Fricatives

1. Fricatives

2. 2. Fricatives Mechanism of sound production is simple: Air is passed through a narrow channel, creating turbulence. Turbulence = noise. When you look at white water on a river or stream you are looking at turbulence. (You can also hear this turbulence; this is the noise you hear when white water passes between boulders and whatnot.) All fricatives involve this turbulence-generating mechanism. English fricatives: Voiceless: [f] [θ] (“theory”) [s] [ʃ] (“shoe”) [h] Voiced: [θ] [ð] (“this”) [z] [ʒ] (“ZsaZsa”) All English fricatives except (maybe) [h] form voiced-voiceless cognates: [v]-[f] [ð]-[θ] [z]-[s] [ʒ]-[ʃ] For each pair: Same place, same manner, different voicing.

3. FRICATIVES • WEAK(not very loud)STRONG (comparatively loud) • (Slit Fricatives)` (Groove Fricatives) • [f] [v] [θ] [ð] [h][s] [z] [ʃ] [ʒ] • (constriction shape for (constriction shape • for weak fricatives) for strong fricatives) • Long flat constriction = More circular constriction = Inefficient noise generator Efficient noise generator • (noise is weak) (noise is strong)

4. [f]-[v]: Place = Labiodental (lips-teeth) Flat constriction (slit fricatives); flat (rather than round or grooved) constrictions produce a weak noise. No resonator in front of the constriction; spectrum has a pretty flat shape (no well-defined resonant peaks) [fɑ]: spectrum during [f] noise (flat) [vɑ]: Narrow band spectrum during [v] noise (flat, but with harmonics in the lows)

5. [θ]-[ð]: • Place = Linguadental (tongue-teeth) or interdental (linguadental & interdental are synonyms) • Flat constriction (slit fricatives); flat (rather than round or grooved) constrictions produce a weak noise • No resonator in front of the constriction; like [f] and [v], spectrum has a pretty flat shape (no well-defined resonant peaks) • NOTE: Place is always listed as linguadental/ interdental, but for [ð] in particular the tongue is often behind the top teeth; i.e., [ð] is more often dental than linguadental/interdental.

6. [s]-[z]: • Place = alveolar • Round-ish, grooved constriction; these produce a strong noise • Short resonator in front of the constriction formed by the lips; spectrum has a strong high-frequency peak. Why high freq? Short tubes have high-frequency resonances. [sɑ]-: spectrum during [s] noise (hi-freq peak) [z]: Spectrogram for [z] (not shown) is very similar, except that voicing (a glottal buzz) will be mixed in with the noise, just like [v] and [ð].

7. [ʃ]-[ʒ](also [sà] and [zà]; small wedge over [s]/[z] = hachek): • Place = Alveopalatal/Palatoalveolar/Prepalatal • Round-ish, grooved constriction; these produce a strong noise • Relative to [s]-[z]: Place further back and lips are rounded. Result: Longer resonator in front of the constriction; longer tubes have lower resonant freq’s. So, [ʃ]has more low freq energy than [s]; [ʒ] has more low freq energy than [z]. [sɑ]: More low freq energy for [ʃɑ]- than [sɑ]. Same deal for [ʒ] and [z]. [ʃɑ]:

8. [h]: • Place = Glottal (whisper) • Tongue, lips & jaw don’t have anything in particular to do in the production of [h] since it is a glottal articulation. • Since the vocal tract can do whatever it pleases during [h], the tongue, lips & jaw will take the position of the following vowel. • [h], then, is simply a whispered vowel: • he [hi]: [h] = whispered [i] • who [hu]: [h] = whispered [u] • hoe [ho]: [h] = whispered [o] . . • . . • . .

9. [ɦ]: • Voiced glottal fricative, which may seem impossible. • When /h/ (the slashes here are deliberate) occurs between two vowels, as in: • behind • behold • ahoy • The glottal fricative can be breathy (partially voiced) rather than whispered. In breathy voice, the glottis is simultaneously producing hiss and buzz. Phonetically, the resulting sound is called a voiced glottal fricative, though voicing (periodic) and hiss (aperiodic) elements from the glottis are mixed. The symbol is [ɦ].

10. [h] hoy [hi] spectrum during [h] – no harmonics [ɦ] ahoy [əɦi] spectrum during [ɦ] – note the harmonics