Sibilant consonant: Encyclopedia II - Sibilant consonant - The term

Sibilant consonant - The term

The term sibilant is often taken to be synonymous with the term strident, though historically this is incorrect, and there is variation in usage. The term sibilant tends to have an articulatory or aerodynamic definition involving the production of aperiodic noise at an obstacle. Strident refers to the perceptual quality of intensity as determined by amplitude and frequency characteristics of the resulting sound, i.e. an auditory, or possibly acoustic, definition.

Sibilants are louder than their non-sibilant counterparts, and most of their acoustic energy occurs at higher frequences than non-sibilant fricatives. [s] has the most acoustic strength at around 8,000 Hz, but can reach as high as 10,000 Hz. [ ʃ ] has the bulk of its acoustic energy at around 4,000 Hz, but can extend up to around 8,000 Hz.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The term", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki