Voiced and voiceless interdental fricatives appear in
American English as the initial sounds of words like 'then' and 'thin'. In
British English, the consonants are more likely to be dental . An interdental occurs in some varieties of
Italian, and it may also occur in some varieties of English though the distribution and the usage of interdental in English are not clear. s are found in about a dozen
Philippine languages, including
Kagayanen (
Manobo branch), Karaga
Mandaya (
Mansakan branch),
Kalagan (
Mansakan branch),
Southern Catanduanes Bicolano, and several varieties of
Kalinga, as well as in the
Bauchi languages of Nigeria. See
voiced dental fricative for further description. Interdental occurs in some dialects of
Amis.
Mapuche has interdental , , and . In most
Indigenous Australian languages, there is a series of "dental" consonants, written
th,
nh, and (in some languages)
lh. They are always
laminal (pronounced by touching with the blade of the tongue) but may be formed in one of three different ways, depending on the language, the speaker, and how carefully the speaker pronounces the sound. They are
apical interdental with the
tip of the tongue visible between the teeth, as in
th in American English;
laminal interdental with the tip of the tongue down behind the lower teeth, so that the
blade is visible between the teeth; and
denti-alveolar , that is, with both the tip and the blade making contact with the back of the upper teeth and alveolar ridge, as in French
t,
d,
n,
l. ==See also==