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Sibilant

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Sibilants(fromLatin:sībilāns:'hissing') arefricativeconsonants of higheramplitudeandpitch,made bydirectinga stream of air with the tongue towards theteeth.[1]Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of theEnglishwordssip,zip,ship,andgenre.The symbols in theInternational Phonetic Alphabetused to denote the sibilant sounds in these words are, respectively,[s][z][ʃ][ʒ].Sibilants have a characteristically intense sound, which accounts for theirparalinguisticuse in getting one's attention (e.g. calling someone using "psst!" or quieting someone using "shhhh!" ).

In thealveolarhissingsibilants[s]and[z],the back of the tongue forms a narrow channel (isgrooved) to focus the stream of air more intensely, resulting in a high pitch. With thehushingsibilants (occasionally termedshibilants), such as English[ʃ],[tʃ],[ʒ],and[dʒ],the tongue is flatter, and the resulting pitch lower.[2][3]

A broader category isstridents,which include more fricatives than sibilants such asuvulars.Sibilants are a higher pitched subset of the stridents. The English sibilants are:

  • /s,z,ʃ,ʒ,tʃ,dʒ/

while the English stridents are:

  • /s,z,ʃ,ʒ,tʃ,dʒ,f,v/

as/f/and/v/are stridents but not sibilants because they are lower in pitch.[4][5]

Be aware, some linguistics use the termsstridentsandsilibantsinterchangeably to refer to the greateramplitudeandpitchcompared to other fricatives.[6]

"Stridency" refers to theperceptualintensityof the sound of a sibilant consonant, orobstacle fricativesoraffricates,which refers to the critical role of the teeth in producing the sound as an obstacle to the airstream. Non-sibilant fricatives and affricates produce their characteristic sound directly with the tongue or lips etc. and the place of contact in the mouth, without secondary involvement of the teeth.[citation needed]

The characteristic intensity of sibilants means that small variations in tongue shape and position are perceivable, with the result that there are many sibilant types that contrast in various languages.

Acoustics[edit]

Sibilants are louder than their non-sibilant counterparts, and most of their acoustic energy occurs at higher frequencies than non-sibilant fricatives—usually around 8,000 Hz.[7]

Sibilant types[edit]

All sibilants arecoronal consonants(made with the tip or front part of the tongue). However, there is a great deal of variety among sibilants as to tongue shape, point of contact on the tongue, and point of contact on the upper side of the mouth.

The following variables affect sibilant sound quality, and, along with their possible values, are ordered from sharpest (highest-pitched) to dullest (lowest-pitched):

Generally, the values of the different variables co-occur so as to produce an overall sharper or duller sound. For example, a laminal denti-alveolar grooved sibilant occurs inPolish,and a subapical palatal retroflex sibilant occurs inToda.

Tongue shape[edit]

The main distinction is the shape of the tongue. Most sibilants have agrooverunning down the centerline of the tongue that helps focus the airstream, but it is not known how widespread this is. In addition, the following tongue shapes are described, from sharpest and highest-pitched to dullest and lowest-pitched:

  • Hollow (e.g.[s]): This hollow accepts a large volume of air that is forced through a typically narrow aperture that directs a high-velocity jet of air against the teeth, which results in a high-pitched, piercing "hissing" sound. Because of the prominence of these sounds, they are the most common and most stable of sibilants cross-linguistically. They occur inEnglish,where they are denoted with a lettersorz,as insoonorzone.[dubious–discuss]
  • Alveolo-palatal(e.g.[ɕ]): with a convex, V-shaped tongue, and highlypalatalized(middle of the tongue strongly raised or bowed).
  • Palato-alveolar(e.g.[ʃ]): with a"domed" tongue(convex and moderately palatalized). These sounds occur inEnglish,where they are denoted with letter combinations such assh,ch,g,jorsi,as inshin,chin,ginandvision.
  • Retroflex(e.g.[ʂ]): with a flat or concave tongue, and no palatalization. There is a variety of these sounds, some of which also go by other names (e.g. "flat postalveolar" or "apico-alveolar"). Thesubapicalpalatalor "true" retroflex sounds are the very dullest and lowest-pitched of all the sibilants.

The latter three post-alveolar types of sounds are often known as "hushing" sounds because of their quality, as opposed to the "hissing" alveolar sounds. The alveolar sounds in fact occur in several varieties, in addition to the normal sound of Englishs:

  • Palatalized:Sibilants can occur with or without raising the tongue body to the palate (palatalization). Palatalized alveolars are transcribed e.g.[sʲ]and occur inRussian;they sound similar to the cluster[sj]occurring in the middle of the English phrasemiss you.
  • Lisping: Alveolar sibilants made with the tip of the tongue (apical) near the upper teeth have a softer sound reminiscent of (but still sharper-sounding than) the "lisping"[θ]sound of Englishthink.These sounds are relatively uncommon, but occur in some of the indigenous languages ofCalifornia[8]as well as in theSpanishdialects of western and southernAndalucía(southwestSpain), mostly in the provinces ofCádiz,Málaga,SevillaandHuelva.In these dialects, the lisping sibilant[s̟](sometimes indicated in Spanishdialectologyas ⟨s̄⟩) is themost common pronunciationof the letterssandz,as well ascbeforeiore,replacing the[s]or[θ]that occur elsewhere in the country.[9]

Speaking non-technically, the retroflex consonant[ʂ]sounds somewhat like a mixture between the regular English[ʃ]of "ship" and a strong American "r"; while the alveolo-palatal consonant[ɕ]sounds somewhat like a mixture of English[ʃ]of "ship" and the[sj]in the middle of "miss you".

Place of articulation[edit]

Sibilants can be made at anycoronalarticulation, i.e. the tongue can contact the upper side of the mouth anywhere from the upper teeth (dental) to thehard palate(palatal), with the in-between articulations beingdenti-alveolar,alveolarandpostalveolar.

Point of contact on the tongue[edit]

The tongue can contact the upper side of the mouth with the very tip of the tongue (anapicalarticulation, e.g.[ʃ̺]); with the surface just behind the tip, called thebladeof the tongue (alaminalarticulation, e.g.[ʃ̻]); or with the underside of the tip (asubapicalarticulation). Apical and subapical articulations are alwaystongue-up,with the tip of the tongue above the teeth, while laminal articulations can be either tongue-up ortongue-down,with the tip of the tongue behind the lower teeth. This distinction is particularly important forretroflexsibilants, because all three varieties can occur, with noticeably different sound qualities. For more information on these variants and their relation to sibilants, see the article onpostalveolar consonants.

For tongue-down laminal articulations, an additional distinction can be made depending on where exactly behind the lower teeth the tongue tip is placed. A little ways back from the lower teeth is a hollow area (or pit) in the lower surface of the mouth. When the tongue tip rests in this hollow area, there is an empty space below the tongue (asublingual cavity), which results in a relatively duller sound. When the tip of the tongue rests against the lower teeth, there is no sublingual cavity, resulting in a sharper sound. Usually, the position of the tip of the tongue correlates with the grooved vs. hushing tongue shape so as to maximize the differences. However, the palato-alveolar sibilants in theNorthwest Caucasian languagessuch asUbykhare an exception. These sounds have the tongue tip resting directly against the lower teeth, which gives the sounds a quality that Catford describes as "hissing-hushing". Ladefoged and Maddieson[1]term this a "closedlaminal postalveolar "articulation, and transcribe them (following Catford) as[ŝ,ẑ],although this is not an IPA notation. See the article onpostalveolar consonantsfor more information.

Symbols in the IPA[edit]

The following table shows the types of sibilant fricatives defined in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet:

IPA signs for sibilants
Voiceless
IPA Description Example
Language Orthography IPA Meaning
voiceless alveolar sibilant English sip [sɪp] "sip"
voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant Mandarin Tiểu(xiǎo) [ɕjɑ̀ʊ̯] "small"
voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant English shin [ʃɪn] "shin"
voiceless retroflex sibilant Mandarin Thượng Hải(Shànghǎi) [ʂɑ̂ŋ.xàɪ̯] "Shanghai"
Voiced
IPA Description Example
Language Orthography IPA Meaning
voiced alveolar sibilant English zip [zɪp] "zip"
voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant Polish zioło [ˈʑɔwɔ] "herb"
voiced palato-alveolar sibilant English vision [ˈvɪʒən] "vision"
voiced retroflex sibilant Russian
Polish 		жаба
żaba 		[ˈʐabə]
[ˈʐaba] 		"toad"
"frog"

Diacritics can be used for finer detail. For example, apical and laminal alveolars can be specified as[s̺]vs[s̻];adental(or more likelydenti-alveolar) sibilant as[s̪];a palatalized alveolar as[sʲ];and a generic "retracted sibilant" as[s̠],a transcription frequently used for the sharper-quality types of retroflex consonants (e.g. the laminal "flat" type and the "apico-alveolar"type). There is no diacritic to denote the laminal" closed "articulation of palato-alveolars in theNorthwest Caucasian languages,but they are sometimes provisionally transcribed as[ŝẑ].

Possible combinations[edit]

The attested possibilities, with exemplar languages, are as follows. Note that the IPA diacritics are simplified; some articulations would require two diacritics to be fully specified, but only one is used in order to keep the results legible without the need forOpenTypeIPA fonts. Also,Ladefogedhas resurrected an obsolete IPA symbol, the under dot, to indicateapical postalveolar(normally included in the category ofretroflex consonants), and that notation is used here. (Note that the notations̠,ṣis sometimes reversed; either may also be called 'retroflex' and writtenʂ.)

IPA Tongue shape Place
of articulation
(mouth)		 Place
of articulation
(tongue)		 Exemplifying languages
[s̺̪z̺̪] hollow dental apical southeast EuropeanSpanishs/z,Kumeyaay
[s̪z̪] denti-alveolar laminal Polishs, z;Basquez, tz
[s̺z̺] alveolar apical northern peninsularSpanishs;
Basques, ts;
Mandarins, z, c(apical, dental or alveolar)
[sz] apical or laminal Englishs, z(alveolar, laminal or apical);
American or southwest EuropeanSpanishs/z
[s̻z̻] laminal Toda,Ubykh,Abkhaz
[ʃʒ] domed postalveolar apical or laminal Englishsh, ch, j, zh
and Frenchch, j([ʃʷʒʷ])
[ʃ̻ʒ̻] laminal Toda;Basquex, tx
[ɕʑ] palatalized Mandarinx, j, q;
Polishś, ć, ź, dź;
Ubykh;Abkhaz
[ŝẑ]1 hollow
(no cavity)		 Ubykh;Abkhaz
[s̠ẕ],
[ʂ̻ʐ̻]		 hollow or flat
(cavity under tongue)		 Polishsz, cz, ż, dż([ʂ̻ʷ,tʂ̻ʷ,ʐ̻ʷ,dʐ̻ʷ]);
Mandarinsh, zh, ch
[ʂʐ],
[ṣẓ],
etc.2		 hollow apical Ubykh;Abkhaz;
Kumeyaay; Toda;Russian
[ʂʐ] curled palatal(orpostalveolar?) subapical Toda

^1⟨ŝ ẑ⟩is an ad-hoc transcription. The old IPA letters⟨ʆ ʓ⟩are also available.

^2These sounds are usually just transcribed⟨ʂ ʐ⟩.Apical postalveolar and subapical palatal sibilants do not contrast in any language, but if necessary, apical postalveolars can be transcribed with an apical diacritic, as⟨s̠̺ z̠̺⟩or⟨ʂ̺ ʐ̺⟩.Ladefoged resurrects the old retroflex sub-dot for apical retroflexes,⟨ṣ ẓ⟩Also seen in the literature on e.g. Hindi and Norwegian is⟨ᶘ ᶚ⟩– the domed articulation of[ʃʒ]precludes a subapical realization.

Whistled sibilants[edit]

Whistled sibilants occur phonemically in several southern Bantu languages, the best known beingShona.However, they also occur in speech pathology and may be caused by dental prostheses or orthodontics.

The whistled sibilants of Shona have been variously described—aslabializedbut not velarized, as retroflex, etc., but none of these features are required for the sounds.[10]Using theExtended IPA,Shonasvandzvmay be transcribed⟨s͎⟩and⟨z͎⟩.Other transcriptions seen include purely labialized⟨s̫⟩and⟨z̫⟩(Ladefoged and Maddieson 1996) and labially co-articulated⟨sᶲ⟩and⟨zᵝ⟩(or⟨s͡ɸ⟩and⟨z͜β⟩). In the otherwise IPA transcription of Shona in Doke (1967), the whistled sibilants are transcribed with the non-IPA letters⟨ȿɀ⟩and⟨tȿ dɀ⟩.

Besides Shona, whistled sibilants have been reported as phonemes inKalanga,Tsonga,Changana,Tswa—all of which are Southern African languages—andTabasaran.The articulation of whistled sibilants may differ between languages. In Shona, the lips arecompressedthroughout, and the sibilant may be followed by normal labialization upon release. (That is, there is a contrast amongs, sw, ȿ, ȿw.) In Tsonga, the whistling effect is weak; the lips are narrowed but also the tongue isretroflex.Tswa may be similar. In Changana, the lips are rounded (protruded), but so in /s/ in the sequence /usu/, so there is evidently some distinct phonetic phenomenon occurring here that has yet to be formally identified and described.[11]

Linguistic contrasts among sibilants[edit]

Not including differences inmanner of articulationorsecondary articulation,some languages have as many as four different types of sibilants. For example,Northern QiangandSouthern Qianghave a four-way distinction among sibilant affricates/ts//tʂ//tʃ//tɕ/,with one for each of the four tongue shapes.[citation needed]Todaalso has a four-way sibilant distinction, with one alveolar, one palato-alveolar, and two retroflex (apical postalveolar and subapical palatal).[citation needed]

The now-extinctUbykh languagewas particularly complex, with a total of 27 sibilant consonants. Not only all four tongue shapes were represented (with the palato-alveolar appearing in the laminal "closed" variation) but also both the palato-alveolars and alveolo-palatals could additionally appearlabialized.Besides, there was a five-way manner distinction among voiceless and voiced fricatives, voiceless and voiced affricates, andejectiveaffricates. (The three labialized palato-alveolar affricates were missing, which is why the total was 27, not 30.)[citation needed]The Bzyp dialect of the relatedAbkhaz languagealso has a similar inventory.[citation needed]

Some languages have four types whenpalatalizationis considered.Polishis one example, with both palatalized and non-palatalized laminal denti-alveolars, laminal postalveolar (or "flat retroflex" ), and alveolo-palatal ([s̪z̪][s̪ʲz̪ʲ][s̠z̠][ɕʑ]).[citation needed]Russianhas the same surface contrasts, but the alveolo-palatals are arguably not phonemic. They occur only geminate, and the retroflex consonants never occur geminate, which suggests that both are allophones of the same phoneme.[citation needed]

Somewhat more common are languages with three sibilant types, including one hissing and two hushing. As with Polish and Russian, the two hushing types are usually postalveolar and alveolo-palatal since these are the two most distinct from each other.Mandarin Chineseis an example of such a language.[citation needed]However, other possibilities exist.Serbo-Croatianhas alveolar, flat postalveolar and alveolo-palatal affricates whereasBasquehas palato-alveolar and laminal and apical alveolar (apico-alveolar) fricatives and affricates (late Medieval peninsularSpanishandPortuguesehad the same distinctions among fricatives).

Many languages, such asEnglishorArabic,have two sibilant types, one hissing and one hushing. A wide variety of languages across the world have this pattern. Perhaps most common is the pattern, as in English and Arabic, with alveolar and palato-alveolar sibilants. Modern northern peninsularSpanishhas a singleapico-alveolarsibilant fricative[s̠],as well as a single palato-alveolar sibilant affricate[tʃ].However, there are also languages with alveolar and apical retroflex sibilants (such as StandardVietnamese) and with alveolar and alveolo-palatal postalveolars (e.g. alveolar and laminal palatalized[ʃʒtʃdʒ]i.e.[ʃʲʒʲtʃʲdʒʲ]inCatalanandBrazilian Portuguese,the latter probably through Amerindian influence,[12]and alveolar and dorsal i.e.[ɕʑcɕɟʑ]proper inJapanese).[13]

Only a few languages with sibilants lack the hissing type.Middle Vietnameseis normally reconstructed with two sibilant fricatives, both hushing (one retroflex, one alveolo-palatal). Some languages have only a single hushing sibilant and no hissing sibilant. That occurs in southern Peninsular Spanish dialects of the "ceceo"type, which have replaced the former hissing fricative with[θ],leaving only[tʃ].

Languages with no sibilants are fairly rare. Most have no fricatives at all or only the fricative/h/.Examples include mostAustralian languages,andRotokas,and what is generally reconstructed forProto-Bantu.Languages with fricatives but no sibilants, however, do occur, such asUkueinNigeria,which has only the fricatives/f,v,h/.Also, almost all EasternPolynesian languageshave no sibilants but do have the fricatives/v/and/or/f/:Māori,Hawaiian,Tahitian,Rapa Nui,mostCook Islands Māoridialects,Marquesan,andTuamotuan.

Tamilonly has the sibilant/ʂ/and fricative/f/in loanwords, and they are frequently replaced by native sounds. The sibilants[s,ɕ]exist as allophones of/t͡ɕ/and the fricative[h]as an allophone of/k/.

Contested definitions[edit]

Authors includingChomskyandHallegroup[f]and[v]as sibilants. However, they do not have the grooved articulation and high frequencies of other sibilants, and most phoneticians[1]continue to group them together withbilabial[ɸ],[β]and (inter)dental[θ],[ð]as non-sibilantanteriorfricatives. For a grouping of sibilants and[f,v],the termstridentis more common. Some researchers judge[f]to be non-strident in English, based on measurements of its comparative amplitude, but to be strident in other languages (for example, in the African languageEwe,where it contrasts with non-strident[ɸ]).

The nature ofsibilantsas so-called 'obstacle fricatives' is complicated – there is a continuum of possibilities relating to the angle at which the jet of air may strike an obstacle. The grooving often considered necessary for classification as asibilanthas been observed in ultrasound studies of the tongue for the supposedlynon-sibilantvoiceless alveolar fricative[θ̠]of English.[14]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^abcLadefoged & Maddieson 1996.
  2. ^이재욱; 이서호 (2019-01-25).한국인을 위한 전세계 100가지 영어 사투리 (영국 잉글랜드 북부 영어 Mancunian 사투리, Scouse 사투리 Yorkshire 사투리 편): 100 English Dialects in the World for Koreans British English Northern England English Mancunian Dialect, Scouse Dialect Yorkshire Dialect.TAX & LAW PRESS.ISBN979-11-88917-34-1.
  3. ^"Sibilance - Definition and Examples of Sibilance".Literary Devices.2014-02-14.Retrieved2021-06-29.
  4. ^Pennock-Speck, Barry; Valor, Maria Lluïsa Gea (2020-04-29).A Practical Introduction to English Phonology, 2nd. Edition.Universitat de València. p. 64.ISBN978-84-9134-600-5.Fricatives involve turbulent airflow caused by at least two articulators being closed together. There are two main kinds, sibilants, which are high-pitched fricative sounds, and non-sibilants, which have a low-pitched sound. The sibilants in English are /s, z, ʒ, ʃ, ʒ/. The non-sibilants are /f, v, θ, ð, h/.
  5. ^Koffi, Ettien (2021-04-20).Relevant Acoustic Phonetics of L2 English: Focus on Intelligibility.CRC Press.ISBN978-1-000-34009-9.
  6. ^Koffi, Ettien (2021-04-20).Relevant Acoustic Phonetics of L2 English: Focus on Intelligibility.CRC Press. p. 11.ISBN978-1-000-34009-9.A substet of consonants, the production of which includes some amount of frication, is assigned the feature [+sibilant]. These consonants are /s, z, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/. Some linguists also refer to them as stridents. The two terms are used interchangeably.
  7. ^"Tips For Controlling Vocal Sibilance".Pro Audio Files.2012-03-07.Retrieved2020-05-28.
  8. ^Bright 1978.
  9. ^Dalbor (1980);Obaid (1973).
  10. ^Shosted 2006
  11. ^Maddieson & Sands (2019). 'The Sounds of the Bantu Languages', in van de Velde et al. (eds)The Bantu Languages,2nd edition.
  12. ^(in Portuguese)Dialects of Brazil: the palatalization of the phonemes/t/and/d/Archived2013-12-03 at theWayback Machine.
  13. ^(in Portuguese)Análise acústica de sequências de fricativas e africadas por japoneses aprendizes de português brasileiro[permanent dead link],Universidade Federal do Paraná, page 1504
  14. ^Stone, M. & Lundberg, A. (1996).Three-dimensional tongue surface shapes of English consonants and vowels.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,vol.99(6), pp. 3728–3737

References[edit]

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