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Voiceless retroflex sibilant
ʂ
IPA number 136
Encoding
Entity (decimal) ʂ
Unicode (hex) U+0282
X-SAMPA s`
Kirshenbaum s.
Braille ⠲ (braille pattern dots-256) ⠎ (braille pattern dots-234)
Sound

The voiceless retroflex sibilant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʂ⟩. Like all the retroflex consonants, the IPA letter is formed by adding a rightward-pointing hook to the bottom of the ess (the letter used for the corresponding alveolar consonant). A distinction can be made between laminal, apical, and sub-apical articulations. Only one language Toda, appears to have more than one voiceless retroflex sibilant, and it distinguishes subapical palatal from apical postalveolar retroflex sibilants; that is, both the tongue articulation and the place of contact on the roof of the mouth are different.

Contents

Features[edit]

Features of the voiceless retroflex fricative:

  • Its manner of articulation is sibilant fricative, which means it is generally produced by channeling air flow along a groove in the back of the tongue up to the place of articulation, at which point it is focused against the sharp edge of the nearly clenched teeth, causing high-frequency turbulence.
  • Its place of articulation is retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical sub-apical articulation, the tongue contact can be apical (pointed) or laminal (flat).
  • Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
  • It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
  • It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
  • The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence[edit]

In the following transcriptions, diacritics may be used to distinguish between apical [ʂ̺] and laminal [ʂ̻].

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Abkhaz амш [amʂ] 'day' See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe пшъашъэ About this sound [pʂaːʂa]  'girl'
Chinese Mandarin shí [ʂ̺ɻ̩˧˥] 'stone' Laminal. See Mandarin phonology
English Many dialects
[citation needed]
print [pʂɹɪnt] 'print' More often post-alveolar or alveolar, often also labialized. Quick sequence [ʂɹ] is an allophone of /r/ after aspirated /p/ and /k/ in dialects that realize /r/ as a retroflex, postalveolar or alveolar approximant. For some speakers, particularly in fast speech, [ɹ] can be completely deleted (e.g. [pʂɪnt]).
Faroese rs [fʊʂ] 'eighty'
Malayalam കഷ്ടി [käʂʈi] 'scarce'
Norwegian forsamling [fɔʂɑmːlɪŋ][stress?] 'gathering' Allophone of the sequence /ɾs/ in many dialects, including Standard Eastern Norwegian. See Norwegian phonology
Pashto Southern dialect ښودل [ʂ̺odəl] 'to show'
Polish[1] szum About this sound [ʂ̻um]  'rustle' Transcribed /ʃ/ by most Polish scholars. See Polish phonology
Russian[1] шут [ʂut̪] 'jester' Apical. See Russian phonology
Sicilian strata [ˈʂːaːta] 'street'
Slovak[2] šatka [ˈʂatka] 'kerchief'
Swedish fors [fɔʂ] 'rapids' Allophone of the sequence /rs/ in many dialects, including Central Standard Swedish. See Swedish phonology
Telugu అభిలాషి [ʌbʱilaːʂi] 'person who wishes'
Toda[3] [pɔʂ] (clan name) Subapical
Torwali[4] ? [ʂeʂ] 'thin rope'
Ubykh [ʂ̺a] 'head' See Ubykh phonology
Vietnamese Southern dialects[5] sữa [ʂɨə˧ˀ˥] 'milk' See Vietnamese phonology
Yi shy [ʂ̺ɿ̄˧] 'gold'
Zapotec Tilquiapan[6] [example needed] Allophone of /ʃ/ before [a] and [u].

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]


Original courtesy of Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_retroflex_sibilant — Please support Wikipedia.
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