Fricative
From KneeQuickie
A fricative is a consonant made by partially blocking the airflow, but not forming a complete stop, thus causing friction in the mouth. Fricatives were formerly called spirants, as the difference between a fricative and a stop is that the airflow is not completely blocked for fricatives, so the breath continues. The term "spirant" is now often restricted to fricatives that are not sibilants.
The majority of fricatives are central and oral, but lateral and nareal fricatives also exist.
Nearly all natlangs contain fricatives, although many Australian and Dravidian languages, as well as the Indo-European language Baluchi, lack them entirely. Unvoiced fricatives are more common than voiced ones, although languages with no phonemic voicing distinction for fricatives often assimilate the voicedness of the fricative to that of the surrounding sounds. The most common fricative phoneme is /s/, with /f/ and /x/ also being common.
The IPA has symbols for the following fricatives (each pair are given in the order unvoiced then voiced):
| IPA | X-Sampa | |
| Bilabial | /ɸ β/ | /p\ B/ |
| Labiodental | /f v/ | /f v/ |
| Dental | /θ ð/ | /T D/ |
| Alveolar | /s z/ | /s z/ |
| Post-alveolar | /ʃ ʒ/ | /S Z/ |
| Retroflex | /ʂ ʐ/ | /s` z`/ |
| Alveolo-palatal | /ɕ ʑ/ | /s\ z\/ |
| Palatal | /ç ʝ/ | /C j\/ |
| Velar | /x ɣ/ | /x G/ |
| Uvular | /χ ʁ/ | /X R/ |
| Pharyngeal | /ħ ʕ/ | /X\ ?\/ |
| Epiglottal | /ʜ ʢ/ | /H\ <\/ |
Unvoiced labiovelar fricative: /ʍ/ (X-Sampa /W/)
Alveolar lateral fricatives: /ɬ/ and /ɮ/ (X-Sampa /K/ and /K\/)
Z-Sampa additionally has symbols for palatal, velar and uvular lateral fricatives, and for bidental fricatives, which do not have symbols in the IPA or X-Sampa:
- Palatal lateral fricatives: /C\ 6\/
- Velar lateral fricatives: /F\ V\/
- Uvular lateral fricatives: /q\ Q\/
- Bidental fricatives: /h_t\ h\_t\/
Nareal fricatives do not have symbols in X-Sampa, but are written in Z-Sampa with the symbol for the nasal followed by the diacritic _: (for instance, the bilabial nareal fricative is /m_:/).
The sounds /h/ and /ɦ/ (see glottal fricative) are often, but not always, considered to be fricatives.
