Fricative - Definition and Overview

Fricative consonants are produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together (e.g. the upper teeth and lower lip in the case of [f], or the back of the tongue and the soft palate, as in the case of German [x], the final consonant of Bach). This turbulent airflow is called "frication." A particular subset of fricatives are the sibilants (sometimes referred to as stridents). When forming a sibilant, one still is forcing air through a narrow channel, but the air is directed over the sharp edge of the teeth. English [s, z, ʃ, ʒ] are examples of this.

List of fricatives

• [ɸ] voiceless bilabial fricative
• [β] voiced bilabial fricative
• [ʍ] voiceless labial-velar fricative
• [f] voiceless labiodental fricative
• [v] voiced labiodental fricative
• [θ] voiceless dental fricative
• [ð] voiced dental fricative
• [s] voiceless alveolar fricative
• [s'] alveolar ejective fricative
• [z] voiced alveolar fricative
• [ɬ] voiceless alveolar lateral fricative
• [ɮ] voiced alveolar lateral fricative
• [ʃ] voiceless postalveolar fricative
• [ʒ] voiced postalveolar fricative
• [ʑ] voiced alveolo-palatal fricative
• [ɕ] voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative
• [ʂ] voiceless retroflex fricative
• [ʐ] voiced retroflex fricative
• [ç] voiceless palatal fricative
• [ʝ] voiced palatal fricative
• [x] voiceless velar fricative
• [ɧ] voiceless dorso-palatal velar fricative
• [ɣ] voiced velar fricative
• [χ] voiceless uvular fricative
• [ʁ] voiced uvular fricative
• [ħ] voiceless pharyngeal fricative
• [ʕ] voiced pharyngeal fricative
• [ʢ] voiced epiglottal fricative
• [ʜ] voiceless epiglottal fricative
• [h] voiceless glottal fricative
• [ɦ] voiced glottal fricative

See English language#Consonants for a table of fricatives in English.

Ubykh may be the language with the most fricatives, with 26. This number actually outstrips the number of all consonants in English (which has 24 consonants).

See also

• manner of articulation
• list of phonetics topics
• affricate