Voiceless dental fricative

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

The voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to English speakers as the 'th' in thing. Though rather rare as a phoneme in the world's inventory of languages, it is encountered in some of the most widespread and influential (see below). The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨θ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is T. The IPA symbol is the Greek letter theta, which is used for this sound in post-classical Greek, and the sound is thus often referred to as "theta".

IPA: Pulmonic consonants [edit]
Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Laryngeal Manner ↓ Bi­labial Lab-den. Ling-lab. Den. Alv. Pst-alv. Retro. Pal. Vel. Uvul. Pharyn. Glottal Nasal m̥ m ɱ n̼ n̪ n̥ n n̠ ɳ̊ ɳ ɲ̊ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ Stop p b p̪ b̪ t̼ d̼ t̪ d̪ t d t̠ d̠ ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Sibilant affricate t̪s̪ d̪z̪ ts dz t̠ʃ d̠ʒ ʈʂ ɖʐ t̠ɕ d̠ʑ Non-sibilant affricate pɸ bβ p̪f b̪v t̪θ d̪ð tɹ̝̊ dɹ̝ t̠ɹ̠̊˔ d̠ɹ̠˔ cç ɟʝ kx ɡɣ qχ ɢʁ ʡʜ ʡʢ ʔh Sibilant fricative s̪ z̪ s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ Non-sibilant fricative ɸ β f v θ̼ ð̼ θ ð θ̠ ð̠ ɹ̠̊˔ ɹ̠˔ ɻ̊˔ ɻ˔ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ h ɦ Approximant β̥˕ ɸ̬˕ ʋ̥ ʋ θ̞ ð̞ ɹ̥ ɹ ɹ̠ ɻ̊ ɻ j̊ j ɰ̊ ɰ ʁ̞ ʕ̞ ʔ̞ Tap/flap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ̼ ɾ̪ ɾ̥ ɾ ɾ̠ ɽ̊ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̆ Trill ʙ̥ ʙ r̼ r̪ r̥ r r̠ ɽr̥ ɽr ʀ̥ ʀ ʜ ʢ Lateral affricate tɬ dɮ ʈɭ̊˔ ɖɭ˔ cʎ̝̊ ɟʎ̝ kʟ̝̊ ɡʟ̝ Lateral fricative ɬ̪ ɮ̪ ɬ ɮ ɭ̊˔ ɭ˔ ʎ̝̊ ʎ̝ ʟ̝̊ ʟ̝ Lateral approximant l̪ l̥ l l̠ ɭ̊ ɭ ʎ̥ ʎ ʟ̥ ʟ ʟ̠ Lateral tap/flap ɺ ɭ̆ ʎ̆ ʟ̆
Symbols to the right in a cell are voiced, to the left are voiceless. Shaded areas denote articulations judged to be impossible.