Voiced dental fricative
Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ð⟩ in IPA
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A voiced dental fricative is a consonant sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to most English-speakers as the "th" sound in "father".
| Voiced dental fricative | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ð | |||
| IPA number | 131 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ð | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+00F0 | ||
| X-SAMPA | D | ||
| Braille |  | ||
| |||
The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for this sound is eth, ⟨ð⟩, which was taken from the Old English and Icelandic alphabets, and which in those languages 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.
The letter ⟨ð⟩ is sometimes used to represent a voiced 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⟩. Rarely, this sound has also been transcribed as a dentalised alveolar approximant ⟨ɹ̪⟩.[2][3] It has been proposed that either a turned ⟨ð⟩[4] or reversed ⟨ð⟩,[5] among others, be used as a dedicated symbol for the dental approximant; however, despite occasional usage, none have gained general acceptance. Like the fricative, the approximant may also be articulated interdentally in some languages.[6]
The fricatives and their unvoiced counterparts are rare as phonemes. Almost all languages of Europe and Asia 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
Features of a 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 that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
- It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
- Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.
Occurrence
Voiced dental fricative
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albanian | idhull | [iðuɫ] | 'idol' | ||
| Aleut[7] | damo | [ðɑmo] | 'house' | ||
| Arabic | Modern Standard[8] | ذهب | [ˈðæhæb] | 'gold' | Represented by the letter ḏāl. See Arabic phonology |
| Gulf | |||||
| Najdi | |||||
| Tunisian | [ˈðhæb] | See Tunisian Arabic phonology | |||
| Arpitan | Genevan and Savoyard | 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[9] | zală | [ˈðalə] | 'butter whey' | Corresponds to [z] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology | |
| Asturian | Some dialects | fazer | [fäˈðeɾ] | 'to do' | Alternative realization of etymological ⟨z⟩. Can also be realized as [θ]. |
| Bashkir | ҡаҙ / qađ | ⓘ | 'goose' | ||
| Berta | [fɛ̀ːðɑ̀nɑ́] | 'to sweep' | |||
| Burmese[10] | အညာသား | [ʔəɲàðá] | 'inlander' | Commonly realized as an affricate [d̪͡ð].[11] | |
| Bengali | দ়বাই | [ðɔbɐi] | ˈslaughter' | Only occurs in loanwords. See Bengali phonology | |
| Catalan[12] | 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[13] | [example needed] | Weak fricative or approximant. It is a common intervocalic allophone of /d̪/, and may be simply a plosive [d̪] instead.[13] | |||
| Elfdalian | baiða | [ˈbaɪða] | 'wait' | ||
| Emilian | Bolognese | żänt | [ðæ̃:t] | 'people' | |
| English | Received Pronunciation[14] | this | [ðɪs] | 'this' | |
| Western American English | ⓘ | Interdental.[14] | |||
| Extremaduran | ḥazel | [häðel] | 'to do' | Realization of etymological ⟨z⟩. Can also be realized as [θ] | |
| Fijian | ciwa | [ðiwa] | 'nine' | ||
| Galician | Some dialects[15] | fazer | [fɐˈðeɾ] | 'to do' | Alternative realization of etymological ⟨z⟩. Can also be realized as [θ, z, z̺]. |
| German | Austrian[16] | 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 | ⓘ | 'my lord' | Commonly pronounced [d]. See Modern Hebrew phonology |
| 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' | ||
| Kurdish | [example needed] | An approximant; postvocalic allophone of /d/. See Kurdish phonology | |||
| Malay | Standard | azan | [a.ðan] | 'azan' | Only in Arabic loanwords; usually replaced with /z/. See Malay phonology |
| Malto | मेद़ / mēð | [meːð] | 'body' | See Malto phonology | |
| 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' | ||
| Persian | Early New Persian,[17] Early Judeo-Persian[17] | گذشتن / guḏaštan | [gu.ðaʃˈtan] | 'to pass' | Called ḏāl-i mu'ajjam and represented by the letter ḏāl.[17] A postvocalic pronunciation of native /d/, either considered phonemic or phonetic.[17] See Persian phonology |
| Portuguese | European[18] | nada | [ˈn̪äðɐ] | 'nothing' | Northern and central dialects. Allophone of /d/, mainly after an oral vowel.[19] See Portuguese phonology |
| Sardinian | nidu | ⓘ | 'nest' | Allophone of lenis /d/, may also be realized closer to an approximant. See Sardinian phonology | |
| Scottish Gaelic | Lewis[20] | Màiri | [ˈmaːðʲi] | 'Mary' | Slightly palatalized. Common Hebridean realisation of /ɾʲ/, standard or even phonemic in Lewis[21] and also common in Harris; otherwise realized as [ɹ̠ʲ] in Harris, Uist and Barra, [ɾʲ] in Skye,[22] as [ʒ] in southern Barra, or as [j] in Tiree. |
| Shughni | δud | [ðʊd] | 'smoke, fumes' | See Shughni phonology | |
| Sioux | Lakota | záptaŋ | [ˈðaptã] | 'five' | Sometimes with [z] |
| Swahili | dhambi | [ðɑmbi] | 'sin' | Mostly occurs in Arabic loanwords originally containing this sound. | |
| Swedish | Central Standard[23] | bräda | ⓘ | 'a board (object)' | Allophone of lenis /d/ in casual speech, may be realized closer to an approximant.[23] See Swedish phonology |
| Syriac | Western Neo-Aramaic | ܐܚܕ | [aħːeð] | 'to take' | |
| 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' | See Welsh phonology | |
| Zapotec | Tilquiapan[24] | [example needed] | Allophone of /d/ | ||
Dental approximant
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assyrian | ܘܪܕܐ / werda | [wεrð̞a] | 'flower' | Common in the Tyari, Barwari, and Western dialects. Corresponds to [d] in other varieties. | |
| Basque[25] | adar | [að̞ar] | 'horn' | Allophone of /d/ | |
| Kagayanen[26] | kalag | [kað̞aɡ] | 'spirit' | ||
| Luri | Haftlang Bakhtiari around Masjed Soleyman[27] | گده / gade | [ga.ð̞e] | 'stomach' | Allophone of /d/ after vowels and also word-finally after glides (/h/, /j/, /ʋ/). |
| Occitan | Gascon | que divi | [ke ˈð̞iwi] | 'what I should' | Allophone of /d/. See Occitan phonology |
| Spanish | Most dialects[28] | dedo | ⓘ | 'finger' | Allophone of /d/, ranges from close fricative to approximant.[29] See Spanish phonology |
Danish /ð/ is actually a velarized alveolar approximant.[30][31]