Voiceless dental fricative

The voiceless dental fricative is a type of consonant. The letter for this sound in the International Phonetic Alphabet is ⟨θ⟩. The X-SAMPA symbol for this sound is ⟨T⟩. The English language has this sound, and it is the sound represented by the "th" in thing and thanks.

Voiceless dental fricative
θ
IPA number	130
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	θ
Unicode (hex)	U+03B8
X-SAMPA	T

Features

• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic. It means that we produce this sound by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.
• Its phonation is voiceless. It means that we produce this sound without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
• We produce it at dental. It means that we produce this sound with the tongue at the upper teeth, the lower teeth, or both the upper teeth and the lower teeth. (Many stops and liquids that we say it is dental consonants are actually denti-alveolar consonants.)
• Its behavior is fricative. It means that we produce this sound by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, to make turbulence.

Examples

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning
Albanian		thotëcode: sq is deprecated	[θɔtə]	'says'
Arabic	Modern Standard	ثَوْبcode: ar is deprecated	[θawb]	'a dress'
	Eastern Libya	ثِلاثةcode: ar is deprecated	[θɪˈlæːθæ]	'three'
	Sanaa, Yemen	يِثَمَّنcode: ar is deprecated	[jɪˈθæmːæn]	'it is priced'
	Iraq	ثمانْيةcode: ar is deprecated	[θ(ɪ)ˈmæːnjæ]	'eight'
	Khuzestan, Iran	الثانْيةcode: ar is deprecated	[ɪθˈθæːnjæ]	'the second one'
Arapaho		yoo3oncode: arp is deprecated	[jɔːθɔn]	'five'
Assyrian		ܒܝܬܐ bèṭa	[beːθa]	'house'
Avestan		𐬑𐬱𐬀𐬚𐬭𐬀code: ae is deprecated xšaθra	[xʃaθra]	'kingdom'
Bashkir		дуҫ / duθcode: gah is deprecated	[duθ]	'friend'
Berber		Ṯmaziɣṯcode: ber is deprecated	[θmæzɪɣθ]	'Berber (language)'(noun)
Berta		[θɪ́ŋɑ̀]		'to eat'
Burmese		သုံးcode: my is deprecated / thon:	[θòʊ̯̃]	'three'
Catalan		thetacode: ca is deprecated	[ˈθetɐ]	'theta'
Cornish		ethcode: kw is deprecated	[ɛθ]	'eight'
Emiliano-Romagnol		fâzacode: egl is deprecated	[ˈfaːθɐ]	'face'
English	Received Pronunciation	thin	[θɪn]	'thin'
	Western American English		[θ̪͆ɪn]
Galician	Most dialects	cerocode: gl is deprecated	[ˈθɛɾo]	'zero'
Greek		θάλασσαcode: el is deprecated	[ˈθalasa]	'sea'
Gweno		[riθo]		'eye'
Gwich’in		thałcode: gwi is deprecated	[θaɬ]	'pants'
Halkomelem		θqetcode: hur is deprecated	[θqet]	'tree'
Hän		nihthäncode: haa is deprecated	[nihθɑn]	'I want'
Harsusi		[θəroː]		'two'
Hebrew	Iraqi	עבריתcode: he is deprecated	[ʕibˈriːθ]	'Hebrew language'
	Yemenite		[ʕivˈriːθ]
Hlai	Basadung	[θsio]		'one'
Icelandic		þaðcode: is is deprecated	[θaːð]	'that'
Italian	Tuscan	i capitanicode: it is deprecated	[iˌhäɸiˈθäːni]	'the captains'
Kabyle		ṯafaṯcode: kab is deprecated	[θafaθ]	'light'(noun)
Karen	Sgaw	သၢ	[θə˧]	'three'
Karuk		yiθa	[jiθa]	'one'
Kickapoo		neθwi	[nɛθwi]	'three'
Kwama		[mɑ̄ˈθíl]		'to laugh'
Leonese		ceru	[θeɾu]	'zero'
Lorediakarkar		[θar]		'four'
Malay		Selasacode: ms is deprecated	[θəlaθa]	'Tuesday'
Massa		[faθ]		'five'
Occitan	Gascon	macipon	[maθiˈpu]	'(male) child'
	Vivaro-Alpine	chin	[θĩ]	'dog'
Early Old French		améṭcode: fro is deprecated	[aˈmeːθ]	'loved, beloved (masculine)'
Old Persian		𐏋code: peo is deprecated XŠ / xšāyaθiya	[xʃaːjaθija]	'Shah'
Saanich		TÁŦES	[teθʔəs]	'eight'
Sardinian	Nuorese	pethacode: sc is deprecated	[pɛθa]	'meat'
Shark Bay		[θar]		'four'
Shawnee		nthwicode: sjw is deprecated	[nθwɪ]	'three'
Sioux	Nakoda	ktusa	[ktũˈθa]	'four'
Spanish	European Spanish	cazarcode: es is deprecated	[käˈθ̪͆är]	'to hunt'
Swahili		thaminicode: sw is deprecated	[θɑˈmini]	'value'
Tanacross		thiitcode: tcb is deprecated	[θiːtʰ]	'embers'
Toda		உஇனபஒதcode: tcx is deprecated	[wɨnboθ]	'nine'
Turkmen		sekizcode: tk is deprecated	[θekið]	'eight'
Tutchone	Northern	thocode: ttm is deprecated	[θo]	'pants'
	Southern	thücode: tce is deprecated	[θɨ]
Upland Yuman	Havasupai	[θerap]		'five'
	Hualapai	[θarap]
	Yavapai	[θerapi]
Venetian	Eastern dialects	çinquecode: vec is deprecated	[ˈθiŋkwe]	'five'
Wolaytta		shiththacode: wal is deprecated	[ɕiθθa]	'flower'
Welsh		saithcode: cy is deprecated	[saiθ]	'seven'
Yi		Ꙑ́ъюьа	[θɤjuja]	'million'
Zhuang		sawcode: za is deprecated	[θaːu˨˦]	'language'
Zotung	Standard dialect of Lungngo	kacciade	[kəˈθʲaːðɛ]	'I go'

References

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