Sibilant consonant
From Academic Kids
A sibilant, or a strident fricative, is a type of fricative or affricate, made by speeding up air through a narrow channel and directing it over the sharp edge of the teeth.
Sibilants are louder than their non-sibilant counterparts, and most of their acoustic energy occurs at higher frequences than non-sibilant fricatives. Template:IPA has the most acoustic strength at around 8,000 Hz, but can reach as high as 10,000 Hz. Template:IPA has the bulk of its acoustic energy at around 4,000 Hz, but can extend up to around 8,000 Hz.
Of the sibilants, the following have IPA symbols of their own:
- [[voiceless alveolar fricative|]], [[voiced alveolar fricative|]] alveolar
- [[voiceless postalveolar fricative|]], [[voiced postalveolar fricative|]] palato-alveolar or postalveolar (actual articulation: domed postalveolar)
- [[voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative|]], [[voiced alveolo-palatal fricative|]] alveolo-palatal (actual articulation: laminal postalveolar)
- [[voiceless retroflex fricative|]], [[voiced retroflex fricative|]] retroflex (actual articulation: (a) apical postalveolar, or (b) sub-apical postalveolar/palatal)
Only the alveolar and postalveolar sibilants are distinguished in English. Polish has alveolo-palatals, and Mandarin has a retroflex series. Relatively few languages demonstrate three sets of sibilants or more, but Ubykh has four sets of plain sibilants, and the language of Qinan, in Shandong province, is said to have five sets.
Some authors, as for instance Chomsky & Halle (1964), group [ f ] and [ v ] as sibilants, whereas more recent works as for instance by Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), group them together with the bilabial fricatives [ [[voiceless bilabial fricative|]], [[voiced bilabial fricative|]] ] as non-sibilant anterior fricatives.
