Fricatives

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] (“Zsa Zsa”) 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.

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)

[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]: [vɑ] : spectrum during [f] noise (flat) Narrow band spectrum during [v] noise (flat, but with harmonics in the lows)

[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.

[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]  : [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]. spectrum during [s] noise (hi-freq peak)

[ʃ]-[ʒ]  (also  ; 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] : [ʃɑ] : More low freq energy for [ʃɑ]- than [sɑ]. Same deal for [ʒ] and [z].

[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]...

[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 ].

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