| Voiced dental fricative | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ð | |||
| IPA number | 131 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity(decimal) | ð | ||
| Unicode(hex) | U+00F0 | ||
| X-SAMPA | D | ||
| Braille |  | ||
| |||
| Voiced dental approximant | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ð̞ | |||
| ɹ̪ | |||
| Audio sample | |||
| |||
Thevoiced dental fricative is aconsonant sound used in somespoken languages. It is familiar to English-speakers as theth sound infather. Its symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet iseth, 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 lowerteeth (as inReceived Pronunciation), and not just against the back of the upper teeth, as they are with otherdental consonants.
The letter ⟨ð⟩ is sometimes used to represent the dentalapproximant, 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 itsunvoiced counterpart are rarephonemes. Almost all languages of Europe and Asia, such asGerman, lack the sound. Native speakers of languages without the sound often have difficulty enunciating or distinguishing it, and they replace it with avoiced alveolar sibilant[z], avoiced dental stop orvoiced alveolar stop[d], or avoiced labiodental fricative[v]; known respectively asth-alveolarization,th-stopping, andth-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 asGreek have the sound in their consonant inventories, as phonemes orallophones.
WithinTurkic languages,Bashkir andTurkmen have both voiced and voiceless dental non-sibilant fricatives among their consonants. AmongSemitic languages, they are used inModern Standard Arabic, albeit not by all speakers ofmodern Arabic dialects, and in some dialects ofHebrew andAssyrian.
Features of the voiced dental non-sibilant fricative:
In the following transcriptions, the undertack diacritic may be used to indicate anapproximant[ð̞].
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albanian | idhull | [iðuɫ] | 'idol' | ||
| Aleut[4] | damo | [ðɑmo] | 'house' | ||
| Arabic | Modern Standard[5] | ذهب | [ˈðæhæb] | 'gold' | SeeArabic phonology. Represented by the letterḏāl. |
| Gulf | |||||
| Najdi | |||||
| Tunisian | [ˈðhæb] | SeeTunisian Arabic phonology | |||
| Arpitan | Genevan [fr] andSavoyard | Genèva | [ðə'nɛːva] | 'Geneva' | Generally represents the "j" and "ge/gi" phonemes in standard spelling. |
| 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. SeeRomanian phonology | |
| Assyrian | ܘܪܕܐ werda | [wεrð̞a] | 'flower' | Common in theTyari,Barwari, andWestern 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/. SeeCatalan phonology | |
| Cree | Woods Cree (th-dialect) | nitha | [niða] | 'I' | Reflex ofProto-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' | |
| Western American English | [ð̪͆ɪs]ⓘ | 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. SeeStandard German phonology |
| Greek | δάφνη /dáfni | [ˈðafni] | 'laurel' | SeeModern Greek phonology | |
| Gwich'in | niidhàn | [niːðân] | 'you want' | ||
| Hän | ë̀dhä̀ | [ə̂ðɑ̂] | 'hide' | ||
| Harsusi | [ðebeːr] | 'bee' | |||
| Hebrew | Iraqi | אדוני | [ʔaðoˈnaj]ⓘ | 'my lord' | Commonly pronounced[d]. SeeModern Hebrew phonology |
| Temani | גָּדוֹל/ğaḏol | [dʒaðol] | 'large, great' | SeeYemenite 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/. SeeKurdish phonology. | |||
| Malay | Malaysian | azan | [a.ðan] | 'azan' | Only in Arabic loanwords; usually replaced with/z/. SeeMalay 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. SeeNorwegian phonology |
| Occitan | Gascon | quedivi | [keˈð̞iwi] | 'what I should' | Allophone of/d/. SeeOccitan phonology |
| Portuguese | European[17] | nada | [ˈn̪äðɐ] | 'nothing' | Northern and central dialects. Allophone of/d/, mainly after an oral vowel.[18] SeePortuguese phonology |
| Sardinian | nidu | [ˈnið̞u]ⓘ | 'nest' | Allophone of/d/ | |
| Scottish Gaelic | ManyOuter Hebrides dialects[19] | Màiri | [ˈmaːði] | 'Mary' | Often slightly palatalized. Common Hebridean realisation of /ɾʲ/, standard in Lewis[20] and also common in Harris, Benbecula and South Uist; otherwise realized as[ɾʲ],[21] as[ʒ] in southern Barra, or as[j] in Tiree. |
| Sioux | Lakota | zapta | [ˈðaptã] | 'five' | Sometimes with[z] |
| Spanish | Most dialects[22] | dedo | [ˈd̪e̞ð̞o̞] | 'finger' | Ranges from close fricative to approximant.[23] Allophone of/d/. SeeSpanish phonology |
| Swahili | dhambi | [ðɑmbi] | 'sin' | Mostly occurs in Arabic loanwords originally containing this sound. | |
| Swedish | Central Standard[24] | bada | [ˈbɑːð̞ä] | 'to take a bath' | An approximant;[24] allophone of/d/ in casual speech. SeeSwedish phonology |
| 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. SeeSwedish phonology | |
| Syriac | Western Neo-Aramaic | ܐܚܕ | [aħːeð] | 'to take' | |
| Tamil | ஒன்பது | [onbäðɯ] | 'nine' | Intervocalic allophone of/t/. SeeTamil phonology | |
| Tanacross | dhet | [ðet] | 'liver' | ||
| Turkmen | ýyldyz | [jɯldɯð] | 'star' | Realization of the/z/ phoneme | |
| Tutchone | Northern | edhó | [eðǒ] | 'hide' | |
| Southern | adhǜ | [aðɨ̂] | |||
| Venetian | mezorno | [meˈðorno] | 'midday' | ||
| Welsh | bardd | [barð] | 'bard' | SeeWelsh phonology | |
| Zapotec | Tilquiapan[25] | [example needed] | Allophone of/d/ | ||
Danish[ð] is actually a velarizedalveolar approximant.[26][27]
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