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IPA – number	132
IPA – text	s
IPA – image
Entity	s
X-SAMPA	s
Kirshenbaum	s
Sound sample (help·info)

The voiceless alveolar fricatives are consonantal sounds. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents these sounds depends on whether a sibilant or non-sibilant fricative is being described.

• The symbol for the alveolar sibilant is s, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is s. The IPA symbol [s] is not normally used for dental or postalveolar sibilants unless modified by a diacritic ([s̪] and [s̠] respectively).
• The IPA symbol for the alveolar non-sibilant fricative is derived by means of diacritics; it can be θ̠ or ɹ̝̊, or it can be [θ͇], using the alveolar diacritic from the Extended IPA. ^[1]

Coronal fricatives

	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar
				retroflex	palato- alveolar	alveolo- palatal
sibilant	s̪	s͇	s̠	ʂ	ʃ	ɕ
non-sibilant	θ	θ̠/θ͇/ɹ̝̊		ɻ̝̊

Contents 1 Voiceless alveolar sibilant 1.1 Features 1.2 Occurrence 2 Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative 2.1 Features 2.2 Occurrence 3 See also 4 References 5 Bibliography

The voiceless alveolar sibilant is one of the most common consonants. If a language has fricatives, it will most likely have an [s].^[2] However, [s] is absent from Australian Aboriginal languages, where fricatives are rare, and the few languages that have developed fricatives do not have sibilants.

Features of the voiceless alveolar sibilant:

• Its manner of articulation is sibilant fricative, which means it is produced by directing air flow through a groove in the tongue at the place of articulation and directing it over the sharp edge of the teeth, causing high-frequency turbulence.
• Its place of articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
• Its phonation type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

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

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Basque		zu	[s̻u]	'you'
		su	[s̺u]	'fire'
Burmese		?	[sə sá bjì]	'I am eating now'
Catalan[3]		sis	[sis]	'six'	See Catalan phonology
Czech		svět	[svjɛt]	'world'	See Czech phonology
Dutch		steen	[sten]	'stone'	See Dutch phonology
English		sand	[sænd]	'sand'	See English phonology
Faroese		sandur	[sandʊɹ]	'sand'
Finnish		sinä	[sinæ]	'you (sg.)	See Finnish phonology
French		façade	[fasad]	'front'	See French phonology
Galician		tres	[tɾes̺]	'three'
German		Biss	[bɪs]	'bite'	See German phonology
Greek		σαν	[s̺an]	'as'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hungarian		sziget	[sigɛt]	'island'	See Hungarian phonology
Japanese		複数形/fukusūkē	[ɸɯkɯsɯːkeː]	'plural'	See Japanese phonology
Norwegian		sand	[sɑn]	'sand'	See Norwegian phonology
Occitan	Gascon	dos	[dys̺]	'two'
	Languedocien		[dus̺]
	Limousin	maichent	[mejˈsẽ]	'bad'
Spanish[4]	Latin American	saltador	[s̻al̪t̪aˈð̞o̞ɾ]	'jumper'	See Spanish phonology and seseo.
	Peninsular		[s̺al̪t̪aˈð̞o̞ɾ]
Turkish		su	[su]	'water'	See Turkish phonology

The features of the voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative are identical to those above, except that,

• Its manner of articulation is simple fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence, but without the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
English	Scouse[5]	attain	[əˈθ̠eɪn]	'attain'	Allophone of /t/ See English phonology
Icelandic		þakið	[θ̠akið̠]	'roof'	See Icelandic phonology

• Apical consonant
• Laminal consonant
• List of phonetics topics

• Honeybone, P (2001), "Lenition inhibition in Liverpool English", English Language and Linguistics 5 (2): 213-249
• Maddieson, Ian (1984), Patterns of Sound, Camebridge University Press
• Marotta, Giovanna & Marlen Barth (2005), "Acoustic and sociolingustic aspects of lenition in Liverpool English", Studi Linguistici e Filologici Online 3 (2): 377-413
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Ana Ma. Fernández-Planas & Josefina Carrera-Sabaté (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255-259
• Pandeli, H; J Eska & Martin Ball et al., "Problems of phonetic transcription: the case of the Hiberno-English slit-t", Journal of the International Phonetic Association'' 27: 65-75
• Recansens, Daniel & Maria Dolores Pallarès (2001), "Coarticulation, Assimilation and Blending in Catalan Consonant Clusters", Journal of Phonetics 29 (3): 273-301

Consonants (List, table)	See also: IPA, Vowels
Pulmonics Bilabial Lab'den. Dental Alveolar Postalv. Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn. Epiglottal Glottal Non-pulmonics and other symbols Nasals m ɱ n̪ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ Clicks  ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ Plosives p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Implo­­sives  ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ Fricatives  ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Ejec­­tives  pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ sʼ Approximants  β̞ ʋ ð̞ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Other laterals  ɺ ɫ Trills ʙ r • ʀ • Co-articulated approximants  ʍ w ɥ Flaps & Taps • ѵ ɾ ɽ • Co-articulated fricatives  ɕ ʑ ɧ Lat. Fricatives ɬ ɮ • • • Affricates  ʦ ʣ ʧ ʤ Lat. Appr'mants l ɭ ʎ ʟ Co-articulated stops  k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m
This page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged impossible.