Fricatives
Fricatives are consonants with the
characteristic that when they are produced,
the air escapes through a small passage and
makes a hissing sound
Place of articulation
alveolar
palato-
labio-
dental
glottal
alveolar dental
Voiceless, fortis
s
ʃ
f
θ
h
Voiced, lenis
z
ʒ
v
ð
• Fortis fricatives are said to be articulated with
greater force than the lenis ones and their
friction noise is louder.
• Fortis fricatives have the effect of shortening
the preceding vowel, as do fortis plosives.
• Lenis fricatives tend to be fully voiced only
when they occur between voiced sounds
s
and
z
/s/ and /z/ are alveolar fricative consonants
The soft palate is raised and the nasal resonator
is shut off. The tip and blade of the tongue make
a light contact with the alveolar ridge. The side
rims of the tongue are in a close contact with the
upper side teeth forming a short and narrow
channel, thus causing friction between the
tongue and the alveolar ridge.
Comparison
• In Estonian /s/ and /z/ are articulated nearer
to the teeth
• English /s/ is more energetic and /z/ is a
voiced consonant
sai
sigh
sein
sane
suu
Sue
söö
sir
The pronunciation of dis and re+s
/s/
/z/
disappoint
disappear
disinherit
disaster
disease
dissolve
re-sent
re-sign
resent
resign
ʃ and ʒ
• /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ palato-alveolar fricative
consonants
• The place of articulation is partly
palatal and partly alveolar. The tongue
is in contact with the area slightly
further back than that for /s/ and /z/
• The passage through which the air
escapes is slightly wider. Lips are
rounded
Spelling
•
•
•
•
•
/ʃ/
-sh
shape, wash,
endings ti+vowel education, association
endings ci+vowel musician, physician
Less common:
ch
machine, champagne
s
Michigan, Chicago
sure, insurance
/ʒ/
• s before endings with u or i: measure,
vision
• -ge endings in words of French origin:
beige, garage, rouge
She sells shells on the sea shore,
The shells she sells are seashells I’m sure,
For if she sells seashells on the seashore,
Then I’m sure she sells seashore shells.
Affricates
• ʧ and ʤ
• Affricates begin as plosives and end as fricatives
• They start with the closure and hold phase of /t/
and /d/ but instead of a rapid release with
plosion and aspiration the tongue moves to the
position of the fricatives /ʃ/ and /ʒ/
• So the plosive is followed immediately by fricative
noise
NB! we would not classify all sequences of plosive
+ fricative as affricates: e.g. k+f in the word
breakfast is not an affricate.
• The plosive and fricative must be homorganic
to be classified as affricates.
• ʧ and ʤ
are palato-alveolar affricate
consonants
• /ʧ/ is voiceless and fortis and /ʤ/ is
voiced and lenis
Spelling
•
•
•
•
/ʧ/
all
tch:
all t+ure:
most ch:
/ʤ/
all j: jam,
match, stretch, wretched
future, nature, feature
chin, punch, such,
job, major, BUT: Juan, Mojave
• all dge: judge, budge, bridge,
• some g before i: gin, imagine BUT: give
Practise the difference
CHIN
CHEER
CHOKE
CHAIN
GIN
JEER
JOKE
JANE
RICH
SEARCH
H
LARCH
RIDGE
SURGE
AGE
LARGE
Look out! He’s choking/joking.
The audience cheered/jeered at her speech.
It’s not a little fir tree, It’s a larch/large tree.
What happened to your chin/gin