Voiceless dental fricative

The voiceless alveolar stop is a type of consonant. The letter for this sound in the International Phonetic Alphabet is ⟨θ⟩. The X-SAMPA symbol for this sound is ⟨T⟩. The English language has this sound, and it is the sound represented by the "th" in thing and thanks.

Voiceless dental fricative
θ
IPA Number	130
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	θ
Unicode (hex)	U+03B8
X-SAMPA	T

Features

• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic. This means that this sound is produced by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.
• The phonation is voiceless. This means that this sound 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.
• The place of articulation (where the sound is produced) is dental. This means that this sound is produced with the tongue at the upper teeth, the lower teeth, or both the upper teeth and the lower teeth. (Many stops and liquids that are called dental consonants are actually denti-alveolar consonants.)
• The manner of articulation (how the sound is produced) is fricative. This means that this sound is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, to make turbulence.

Examples

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning
Albanian		thotë	[θɔtə]	'says'
Arabic	Modern Standard[1]	ثَوْب	[θawb]	'a dress'
	Eastern Libya	ثِلاثة	[θɪˈlæːθæ]	'three'
	Sanaa, Yemen	يِثَمَّن	[jɪˈθæmːæn]	'it is priced'
	Iraq	ثمانْية	[θ(ɪ)ˈmæːnjæ]	'eight'
	Khuzestan, Iran[2]	الثانْية	[ɪθˈθæːnjæ]	'the second one'
Arapaho		yoo3on	[jɔːθɔn]	'five'
Assyrian		ܒܝܬܐ bèṭa	[beːθa]	'house'
Avestan		𐬑𐬱𐬀𐬚𐬭𐬀‎ xšaθra	[xʃaθra]	'kingdom'
Bashkir		дуҫ / duθ	[duθ]	'friend'
Berber		Ṯmaziɣṯ	[θmæzɪɣθ]	'Berber (language)'(noun)
Berta		[θɪ́ŋɑ̀]		'to eat'
Burmese[3]		သုံး / thon:	[θòʊ̯̃]	'three'
Catalan		theta	[ˈθetɐ]	'theta'
Cornish		eth	[ɛθ]	'eight'
Emiliano-Romagnol[4]		fâza	[ˈfaːθɐ]	'face'
English	Received Pronunciation[5]	thin	[θɪn]	'thin'
	Western American English		[θ̪͆ɪn]
Galician	Most dialects[6]	cero	[ˈθɛɾo]	'zero'
Greek		θάλασσα	[ˈθalasa]	'sea'
Gweno		[riθo]		'eye'
Gwich’in		thał	[θaɬ]	'pants'
Halkomelem		θqet	[θqet]	'tree'
Hän		nihthän	[nihθɑn]	'I want'
Harsusi		[θəroː]		'two'
Hebrew	Iraqi	עברית	[ʕibˈriːθ]	'Hebrew language'
	Yemenite		[ʕivˈriːθ]
Hlai	Basadung	[θsio]		'one'
Icelandic		það	[θaːð]	'that'
Italian	Tuscan[7]	i capitani	[iˌhäɸiˈθäːni]	'the captains'
Kabyle		ṯafaṯ	[θafaθ]	'light'(noun)
Karen	Sgaw	သၢ	[θə˧]	'three'
Karuk		yiθa	[jiθa]	'one'
Kickapoo		neθwi	[nɛθwi]	'three'
Kwama		[mɑ̄ˈθíl]		'to laugh'
Leonese		ceru	[θeɾu]	'zero'
Lorediakarkar		[θar]		'four'
Malay		Selasa	[θəlaθa]	'Tuesday'
Massa		[faθ]		'five'
Occitan	Gascon	macipon	[maθiˈpu]	'(male) child'
	Vivaro-Alpine	chin	[θĩ]	'dog'
Early Old French		améṭ	[aˈmeːθ]	'loved, beloved (masculine)'
Old Persian		𐏋 XŠ / xšāyaθiya	[xʃaːjaθija]	'Shah'
Saanich		TÁŦES	[teθʔəs]	'eight'
Sardinian	Nuorese	petha	[pɛθa]	'meat'
Shark Bay		[θar]		'four'
Shawnee		nthwi	[nθwɪ]	'three'
Sioux	Nakoda	ktusa	[ktũˈθa]	'four'
Spanish	European Spanish[8]	cazar	[käˈθ̪͆är]	'to hunt'
Swahili		thamini	[θɑˈmini]	'value'
Tanacross		thiit	[θiːtʰ]	'embers'
Toda		உஇனபஒத	[wɨnboθ]	'nine'
Turkmen		sekiz	[θekið]	'eight'
Tutchone	Northern	tho	[θo]	'pants'
	Southern	thü	[θɨ]
Upland Yuman	Havasupai	[θerap]		'five'
	Hualapai	[θarap]
	Yavapai	[θerapi]
Venetian	Eastern dialects	çinque	[ˈθiŋkwe]	'five'
Wolaytta		shiththa	[ɕiθθa]	'flower'
Welsh		saith	[saiθ]	'seven'
Yi		Ꙑ́ъюьа	[θɤjuja]	'million'
Zhuang		saw	[θaːu˨˦]	'language'
Zotung	Standard dialect of Lungngo	kacciade	[kəˈθʲaːðɛ]	'I go'

Notes

1. Thelwall (1990:37)
2. Versteegh (2001:159)
3. Watkins (2001:291–292)
4. Fig. 11 La zeta bolognese (in Italian)
5. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 143.
6. Regueira (1996:119–120)
7. Hall (1944:75)
8. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:255)

References

• Dalbor, John B. (1980), "Observations on Present-Day Seseo and Ceceo in Southern Spain", Hispania, 63 (1), American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese: 5–19, doi:10.2307/340806, JSTOR 340806
• Einhorn, E. (1974), Old French: A Concise Handbook, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-09838-6
• Hall, Robert A. Jr. (1944). "Italian phonemes and orthography". Italica. 21 (2). American Association of Teachers of Italian: 72–82. doi:10.2307/475860. JSTOR 475860.
• Hickey, Raymond (1984), "Coronal Segments in Irish English", Journal of Linguistics, 20 (2): 233–250, doi:10.1017/S0022226700013876, S2CID 145672742
• Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (2nd ed.), Blackwell
• Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-19815-4.
• Marotta, Giovanna; Barth, Marlen (2005), "Acoustic and sociolingustic aspects of lenition in Liverpool English" (PDF), Studi Linguistici e Filologici Online, 3 (2): 377–413, archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-02-25, retrieved 2022-02-24
• 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
• 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 (4): 203–216, doi:10.1159/000259344, S2CID 145316121
• Regueira, Xosé Luís (1996), "Galician", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 26 (2): 119–122, doi:10.1017/s0025100300006162, S2CID 241094214
• Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 20 (2): 37–41, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004266, S2CID 243640727
• Versteegh, Kees (2001), The Arabic Language, Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0748614363
• Watkins, Justin W. (2001), "Illustrations of the IPA: Burmese" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 31 (2): 291–295, doi:10.1017/S0025100301002122, S2CID 232344700
• Wells, John C (1982), Accents of English, vol. second, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-24224-X