Fricative consonant
Fricative consonants are produced by air flowing through a narrow channel made by placing two articulating organs close together (e.g. the tip of the tongue and the upper teeth, as in the pronunciation of English initial "th" in thick, or the back of the tongue and the soft palate, as in the case of German [x], the final consonant of Bach). Turbulent airflow produces a characteristic noise called "frication". Fricatives may be voiceless or voiced (see phonation).
List of fricatives
See English language#Consonants for a table of fricatives in English.
Ubykh may be the language with the most fricatives, with 26. This number actually outstrips the number of all consonants in English (which has 24 consonants).
See also
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