Topic-109: Fricatives Fricative as an articulatory gesture maybe divided into voiced or voiceless sounds but we can also subdivide fricatives in accordance with other aspects of the gestures that produce them. For example, some authorities have divided fricatives into sounds such ass, in which the tongue is grooved so that the airstream comes out through a narrow channel, and those such as [θ], in which the tongue is flat and forms a wide slit through which the air flows. On the other hand, a slightly better way of dividing fricatives is to separate them into groups on a purely auditory basis. Say the English voiceless fricatives f, θ, s, ʃ]. Which two have the loudest high pitches You should be able to hear that s, ʃ] differ from fin this way. The same kind of difference occurs between the voiced fricatives z, ʒ] and v, ð]. The fricatives s, z, ʒ, ʃ] are called sibilant sounds. They have more acoustic energy—that is, greater loudness—at a higher pitch than the other fricative sounds.
