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    The alveolar fricatives /s/ and /z/
    quickinfo

    Features
    A possible feature specification of  /s/ is -sonorant, -voice, -labial, +coronal, -velar, +continuant.

    Phonotactic behaviour
    As a voiceless fricative, /s/ can occur in onset clusters of one (1a), two (1b) or three consonants (1c). Furthermore, /s/ can occur in simple (2a) and complex (2b) codas. It can also occur in longer word-final consonant clusters, just like /t/ like in 2c. Also word-internally, /s/ can occur exceptionally in clusters which seem otherwise too long, like in 3.

    1
    Onset
    a. sap juice
    b. snel quick
    c. straat street
    2
    Coda
    a. tas bag
    b. kers cherry
    c. herfst autumn
    3
    Word-medial
    extra
    e
    /kstr/
    a
    extra

    Features
    A possible feature specification of  /z/ is -sonorant, +voice, -labial, +coronal, -velar, +continuant.

    Phonotactic behaviour
    /z/ can only occur in onset clusters of one (4) consonant. Other clusters seem avoided because of the voiced character of /z/ and possibly because of the OCP. Furthermore, /z/ can occur in simple (5a) and complex codas (5b) underlyingly, but neutralizes to [s] in that position because of final devoicing.

    4
    Onset
    zie
    see
    5
    Coda
    a. lees read
    b. vers fresh

    /z/ clearly is the voiced counterpart of /s/. Voicing assimilation of the latter segment renders [z], such as in 6b, and inversely, final devoicing can turn /z/ into [s], such as in 6a:

    6
    a. bos+bes   bo /sb/  es bo [zb]  es blueberry
    b. stoep+zout   stoe /pz/  out stoe [ps]  out pavement salt
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    [+]Articulatory information

    Dutch /s/ is a voiceless and /z/ a voicedalveolarsibilantfricative. The approximation is between the tongue blade and the alveolar ridge, somewhat further back than English /s/. Tongue muscles may also be less tense, producing more diffuse spectral energy (Collins and Mees 2003: 190).

    Alveolar
    speech sounds produced at alveolarplace of articulation, i.e. by a constriction between the corona of the tongue and the alveolar ridge. See the human speech organs.

    Sibilant
    fricative involving two constrictions; one is the narrow channel created between the tongue and the palate or alveolar ridge, the other is formed by the teeth, against which the airflow is directed.

    Fricative
    consonant involving turbulent airflow through a narrow channel produced by close approximation of the active and passive articulators. See the human speech organs.

    Figure 1: The human speech organs
    [click image to enlarge]

    [+]Acoustic information

    Alveolar
    in obstruents, noise or noise bursts characterised by a centre of gravity above 5000 Hz. Second formant transitions into vowels come from around 1800 Hz, and both F2 and F3 stay flat or go in a downward direction.

    Fricative
    consonant involving aperiodic energy (noise)

    Dutch /s/ and /z/ are characterised by a noise peaks that are somewhat lower than for alveolarfricatives in other languages (such as English), which may have to do with a slightly more back or a less tense articulation.

    [+]Examples
    Table 1: Soundfiles, waveforms and spectrograms of the above sound files, with indications of the relevant acoustic parameters of Northern Standard Dutch /s/
    wordgroup phonological context soundfile waveform/spectrogram
    (...) schiet het met spin de lucht in (...) shoot it with spin into the air word-initial
    [click image to enlarge]
    om zich te wassen to wash yourself intervocalic
    [click image to enlarge]
    hij trok een viesgezicht he made aweird face word-final
    [click image to enlarge]
    Table 2: Soundfiles, waveforms and spectrograms of the above sound files, with indications of the relevant acoustic parameters of Southern Standard Dutch /s/
    wordgroup phonological context soundfile waveform/spectrogram
    een enorme spin an enormous spider word-initial
    [click image to enlarge]
    dan kan ik dit kleed wassen then I can wash this dress intervocalic
    [click image to enlarge]
    ik ben niet vies van werken I am not dirty from work word-final
    [click image to enlarge]
    Table 3: Soundfiles, waveforms and spectrograms of the above sound files, with indications of the relevant acoustic parameters of Northern Standard Dutch /z/
    wordgroup phonological context soundfile waveform/spectrogram
    Amerikanen zijn zot Americans are crazy word-initial
    [click image to enlarge]
    ik kan niet lezen I can't read intervocalic
    [click image to enlarge]
    Table 4: Soundfiles, waveforms and spectrograms of the above sound files, with indications of the relevant acoustic parameters of Southern Standard Dutch /z/
    wordgroup phonological context soundfile waveform/spectrogram
    ga weg, oude zot go away, old fool word-initial
    [click image to enlarge]
    geen muziek lezen not read music intervocalic
    [click image to enlarge]
    [+]Variation: voicing of /z/

    The voicing distinction between /s/ and /z/ is more stable than that in the /f/- /v/ and /x/- /ɣ/ pairs, where in Northern Standard Dutch there is often devoicing of the second member. Devoicing of /z/ and a concomitant disappearance of the distinction with /s/ occurs in a number of Dutch dialects, but is considered less acceptable in Standard Dutch than devoiced /v/ and /ɣ/(Gussenhoven 1981; Van de Velde et al. 1996: 92; Smakman 2006: 216).

    In Belgian Standard Dutch, the contrast is robust, though voiceless realisations are increasing in more recent standard speech (Van de Velde et al. 1996:101).

    References
    • Collins, B. & Mees, I2003The Phonetics of English and DutchLeidenE.J. Brill
    • Gussenhoven, Carlos1981Measuring the acceptability of Dutch voiced fricativesProceedings IFN5NijmegenUniversity of Nijmegen96-126
    • Smakman, Dick2006Standard Dutch in the Netherlands: A Sociolinguistic and Phonetic DescriptionUtrechtLOT
    • Velde, Hans van de, Gerritsen, Marinel & Hout, Roeland van1996The devoicing of fricatives in Standard Dutch: A real-time study based on radio recordingsLanguage Variation and Change8149-175
    • Velde, Hans van de, Gerritsen, Marinel & Hout, Roeland van1996The devoicing of fricatives in Standard Dutch: A real-time study based on radio recordingsLanguage Variation and Change8149-175
    About this article
    Author(s): Marc van Oostendorp, Koen Sebregts
    Category: Dutch Phonology
    Keywords: segmentfeaturephonotacticsconsonantfinal devoicingvoicing assimilationphoneticsalveolarfricatives
    Version: 1.0, December 2015
    Version history:
    version editor(s) date remarks
    1.0 Marc van Oostendorp, Koen Sebregts December 2015
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