S͎
Whistled voiceless alveolar fricative sound
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
s͎ (an s with an upward-pointing arrow beneath it) is a symbol used in the Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet to represent a whistled version of the voiceless alveolar fricative [s].[1][2]
Occurrences in language
Few languages include this sound as a linguistic phoneme, and data about the extent of its use is limited. It has been documented primarily in some Southern Bantu languages in Sub-Saharan Africa (specifically the Shona and Tswa-Ronga language groups). Some authors have proposed that the sound also occurs in the Tabasaran language in the Caucasus, and Shehri language in Oman, but this is disputed.[3]
In the Shona language, [s͎] is represented orthographically by sv, as in the name of Morgan Tsvangirai. The key acoustic differences between the whistled [s͎] and the non-whistled [s] are that [s͎] has a secondary spectral peak at approximately 3 kHz, and a narrower spectral peak bandwidth.[3]
Occurrences in disordered speech
Whistling also occurs as an undesired occurrence when attempting to make a non-whistled sibilant in languages without whistled sibilants. The same symbol is used, as part of the extIPA, to transcribe speech that erroneously contains a whistle. This can occur for various reasons, including orthodontic prostheses.[3]
