The voiceless alveolar sibilant is a common consonant sound in vocal languages. The first three types are sibilants, meaning that they are made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth and have a piercing, perceptually prominent sound. The voiceless alveolar lateral fricative sounds like a voiceless, strongly articulated version of English l (somewhat like what the English cluster **hl would sound like) and is written as ll in Welsh.It occurs in Icelandic as well as an intervocalic and word-final allophone of English /t/ in dialects such as Hiberno-English and Scouse. The voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative or, using the alveolar diacritic from the Extended IPA, is similar to the th in English thin.A similar retracted sibilant form is also used in Dutch, Icelandic, some southern dialects of Swedish, Finnish, and Greek. It is used in the languages of northern Iberia, like Asturleonese, Basque, Castilian Spanish (excluding parts of Andalusia), Catalan, Galician, and Northern European Portuguese. The voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant, and the subform apico-alveolar, or called grave, has a weak hushing sound reminiscent of retroflex fricatives.It occurs in Spanish dialects in southern Spain (eastern Andalusia). The voiceless denti-alveolar sibilant (an ad hoc notation), also called apico-dental, has a weaker lisping sound like English th in thin.It is one of the most common sounds in the world. The voiceless alveolar sibilant has a strong hissing sound, as the s in English sink.

There are at least six types with significant perceptual differences: This refers to a class of sounds, not a single sound. The voiceless alveolar fricatives are a type of fricative consonant pronounced with the tip or blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (gum line) just behind the teeth.

Hiss synonym