Voiceless alveolar fricative

A voiceless alveolar fricative is a type of fricative consonant pronounced with the tip or blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (gum line) just behind the teeth. This refers to a class of sounds, not a single sound. There are at least six types with significant perceptual differences:

• The voiceless alveolar sibilant [s] has a strong hissing sound, as the s in English sin. It is one of the most common sounds in the world.
• The voiceless denti-alveolar sibilant [s̄] (an ad hoc notation), also called apico-dental, has a weaker lisping sound like English th in thin. It occurs in Spanish dialects in southern Spain (eastern Andalusia).
• The voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant [s̺], also called apico-alveolar or grave, has a weak hushing sound reminiscent of retroflex fricatives. It is used in the languages of northern Iberia, like Astur-Leonese, Basque, Castilian Spanish (excluding parts of Andalusia), Catalan, Galician and Northern Portuguese. A similar retracted sibilant form is also used in Dutch, Icelandic, some Southern dialects of Swedish, Finnish and Greek. Its sound is between [s] and [ʃ].
• The voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative [θ̱] or [θ͇], using the alveolar diacritic from the Extended IPA,^[1] is similar to the th in English thin. It occurs in Icelandic.
• The voiceless alveolar lateral fricative [ɬ] sounds like a voiceless, strongly articulated version of English l (somewhat like what the English cluster hl would sound like) and is written as ll in Welsh.

The first three types are sibilants, meaning that they are made with the teeth closed and have a piercing, perceptually prominent sound.

Voiceless coronal fricatives

	Dental	Denti- alveolar	Alveolar	Post-alveolar
				Retracted	Retroflex	Palato- alveolar	Alveolo- palatal
Sibilant	s̪	s̄	s͇	s̠	ʂ	ʃ	ɕ
Non-sibilant	θ		θ̠/θ͇/ɹ̝̊		ɻ̝̊

Voiceless alveolar sibilant

Voiceless alveolar sibilant
s
IPA number	132
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	s
Unicode (hex)	U+0073
X-SAMPA	s
Kirshenbaum	s
Braille
Sound
source · help

Voiceless laminal dentalized alveolar sibilant
s̪
s̟

Voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant
s̠
ṣ
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	s​̺
Unicode (hex)	U+0073 U+033A
Sound
source · help

The voiceless alveolar sibilant is a common consonant sound in vocal languages. It is the sound in English words such as sea and pass, and is represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet with ⟨s⟩. It has a characteristic high-pitched, highly perceptible hissing sound. For this reason, it is often used to get someone's attention, using a call often written as sssst! or psssst!.

The voiceless alveolar sibilant [s] is one of the most common sounds cross-linguistically. If a language has fricatives, it will most likely have [s].^[2] However, some languages have a related sibilant sound, such as [ʃ], but no [s]. In addition, sibilants are absent from Australian Aboriginal languages, in which fricatives are rare; even the few indigenous Australian languages that have developed fricatives do not have sibilants.

The voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant (commonly termed the voiceless apico-alveolar sibilant) is a fricative that is articulated with the tongue in a hollow shape, usually with the tip of the tongue (apex) against the alveolar ridge. It is a sibilant sound and is found most notably in a number of languages in a linguistic area covering northern and central Iberia. It is most well known from its occurrence in the Spanish of this area. In the Middle Ages, it occurred in a wider area, covering Romance languages spoken throughout France, Portugal, and Spain, as well as Old High German and Middle High German.

There is no single IPA symbol used for this sound. The symbol ⟨s̺⟩ is often used, with a diacritic indicating an apical pronunciation. However, that is potentially problematic in that not all alveolar retracted sibilants are apical (see below), and not all apical alveolar sibilants are retracted. The ad hoc non-IPA symbols ⟨ṣ⟩ and ⟨S⟩ are often used in the linguistic literature even when IPA symbols are used for other sounds, but ⟨ṣ⟩ is a common transcription of the retroflex sibilant [ʂ].

Often, to speakers of languages or dialects that do not have the sound, it is said to have a "whistling" quality, and to sound similar to palato-alveolar [ʃ]. For this reason, when borrowed into such languages or represented with non-Latin characters, it is often replaced with [ʃ]. This occurred, for example, in English borrowings from Old French (e.g. push from pousser, cash from caisse); in Polish borrowings from medieval German (e.g. kosztować from kosten, żur from sūr (contemporary sauer); and in representations of Mozarabic (an extinct medieval Romance language once spoken in southern Spain) in Arabic characters. The similarity between retracted [s̺] and [ʃ] has resulted in many exchanges in Spanish between the sounds, during the medieval period when Spanish had both phonemes. Examples are jabón (formerly xabón) "soap" from Latin sapō/sapōnem, jibia "cuttlefish" (formerly xibia) from Latin sēpia, and tijeras "scissors" (earlier tixeras < medieval tiseras) from Latin cīsōrias (with initial t- due to influence from tōnsor "shaver").

One of the clearest descriptions of this sound is from Obaid:^[3] "There is a Castilian s, which is a voiceless, concave, apicoalveolar fricative: The tip of the tongue turned upward forms a narrow opening against the alveoli of the upper incisors. It resembles a faint /ʃ/ and is found throughout much of the northern half of Spain".

Many dialects of Modern Greek have a very similar-sounding sibilant that is pronounced with a laminal articulation.^[4]

It occurs as the normal voiceless alveolar sibilant in Astur-Leonese, Castilian Spanish, Catalan, Galician, working-class Glaswegian English, northern European Portuguese, and some Occitan dialects. It also occurs in Basque and Mirandese, where it is opposed to a different voiceless alveolar sibilant, the more common [s]; the same distinction occurs in a few dialects of northeastern Portuguese. Outside this area, it also occurs in a few dialects of Latin American Spanish (e.g. Antioqueño, in Colombia), and in many dialects of Modern Greek (with a laminal articulation).

In medieval times, it occurred in a wider area, including the Romance languages spoken in most or all of France and Iberia (Old Spanish, Galician-Portuguese, Catalan, French, etc.), as well as in the Old and Middle High German of central and southern Germany.^[4] In all of these languages, the retracted "apico-alveolar" sibilant was opposed to a non-retracted sibilant much like English [s], and in many of them, both voiceless and voiced versions of both sounds occurred. In general, the retracted "apico-alveolar" variants were written ⟨s⟩ or ⟨ss⟩, while the non-retracted variants were written ⟨z⟩, ⟨c⟩ or ⟨ç⟩. In the Romance languages, the retracted sibilants derived from Latin /s/, /ss/ or /ns/, while the non-retracted sibilants derived from earlier affricates [t͡s] and [d͡z], which in turn derived from palatalized /k/ or /t/. The situation was similar in High German, where the retracted sibilants derived largely from Proto-Germanic /s/, while the non-retracted sibilants derived from instances of Proto-Germanic /t/ that were shifted by the High German sound shift. Minimal pairs were common in all languages. Examples in Middle High German, for example, were wizzen "to know" (Old English witan, cf. "to wit") vs. wissen "known" (Old English wissen), and weiz "white" (Old English wīt) vs. weis "way" (Old English wīs, cf. "-wise").

This distinction has since vanished from most of these languages:

• In most dialects of Spanish, the four alveolar sibilants have merged into the non-retracted [s].
• In French and most dialects of Portuguese, the four alveolar sibilants have merged into non-retracted [s] and [z], while in European Portuguese, most other Old World Portuguese variants and some recently European-influenced dialects of Brazil all instances of coda [s̺], voiced [z̺] before voiced consonants, were backed to [ɕ] [ʑ], while in most of Brazilian Portuguese this phenomenon is much rarer, being essentially absent in the dialects that conserved the most archaic Portuguese forms and/or had a greater indigenous and/or non-Portuguese European influence.
• In the remaining dialects of Portuguese, found in northern Portugal, they merged into the retracted [s̺] [z̺], or, as in Mirandese (which is, however, not a Portuguese dialect, but belongs to Asturian-Leonese), conserved the medieval distinction.
• In central and northern Spanish, the non-retracted [s] was fronted to [θ] after merging with non-retracted [z], while the retracted [s̺] remains.
• In German, most instances of [s̺] were fronted to [s], but some were backed to become [ʃ] (initially before a consonant; in many modern High German dialects, also non-initially before a consonant), postalveolar as in European and fluminense Portuguese.

Because of the widespread medieval distribution, it has been speculated that retracted [s̺] was the normal pronunciation in spoken Latin. However, it equally well could have been an areal feature inherited from the prehistoric languages of Western Europe, as evidenced by its occurrence in modern Basque.

Comparison with the Spanish apico-alveolar sibilant

The term "voiceless alveolar sibilant" is potentially ambiguous in that it can refer to at least two different sounds. Various languages of northern Iberia (e.g. Astur-Leonese, Catalan, Basque, Galician, Portuguese and Spanish) have a so-called "voiceless apico-alveolar sibilant" that lacks the strong hissing of the [s] described in this article but has a duller, more "grave" sound quality somewhat reminiscent of a voiceless retroflex sibilant. Basque, Mirandese and some Portuguese dialects in northeast Portugal (as well as medieval Spanish and Portuguese in general) have both types of sounds in the same language.

There is no general agreement about what actual feature distinguishes these sounds. Spanish phoneticians normally describe the difference as apical (for the northern Iberian sound) vs. laminal (for the more common sound), but Ladefoged and Maddieson^[5] claim that English /s/ can be pronounced apical, which is evidently not the same as the apical sibilant of Iberian Spanish and Basque. Also, Adams^[6] asserts that many dialects of Modern Greek have a laminal sibilant with a sound quality similar to the "apico-alveolar" sibilant of northern Iberia.

Some authors have instead suggested that the difference lies in tongue shape. Adams^[6] describes the northern Iberian sibilant as "retracted". Ladefoged and Maddieson^[5] appear to characterize the more common hissing variant as grooved, and some phoneticians (such as J. Catford) have characterized it as sulcal (which is more or less a synonym of "grooved"), but in both cases, there is some doubt about whether all and only the "hissing" sounds actually have a "grooved" or "sulcal" tongue shape.

Features

Features of the voiceless alveolar sibilant:

• 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.
• There are at least three specific variants of [s]:
  • Dentalized laminal alveolar (commonly called "dental"), which means it is articulated with the tongue blade very close to the upper front teeth, with the tongue tip resting behind lower front teeth. The hissing effect in this variety of [s] is very strong.^[7]
  • Non-retracted alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal. According to Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996) about half of English speakers use a non-retracted apical articulation.
  • Retracted alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue slightly behind the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal. Acoustically, it is close to laminal [ʂ] or (to a lesser extent) [ʃ].

• 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

Dentalized laminal alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Arabic	Gulf[8]	مسجد	[mɐˈs̪iːd̪]	'mosque'
Armenian	Eastern[9]	սար	[s̪ɑɾ]	'mountain'
Azerbaijani[10]		su	[s̪u]	'water'
Basque[11]		gauza	[ɡäus̪ä]	'thing'	Contrasts with an apical sibilant.[11]
Belarusian[12]		стагоддзе	[s̪t̪äˈɣod̪d̪͡z̪ʲe]	'century'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Belarusian phonology
Bulgarian[13]		всеки	[ˈvs̪ɛki]	'everyone'	Contrasts with palatalized form
Chinese	Mandarin[14][15]	三 sān	[s̪a̋n]	'three'	See Mandarin phonology
Czech[16]		svět	[s̪vjɛt̪]	'world'	See Czech phonology
English	Auckland[17]	sand	[s̪ɛnˑd̥]	'sand'	See English phonology
	Multicultural London[18]		[s̪anˑd̥]
French[19][20][21]		façade	[fäs̪äd̪]	'front'	See French phonology
Hungarian[22]		sziget	[ˈs̪iɡɛt̪]	'island'	See Hungarian phonology
Kashubian[23]
Kazakh[24]		сом	[s̪u̯ʊm]	'pure'
Kyrgyz[25]		сабиз	[s̪äˈbis̪]	'carrot'
Latvian[26]		sens	[s̪en̪s̪]	'ancient'	See Latvian phonology
Macedonian[27]		скока	[ˈs̪kɔkä]	'jump'	See Macedonian phonology
Mirandese					Contrasts seven sibilants altogether, preserving medieval Ibero-Romance contrasts.
Polish[7][28]		sum	[s̪um]	'catfish'	See Polish phonology
Romanian[29]		surd	[s̪ur̪d̪]	'deaf'	See Romanian phonology
Russian[30]		волосы	[ˈvo̞ɫ̪əs̪ɨ̞]	'hair'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic[31]		Slàinte	[ˈs̪ɫ̪äːn̪t̪ʰʲə]	'cheers'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatian[32][33]		сам sam	[s̪ȃ̠m]	'alone'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak		svet	[s̪vɛt̪]	'world'
Slovene[34]		svet	[s̪ʋéːt̪]	'world'	See Slovene phonology
Spanish	European[35]	estar	[e̞s̪ˈt̪är]	'to be'	Allophone of /s/ before dental consonants.[35] See Spanish phonology
Swedish[36]	Central Standard[37][38]	säte	[ˈs̪ɛːt̪e]	'seat'	Retracted in some southern dialects.[39] See Swedish phonology
Toda[40][41]		[kɔs̪]		'money'
Turkish[19][42]		su	[s̪u]	'water'	See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian[43]		село	[s̪ɛˈɫ̪ɔ]	'village'	See Ukrainian phonology
Upper Sorbian[44]		sowa	[ˈs̪ovä]	'owl'
Uzbek[45]		soat	[ˈs̪o̞æt̪]	'hour'
Vietnamese	Hanoi[46]	xa	[s̪äː]	'far'	See Vietnamese phonology

Non-retracted alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		сэ	[sa]	'I'
Arabic	Modern Standard[47]	جَلَسَ	[ˈdʒælæsɐ]	'to sit'	See Arabic phonology
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		sepa	[seːpaː]	'sword'
Bengali		রাস্তা	[raːst̪a]	'street'	See Bengali phonology
Burmese		[sə sá bjì]		'I am eating now'
Chinese	Cantonese	閃 sim2	[siːm˧˥]	'twinkle'	See Cantonese phonology
Dutch[48][49]		staan	[s̻t̻aːn̻]	'to stand'	Laminal; may have only mid-to-low pitched friction in the Netherlands.[48][49] See Dutch phonology
Estonian		sõna	['sɤnɑ]	'word'
English		sand	[sænd]	'sand'	See English phonology
Faroese		sandur	[sandʊɹ]	'sand'
Georgian[50]		სამი	[ˈsɑmi]	'three'
Hebrew		ספר	[ˈsefeʁ]	'book'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindi		साल	[saːl]	'year'	See Hindustani phonology
Icelandic[51][52]		segi	[ˈs̺ɛːjɪ]	'I say'	Apical.[51][52] See Icelandic phonology
Italian	Marked accents of Emilia-Romagna[53]	sali	[ˈs̺ʲäːli]	'you go up'	Palatalized apical;[53] may be [ʂ] or [ʃ] instead.[53] See Italian phonology
Japanese[54]		複数形 fukusūkē	[ɸɯkɯsɯːkeː]	'plural'	See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		сэ	[sa]	'I'
Korean		소 so	[so]	'ox'	See Korean phonology
Malay		satu	[satu]	'one'
Maltese		iebes	[eaˈbes]	'hard'
Marathi		सपाट	[səpaːʈ]	'flat'	See Marathi phonology
Occitan	Limousin	maichent	[mejˈsẽ]	'bad'
Persian		سیب sib	[sib]	'apple'	See Persian phonology
Portuguese[55]		caço	[ˈkasu]	'I hunt'	See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi		ਸੱਪ	[səpː]	'snake'
Spanish[56]	Latin American	saltador	[s̻al̪t̪aˈð̞o̞r]	'jumper'	See Spanish phonology and Seseo
	Canarian
	Andalusian
	Equatorial Guinean
	Philippine
Urdu		سال	[saːl]	'year'	See Hindustani phonology
Vietnamese[57]		xa	[saː˧]	'far'	See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian[58]		sâlt	[s̺ɔːt]	'salt'	Apical.[58]
Yi		ꌦ sy	[sɿ˧]	'die'

Retracted alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Asturian		pasu	[ˈpäs̺u]	'step'	Apical.
Basque[11][59]		su	[s̺u]	'fire'	Apical. Contrasts with a dentalized laminal sibilant.[11][59]
Catalan[60][61]	Most dialects	set	[ˈs̺ɛt̪]	'seven'	Apical. See Catalan phonology
	Some Valencian speakers[62]	peix	[ˈpe̠js̺ʲ]	'fish'	Normally transcribed as /ʂ/; realized as pre-palatal [ɕ] in Standard Catalan and Valencian.
	Some Valencian speakers[62]	patisc	[pɐ̞ˈt̪ɪ̝s̺ʲk]	'I serve'
English	Glasgow[63]	sun	[s̺ʌn]	'sun'	Working-class pronunciation, other speakers may use a non-retracted [s]
Galician		saúde	[s̺äˈuðe]	'health'	Apical.
Italian	Central Italy[64]	sali	[ˈs̠äːli]	'you go up'	Present in Lazio north of Cape Linaro,[64] most of Umbria[64] (save Perugia and the extreme south),[64] Marche and south of Potenza.[64]
	Northern Italy[65][66]				Apical.[67] Present in many areas north of the La Spezia–Rimini Line.[68][69] See Italian phonology
	Sicily[64]				Present south and west of a line drawn from Syracuse to Cefalù.[64]
Leonese		pasu	[ˈpäs̺ʊ]	'step'	Apical.
Low German[39]
Mirandese		passo	[ˈpäs̺u]	'step'	Apical. Contrasts with /s̪/.
Occitan	Gascon	dos	[d̻ys̺]	'two'	See Occitan phonology
	Languedocien		[d̻us̺]
Portuguese[55][70]	European, inland northern	cansaço	[kə̃ˈs̺äs̻u]	'weariness'	Apical. Contrasts with /s̻/. See Portuguese phonology
	European, coastal northern	cansaço	[kə̃ˈs̺äs̺u]		Merges with /s̻/. See Portuguese phonology
	Inland and southern capixaba	pescador	[pe̞s̺käˈd̻oχ]	'fisherman'	Realization of Portuguese coda sibilant, which may be postalveolars, depending on dialect
	Carioca do brejo	escadas	[is̺ˈkäd̻ɐs̺]	'stairs'
Spanish	Andean	saltador	[s̺äl̪t̪äˈð̞o̞ɾ]	'jumper'	Apical. See Spanish phonology and Seseo
	Castilian[56]
	Paisa region
Swedish	Blekinge[39]	säte	[ˈs̠ɛːte]	'seat'	See Swedish phonology
	Bohuslän[39]
	Halland[39]
	Scania[39]

Variable

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Danish[71][72][73]		sælge	[ˈseljə]	'sell'	Most often non-retracted apical, but can be dentalized laminal for some speakers.[71][72][73] See Danish phonology
Finnish[74]		sinä	[sinæ]	'you'	Varies between non-retracted and retracted.[74] See Finnish phonology
German	Standard[75]	Biss	[bɪs]	'bite'	Varies between dentalized laminal, non-retracted laminal and non-retracted apical.[75] See Standard German phonology
Greek[76]		σαν san	[sɐn]	'as'	Varies between non-retracted and retracted, depending on the environment.[76] See Modern Greek phonology
Norwegian	Standard Eastern[77]	sand	[sɑnː]	'sand'	Most often dentalized laminal, but can be non-retracted apical for some speakers.[77] See Norwegian phonology
Italian	Standard[78]	sali	[ˈsäːli]	'you go up'	Varies between dentalized laminal and non-retracted apical.[78] See Italian phonology
	Ticino[67]				Varies between dentalized laminal and non-retracted apical.[79] Both variants may be labiodentalized.[67] See Italian phonology

Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative

Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative
θ̠
θ͇
ɹ̝̊
IPA number	130 414
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	θ​̱
Unicode (hex)	U+03B8 U+0331
Sound
source · help

The voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative (also known as a "slit" fricative) is a consonantal sound. As the International Phonetic Alphabet does not have separate symbols for the alveolar consonants (the same symbol is used for all coronal places of articulation that are not palatalized), this sound is usually transcribed ⟨θ̠⟩, occasionally ⟨θ͇⟩ (retracted or alveolarized [θ], respectively), or ⟨ɹ̝̊⟩ (constricted voiceless [ɹ]).

Features

• 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. However, it does not have the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.

• Its place of articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.

• 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

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Dutch[80]		rood	[θ̠oːt]	'red'	One of many possible realizations of /r/; distribution unclear. See Dutch phonology
English	Australian[81]	Italy	[ˈɪ̟θ̠əɫɪi̯]	'Italy'	Occasional allophone of /t/.[81] See Australian English phonology
	Received Pronunciation[82]		[ˈɪθ̠əlɪi̯]		Common allophone of /t/.[82]
	Irish[83]		[ˈɪθ̠ɪli]		Allophone of /t/. See English phonology
	Scouse[84][85]	attain	[əˈθ̠eɪn]	'attain'
Icelandic[52][86]		þakið	[θ̠akið̠]	'the roof'	Laminal.[52][86] See Icelandic phonology
Italian	Bologna[67]	sali	[ˈθ̠äːli]	'you go up'	Laminal; a hypercorrective variant of /s/ for some young speakers. Either non-sibilant, or "not sibilant enough".[67] See Italian phonology

See also

• Voiceless corono-dentoalveolar sibilant
• Tongue shape
• Apical consonant
• Laminal consonant
• Index of phonetics articles

Notes

1. Pandeli et al. (1997), p. ?.
2. Maddieson (1984), p. ?.
3. Obaid (1973), p. ?.
4. Adams (1975), p. ?.
5. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. ?.
6. Adams (1975), p. 283.
7. Puppel, Nawrocka-Fisiak & Krassowska (1977:149), cited in Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:154)
8. Qafisheh (1977), pp. 2, 9.
9. Kozintseva (1995), p. 7.
10. Axundov (1983), pp. 115, 128-131.
11. Hualde, Lujanbio & Zubiri (2010:1). Although this paper discusses mainly the Goizueta dialect, the authors state that it has "a typical, conservative consonant inventory for a Basque variety".
12. Padluzhny (1989), p. 47.
13. Klagstad Jr. (1958), p. 46.
14. Lee & Zee (2003), pp. 109-110.
15. Lin (2001), pp. 17-25.
16. Palková (1994), p. 228.
17. Bauer & Warren (2004), p. 594.
18. "English speech services | Accent of the Year / sibilants in MLE". Retrieved 2 December 2015.
19. Adams (1975), p. 288.
20. Fougeron & Smith (1999), p. 79.
21. Grønnum (2005), p. 144.
22. Szende (1999), p. 104.
23. Jerzy Treder. "Fonetyka i fonologia".
24. Kara (2002), p. 10.
25. Kara (2003), p. 11.
26. Nau (1998), p. 6.
27. Lunt (1952), p. 1.
28. Rocławski (1976), pp. 149.
29. Ovidiu Drăghici. "Limba Română contemporană. Fonetică. Fonologie. Ortografie. Lexicologie" (PDF). Retrieved April 19, 2013.
30. Chew (2003), p. 67.
31. Lamb (2003), p. 18.
32. Kordić (2006), p. 5.
33. Landau et al. (1999), p. 66.
34. Pretnar & Tokarz (1980:21)
35. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 258.
36. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 171.
37. Engstrand (1999), pp. 140-141.
38. Engstrand (2004), p. 167.
39. Adams (1975), p. 289.
40. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 157.
41. Ladefoged (2005), p. 168.
42. Zimmer & Orgun (1999), p. 154.
43. S. Buk; J. Mačutek; A. Rovenchak (2008). "Some properties of the Ukrainian writing system". arXiv:0802.4198.
44. Šewc-Schuster (1984), pp. 22, 38 and 39.
45. Sjoberg (1963), p. 11.
46. Thompson (1987), pp. 8-9.
47. Thelwall (1990), p. 37.
48. Gussenhoven (1999), p. 75.
49. Collins & Mees (2003), p. 190.
50. Shosted & Chikovani (2006), p. 255.
51. Kress (1982:23–24) "It's never voiced, as s in sausen, and it's pronounced by pressing the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, close to the upper teeth – somewhat below the place of articulation of the German sch. The difference is that German sch is labialized, while Icelandic s is not. It's a pre-alveolar, coronal, voiceless spirant."
52. Pétursson (1971:?), cited in Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:145)
53. Canepari (1992), p. 73.
54. Okada (1991), p. 94.
55. Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91)
56. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:258)
57. Thompson (1959), pp. 458–461.
58. Sipma (1913), p. 16.
59. Hualde, J. Basque Phonology (1991) Routledge ISBN 0-415-05655-1
60. Carbonell & Llisterri (1992), p. 54.
61. Torreblanca (1988), p. 347.
62. Saborit (2009), p. 12.
63. Annexe 4: Linguistic Variables
64. Adams (1975), p. 286.
65. Adams (1975), pp. 285-286.
66. Canepari (1992), pp. 71-72.
67. Canepari (1992), p. 72.
68. Canepari (1992), p. 71.
69. Adams (1975), p. 285.
70. (Italian) Accenti romanze: Portogallo e Brasile (portoghese) – The influence of foreign accents on Italian language acquisition
71. Basbøll (2005), pp. 61 and 131.
72. Thorborg (2003:80). The author states that /s/ is pronounced with "the tip of the tongue right behind upper teeth, but without touching them." This is confirmed by the accompanying image.
73. Grønnum (2005:144). Only this author mentions both alveolar and dental realizations.
74. Suomi, Toivanen & Ylitalo (2008), p. 27.
75. Mangold (2005), p. 50.
76. Arvaniti (2007), p. 12.
77. Skaug (2003), pp. 130–131.
78. Canepari (1992), p. 68.
79. Canepari (1992), pp. 68 and 72.
80. Collins & Mees (2003:199). Authors don't say where exactly it's used.
81. Loakes & McDougall (2007), pp. 1445-1448.
82. Buizza (2011), pp. 16-28.
83. Hickey (1984), pp. 234–235.
84. Marotta & Barth (2005), p. 385.
85. Watson (2007), pp. 352-353.
86. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), pp. 144-145.

References

• Adams, Douglas Q. (1975), "The Distribution of Retracted Sibilants in Medieval Europe", Language, Linguistic Society of America, 51 (2): 282–292, doi:10.2307/412855, JSTOR 412855
• Arvaniti, Amalia (2007), "Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art" (PDF), Journal of Greek Linguistics, 8: 97–208, doi:10.1075/jgl.8.08arv
• Axundov, Ağamusa (1983), Azərbaycan dilinin fonetikasi, Baku
• Alan Yates. "Teach Yourself Catalan."
• Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, ISBN 0-203-97876-5
• Bauer, Laurie; Warren, Paul (2004), "New Zealand English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive, A handbook of varieties of English, 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 580–602, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
• Bertinetto, Marco; Loporcaro, Michele (2005), "The sound pattern of Standard Italian, as compared with the varieties spoken in Florence, Milan and Rome", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 35 (2): 131–151, doi:10.1017/S0025100305002148
• Buizza, Emanuela (2011), "Frication and affrication of /t/ in RP English", Language at the University of Essex (LangUE) 2010 Proceedings (PDF), pp. 16–28
• Canepari, Luciano (1992), Il MªPi – Manuale di pronuncia italiana [Handbook of Italian Pronunciation] (in Italian), Bologna: Zanichelli, ISBN 88-08-24624-8
• Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618
• Chew, Peter A. (2003), A computational phonology of Russian, Universal Publishers
• Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2003), The Phonetics of English and Dutch, Fifth Revised Edition (PDF), ISBN 9004103406
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223
• Engstrand, Olle (2004), Fonetikens grunder (in Swedish), Lund: Studenlitteratur, ISBN 91-44-04238-8
• Engstrand, Olle (1999), "Swedish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 140–142, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
• Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1999), "French", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
• Grønnum, Nina (2005), Fonetik og fonologi, Almen og Dansk (3rd ed.), Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, ISBN 87-500-3865-6
• Gussenhoven, Carlos (1999), "Dutch", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 74–77, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
• Hickey, Raymond (1984), "Coronal Segments in Irish English", Journal of Linguistics, 20 (2): 233–250, doi:10.1017/S0022226700013876
• Honeybone, P (2001), "Lenition inhibition in Liverpool English", English Language and Linguistics, 5 (2): 213–249, doi:10.1017/S1360674301000223
• Hualde, José Ignacio; Lujanbio, Oihana; Zubiri, Juan Joxe (2010), "Goizueta Basque" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 40 (1): 113–127, doi:10.1017/S0025100309990260
• Kara, Dávid Somfai (2002), Kazak, Lincom Europa, ISBN 9783895864704
• Kara, Dávid Somfai (2003), Kyrgyz, Lincom Europa, ISBN 3895868434
• Klagstad Jr., Harold L. (1958), The Phonemic System of Colloquial Standard Bulgarian, American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages, pp. 42–54, JSTOR 304696
• Kordić, Snježana (2006), Serbo-Croatian, Languages of the World/Materials; 148, Munich & Newcastle: Lincom Europa, ISBN 3-89586-161-8
• Kozintseva, Natalia (1995), Modern Eastern Armenian, Lincom Europa, ISBN 3895860352
• Kress, Bruno (1982), Isländische Grammatik, VEB Verlag Enzyklopädie Leipzig
• Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.), Blackwell
• Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19814-8.
• Lamb, William (2003), Scottish Gaelic (2nd ed.), Lincom Europa, p. 118, ISBN 3-89586-727-6
• Landau, Ernestina; Lončarić, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66–69, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
• Lee, Wai-Sum; Zee, Eric (2003), "Standard Chinese (Beijing)", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 109–112, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001208
• Lin, Hua (2001), A Grammar of Mandarin Chinese, Lincom Europa, ISBN 3-89586-642-3
• Loakes, Deborah; McDougall, Kirsty (2007), Frication of Australian English /p t k/: Group Tendencies and Individual Differences (PDF)
• Lunt, Horace G. (1952), Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language, Skopje
• Maddieson, Ian (1984), Patterns of sound, Cambridge University Press
• Mangold, Max (2005), Das Aussprachewörterbuch, Duden, ISBN 9783411040667
• Marotta, Giovanna; Barth, Marlen (2005), "Acoustic and sociolingustic aspects of lenition in Liverpool English" (PDF), Studi Linguistici e Filologici Online, 3 (2): 377–413
• Martin Harris and Nigel Vincent. The Romance Languages.
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
• Nau, Nicole (1998), Latvian, Lincom Europa, ISBN 3-89586-228-2
• Qafisheh, Hamdi A. (1977), A short reference grammar of Gulf Arabic, Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press, ISBN 0-8165-0570-5
• Obaid, Antonio H. (1973), "The Vagaries of the Spanish 'S'", Hispania, American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, 56 (1): 60–67, doi:10.2307/339038, JSTOR 339038
• Okada, Hideo (1991), "Phonetic Representation:Japanese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 21 (2): 94–97, doi:10.1017/S002510030000445X
• Padluzhny, Ped (1989), Fanetyka belaruskai litaraturnai movy, ISBN 5-343-00292-7
• Palková, Zdena (1994), Fonetika a fonologie češtiny, ISBN 978-8070668436
• Pandeli, H; Eska, J; Ball, Martin; Rahilly, J (1997), "Problems of phonetic transcription: the case of the Hiberno-English slit-t", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 27 (1–2): 65–75, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005430
• Pétursson, Magnus (1971), "Étude de la réalisation des consonnes islandaises þ, ð, s, dans la prononciation d'un sujet islandais à partir de la radiocinématographie", Phonetica, 33: 203–216, doi:10.1159/000259344
• Pretnar, Tone; Tokarz, Emil (1980), Slovenščina za Poljake: Kurs podstawowy języka słoweńskiego, Katowice: Uniwersytet Śląski
• Puppel, Stanisław; Nawrocka-Fisiak, Jadwiga; Krassowska, Halina (1977), A handbook of Polish pronunciation for English learners, Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe
• Recasens, Daniel; Pallarès, Maria Dolores (2001), "Coarticulation, Assimilation and Blending in Catalan Consonant Clusters", Journal of Phonetics, 29 (3): 273–301, doi:10.1006/jpho.2001.0139
• Rocławski, Bronisław (1976), Zarys fonologii, fonetyki, fonotaktyki i fonostatystyki współczesnego języka polskiego, Wydawnictwo Uczelniane Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego
• Saborit, Josep (2009), Millorem la pronúncia (in Catalan), Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
• Shosted, Ryan K.; Chikovani, Vakhtang (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (2): 255–264, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659
• Sipma, Pieter (1913), Phonology & grammar of modern West Frisian, London: Oxford University Press
• Sjoberg, Andrée F. (1963), Uzbek Structural Grammar, Uralic and Altaic Series, 18, Bloomington: Indiana University
• Skaug, Ingebjørg (2003) [First published 1996], Norsk språklydlære med øvelser (3rd ed.), Oslo: Cappelen Akademisk Forlag AS, ISBN 82-456-0178-0
• Šewc-Schuster, Hinc (1984), Gramatika hornjo-serbskeje rěče, Budyšin: Ludowe nakładnistwo Domowina
• Suomi, Kari; Toivanen, Juhani; Ylitalo, Riikka (2008), Finnish sound structure, ISBN 978-951-42-8983-5
• Szende, Tamás (1999), "Hungarian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 104–107, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
• Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 20 (2): 37–41, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004266
• Thompson, Laurence (1959), "Saigon phonemics", Language, 35 (3): 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232
• Thompson, Laurence C. (1987), A Vietnamese Reference Grammar, ISBN 0-8248-1117-8
• Thorborg, Lisbet (2003), Dansk udtale - øvebog, Forlaget Synope, ISBN 87-988509-4-6
• Torreblanca, Máximo (1988), "Latín Basium, Castellano Beso, Catalán Bes, Portugués Beijo", Hispanic Review, University of Pennsylvania Press, 56 (3): 343–348, doi:10.2307/474023, JSTOR 474023
• Vijūnas, Aurelijus (2010), "The Proto-Indo-European Sibilant */s/", Historische Sprachforschung, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 123: 40–55, ISSN 0935-3518
• Watson, Kevin (2007), "Liverpool English" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (3): 351–360, doi:10.1017/s0025100307003180
• Zimmer, Karl; Orgun, Orhan (1999), "Turkish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet (PDF), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 154–158, ISBN 0-521-65236-7