?) | subapical | Toda |
^1⟨ŝẑ⟩ is an ad-hoc transcription. The old IPA letters⟨ʆʓ⟩ are also available.
^2 These sounds are usually just transcribed⟨ʂʐ⟩. Apical postalveolar and subapical palatal sibilants do not contrast in any language, but if necessary, apical postalveolars can be transcribed with an apical diacritic, as⟨s̠̺z̠̺⟩ or⟨ʂ̺ʐ̺⟩. Ladefoged resurrects the old retroflex sub-dot for apical retroflexes,⟨ṣẓ⟩ Also seen in the literature on e.g. Hindi and Norwegian is⟨ᶘᶚ⟩ – the domed articulation of[ʃʒ] precludes a subapical realization.
| Whistled | |
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| ◌͎ |
Whistled sibilants occur phonemically in several southern Bantu languages, the best known beingShona. However, they also occur in speech pathology and may be caused by dental prostheses or orthodontics.
The whistled sibilants of Shona have been variously described—aslabialized but not velarized, as retroflex, etc., but none of these features are required for the sounds.[8] Using theExtended IPA, Shonasv andzv may be transcribed⟨s͎⟩ and⟨z͎⟩. Other transcriptions seen include purely labialized⟨s̫⟩ and⟨z̫⟩ (Ladefoged and Maddieson 1996) and labially co-articulated⟨sᶲ⟩ and⟨zᵝ⟩ (or⟨s͡ɸ⟩ and⟨z͜β⟩). In the otherwise IPA transcription of Shona in Doke (1967), the whistled sibilants are transcribed with the non-IPA letters⟨ȿɀ⟩ and⟨tȿdɀ⟩.
Besides Shona, whistled sibilants have been reported as phonemes inKalanga,Tsonga,Changana,Tswa—all of which are Southern African languages—andTabasaran. The articulation of whistled sibilants may differ between languages. In Shona, the lips arecompressed throughout, and the sibilant may be followed by normal labialization upon release. (That is, there is a contrast amongs, sw, ȿ, ȿw.) In Tsonga, the whistling effect is weak; the lips are narrowed but also the tongue isretroflex. Tswa may be similar. In Changana, the lips are rounded (protruded), but so is /s/ in the sequence /usu/, so there is evidently some distinct phonetic phenomenon occurring here that has yet to be formally identified and described.[9]
Not including differences inmanner of articulation orsecondary articulation, some languages have as many as four different types of sibilants. For example,Northern Qiang andSouthern Qiang have a four-way distinction among sibilant affricates/ts//tʂ//tʃ//tɕ/, with one for each of the four tongue shapes.[citation needed]Toda also has a four-way sibilant distinction, with one alveolar, one palato-alveolar, and two retroflex (apical postalveolar and subapical palatal).[citation needed]
The now-extinctUbykh language was particularly complex, with a total of 27 sibilant consonants. Not only all four tongue shapes were represented (with the palato-alveolar appearing in the laminal "closed" variation) but also both the palato-alveolars and alveolo-palatals could additionally appearlabialized. Besides, there was a five-way manner distinction among voiceless and voiced fricatives, voiceless and voiced affricates, andejective affricates. (The three labialized palato-alveolar affricates were missing, which is why the total was 27, not 30.)[citation needed] The Bzyp dialect of the relatedAbkhaz language also has a similar inventory.[citation needed]
Some languages have four types whenpalatalization is considered.Polish is one example, with both palatalized and non-palatalized laminal denti-alveolars, laminal postalveolar (or "flat retroflex"), and alveolo-palatal ([s̪z̪][s̪ʲz̪ʲ][s̠z̠][ɕʑ]).[citation needed]Russian has the same surface contrasts, but the alveolo-palatals are arguably not phonemic. They occur only geminate, and the retroflex consonants never occur geminate, which suggests that both are allophones of the same phoneme.[citation needed]
Somewhat more common are languages with three sibilant types, including one hissing and two hushing. As with Polish and Russian, the two hushing types are usually postalveolar and alveolo-palatal since these are the two most distinct from each other.Mandarin Chinese is an example of such a language.[citation needed] However, other possibilities exist.Serbo-Croatian has alveolar, flat postalveolar and alveolo-palatal affricates whereasBasque has palato-alveolar and laminal and apical alveolar (apico-alveolar) fricatives and affricates (late Medieval peninsularSpanish andPortuguese had the same distinctions among fricatives).
Many languages, such asEnglish orArabic, have two sibilant types, one hissing and one hushing. A wide variety of languages across the world have this pattern. Perhaps most common is the pattern, as in English and Arabic, with alveolar and palato-alveolar sibilants. Modern northern peninsularSpanish has a singleapico-alveolar sibilant fricative[s̠], as well as a single palato-alveolar sibilant affricate[tʃ]. However, there are also languages with alveolar and apical retroflex sibilants (such as StandardVietnamese) and with alveolar and alveolo-palatal postalveolars (e.g. alveolar and laminal palatalized[ʃʒtʃdʒ] i.e.[ʃʲʒʲtʃʲdʒʲ] inCatalan andBrazilian Portuguese, the latter probably through Amerindian influence,[10] and alveolar and dorsal i.e.[ɕʑtɕdʑ] proper inJapanese).[11]
Only a few languages with sibilants lack the hissing type.Middle Vietnamese is normally reconstructed with two sibilant fricatives, both hushing (one retroflex, one alveolo-palatal). Some languages have only a single hushing sibilant and no hissing sibilant. That occurs in southern Peninsular Spanish dialects of the "ceceo" type, which have replaced the former hissing fricative with[θ], leaving only[tʃ].
Languages with no sibilants are fairly rare. Most have no fricatives at all or only the fricative/h/. Examples include mostAustralian languages, andRotokas, and what is generally reconstructed forProto-Bantu. Languages with fricatives but no sibilants, however, do occur, such asUkue inNigeria, which has only the fricatives/f,v,h/. Also, almost all EasternPolynesian languages have no sibilants but do have the fricatives/v/ and/or/f/:Māori,Hawaiian,Tahitian,Rapa Nui, mostCook Islands Māori dialects,Marquesan, andTuamotuan.
Tamil only has the sibilant/ʂ/ and fricative/f/ in loanwords, and they are frequently replaced by native sounds. The sibilants[s,ɕ] exist as allophones of/t͡ɕ/ and the fricative[h] as an allophone of/k/.
Authors includingChomsky andHalle group[f] and[v] as sibilants. However, they do not have the grooved articulation and high frequencies of other sibilants, and most phoneticians[1] continue to group them together withbilabial[ɸ],[β] and (inter)dental[θ],[ð] as non-sibilantanterior fricatives. For a grouping of sibilants and[f,v], the termstrident is more common. Some researchers judge[f] to be non-strident in English, based on measurements of its comparative amplitude, but to be strident in other languages (for example, in the African languageEwe, where it contrasts with non-strident[ɸ]).
The nature ofsibilants as so-called 'obstacle fricatives' is complicated – there is a continuum of possibilities relating to the angle at which the jet of air may strike an obstacle. The grooving often considered necessary for classification as asibilant has been observed in ultrasound studies of the tongue for the supposedlynon-sibilant voiceless alveolar fricative[θ̠] of English.[12]
Fricatives involve turbulent airflow caused by at least two articulators being closed together. There are two main kinds, sibilants, which are high-pitched fricative sounds, and non-sibilants, which have a low-pitched sound. The sibilants in English are /s, z, ʒ, ʃ, ʒ/. The non-sibilants are /f, v, θ, ð, h/.
A substet of consonants, the production of which includes some amount of frication, is assigned the feature [+sibilant]. These consonants are /s, z, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/. Some linguists also refer to them as stridents. The two terms are used interchangeably.
