#fricatives

[janmisali]

best english fricative

/f/

/v/

/θ/ (th as in thin)

/ð/ (th as in then)

/s/

/z/

/ʃ/ (sh)

/ʒ/ (s as in casual)

/h/

/x/ (marginal; ch as in loch)

/ʍ/ (marginal; wh as in what)

[show results]

Voting ended onSep 6, 2024

[sevenswansinatrenchcoat]

Hey here's a fun question. Can you tell the difference between the sounds /f/ and /th/? If possible get someone to say three and free to you while you have your eyes closed and guess them.

I can always hear the difference

I can usually hear the difference

I can't usually hear the difference

I can never hear the difference

what are these sounds/see results

Voting ended onOct 10, 2023

I'll double check some facts but it's a neat regional feature that it you don't say the different sounds you probably can't hear the different sounds either

[tabgore]

fricatives (eric yip)

[eyelessseraphim]

what if instead of fricatives there were 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴atives and we made them by placing our articulators close together..

[asfaltics]

traffic, 4

  Logarithm, This is best Logistic, This (that) is not Mealtime, Very high Meantime, Very low   Obtrition, Yes Fricative, No   Curlypate, Hardly know-s what to do (with) Ornately, & Currencies, Hardly know-s what to think (about) Ornithon, &c.

—

ex “Words and Phrases,” The Traffic Telegraph Code for the transmission of telegrams in general business with secrecy and economy (New York: American Code Company, 1905)  

[lingthusiasm]

New Lingthusiasm Merch! Kiki/bouba scarves, "What the fricative" shirts, IPA backpacks, and more! 

A new round of Lingthusiasm merch is here! Lingthusiasm the podcast transforms your boring commute or chores into a lively, nerdy conversation, and we also help you wear your linguistics fandom on your sleeve, on your feet, and surrounding your notes!

Kiki and bouba on scarves, mugs, notebooks, and more!

If I give you a rounded, lumpy shape and a sharp, spiky one, and tell you that one is called kiki and the other bouba, which name would you attach to which shape? It turns out that people's responses are surprisingly consistent! This classic experiment in cross-modal perception featured in Lingthusiasm episode 21: What words sound spiky across languages?, has become a favourite subject of linguistics memes, and is now available as Lingthusiasm merch! 

You can now ask random people at a conference, in class, or at work which one is bouba and which is kiki, in black, red, green, yellow, pale blue, pink, or white. (We've also released the bouba/kiki images under a CC-BY license, should you wish to use it in linguistics experiments of your own.)

"What the fricative?" on t-shirts and more!

You know how some pieces of technical terminology just really sound like they moonlight as minor swear words? "What the fricative" totally looks like something you exclaim when you stub your toe, and yet it actually just refers to the entirely innocuous class of sound that is produced by creating friction with the stream of air as it comes out of your mouth, such as /s/, /z/, /v/, and yes, /f/ itself. Fricatives were featured in Lingthusiasm episode 58: A Fun-Filled Fricative Field Trip.

Now you can confuse people by not actually swearing and secretly give yourself an excuse to chat linguistics with them, thanks to our What the Fricative items in black or white text! (Is this your first time hearing about fricatives? We're going to have a whole episode about them next week, you're just finding out about this early because you're a patron!)

Our classic International Phonetic Alphabet print on backpacks, duffel bags, and phone cases!

The original merch item that started it all, our print with all of the characters of the IPA on it, is now available on more items beyond the scarves, socks, mugs, masks, and notebooks that you might already be familiar with!

The earlier merch is all still around, if you've been vaguely thinking about getting an IPA scarf, lingthusiasm logo sticker, NOT JUDGING YOUR GRAMMAR, JUST ANALYSING IT tote bag, or just having a browse. Check out our linguist-turned-artist Lucy Maddox’s website for more of her ridiculously charming work.

All of the Lingthusiasm merch makes a great gift for the linguist or linguistics fan in your life! Check out the merch page at lingthusiasm.com/merch for the previous rounds of Lingthusiasm merch.

As ever, we love seeing photos of any Lingthusiasm merch in your lives! Tag us in them @lingthusiasm on social media! 

[soyioblog]

Don't Stop the Flow: Turn Voiced Stops into Fricatives

https://www.soyioblogging.com/blog/don-t-stop-the-flow-turn-voiced-stops-into-fricatives

Sometimes when we first learn a language, we tend to over-enunciate our words. We start to understand more overt pronunciation characteristics but are unaware of the subtler nuances between sounds. In Spanish, the first thing you probably learned was the alphabet. At first, it seems like every sound in Spanish is represented by a letter or combination of letters. However, that is not the case. 

In Spanish and other languages, there are consonants that are pronounced differently depending on what sounds they are next to. In this case, we’re talking about how the Voiced Stops [b], [d] and [g] become Fricatives [β], [ð] and [ɣ]. This is a phonemic process known as Fricativization or Lenition, the weakening of a consonant. Those words may seem weird and scary, but it’s another important aspect of speaking Spanish that will help you sound more natural.

How and why does this happen? In casual speech, a fully pronounced [b], [d] or [g] between two vowels (or a consonant and a vowel) would disrupt the flow of an utterance because they are all Voiced Stops. Voiced Stops are Obstruents, sounds produced by obstructing airflow. To facilitate the transition from one sound to the next, the Stops must be weakened.

👄 Practice Lenition by reducing how you articulate [b], [d] and [g]. You can use these tips to turn your Stops into Fricatives:

[b] Voiced Bilabial Stop > [β] Voiced Bilabial Fricative: Reduce the amount of contact your lips make. Instead of letting the sound explode from your mouth, interrupt the airflow by only lightly putting your lips together before transitioning into the vowel. In other words, make a [b] sound that’s not a plosive.

[d] Voiced Dental Stop > [ð] Voiced Dental Fricative: In Spanish, d is dental rather than alveolar (pronounced on the back of your teeth instead of on the roof of your mouth). To weaken it, you have to move your tongue in-between your teeth. This will produce a sound similar to a lisp but continue to vibrate your vocal cords so that the consonant remains Voiced.

[g] Voiced Velar Stop > [ɣ] Voiced Velar Fricative: This one may prove to be more difficult than the others. [g] is a velar sound, meaning it is pronounced with the back of the tongue. I think it helps to imagine you're making the [h] sound, but deep in your throat.

Bonus: I found this neat video on YouTube by the channel Glossika Phonics titled "[ β ] voiced bilabial non-sibilant fricative"

[a-dizzle-dizzle]

I’ve been reading up on different types of lisps (yes, for fun), mostly because I couldn’t put a word to the way that Emma Stone talks.  I like Emma Stone (and I loved La La Land), but I just really needed a name for whatever she has going on. I’ve noticed this with others in my life - a former boss, another colleague, something with their /s/ sounds is just…off. I kept thinking it was like a lisp, but when you think of a lisp you think, “I’m tho thorry you didn’t like the prethent I got you for Chrithmith.”

So here’s what I found (taken from Wikipedia, though there were several other sources on this that provided an interesting read):

A frontal lisp occurs when the tongue is placed anterior of the target. Interdental lisping is produced when the tip of the tongue protrudes between the front teeth and dentalised lisping is produced when the tip of the tongue just touches the front teeth. The transcription in the International Phonetic Alphabet for interdental sibilants is [s̪͆] and [z̪͆] and for simple dental sibilants is [s̟] and [z̟]. When a fronted lisp does not have a sibilant quality, due to placing the lack of a grooved articulation, the IPA transcription would be [θ, ð] or variants thereof.

A lateral lisp is where the [s] and [z] sounds are produced with air-flow over the sides of the tongue. It is also called “slushy ess” or a “slushy lisp” due to its wet, spitty sound. The symbols for these lateralised sounds in the extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet for disordered speech are [ʪ] and [ʫ].

A nasal lisp occurs when part or the entire air stream is directed through the nasal cavity. The transcription for sibilants with nasal frication in the extensions to the IPA is [s͋] and [z͋]; simple nasal fricatives are [s̃] and [z̃].

A strident lisp results in a high-frequency whistle of hissing sound caused by stream passing between the tongue and the hard surface. In the extensions to the IPA, whistled sibilants are transcribed [s͎] and [z͎].

A palatal lisp is where the speaker attempts to make a sibilant while the middle of the tongue is in contact with the soft palate,[1] or with a posterior articulation of the sibilant. The latter may be transcribed [s̠] and [z̠], [ʃ] and [ʒ], or the like.

Who knew there were so many types? I believe, from reading and from what I remember of IPA, Emma Stone has either a dental lisp or a palatal lisp. I can’t decide exactly where her tongue is falling. I’m leaning toward the dental lisp.  The example I gave above (the Chrithmith prethent) is the standard interdental lisp, interdental being “between the teeth” and dental being actually on the teeth.

Aaaand…that’s what’s on my mind today. Carry on, Internet.