Voiceless bidental fricative

The voiceless bidental fricative is a rare consonantal sound found in one natural language, in the Shapsug dialect of Adyghe, where it appears as a variant of /x/.^[1][2] People with hypoglossia (abnormally small tongue) may use it for target /s/.^{[citation needed]} It has been represented in the extIPA as ⟨x̪͆⟩, but since there isn't frication at the velar place of articulation, it's thus better transcribed as ⟨h̪͆⟩ and the extIPA chart uses the latter.^[3]

Voiceless bidental fricative
h̪͆
x̪͆
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Features

Features of the voiceless bidental fricative:

• Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
• Its place of articulation is bidental, which means it is articulated with the lower and upper teeth pressed together.
• Its phonation is un-voiced, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
• It is an oral consonant, which means that air is exclusively allowed to escape through the mouth.
• Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe	Black Sea (Shapsug) dialect[1][2]	дахэ	[daːh̪͆a]	'pretty'	Corresponds to [x] in other dialects.

See also

• Voiceless dental fricative
• List of phonetics topics