<p>There are even languages with <em>no fricatives at all</em>. The <a href="http://menzerath.phonetik.uni-frankfurt.de/upsid_find.html" rel="noreferrer">UPSID</a> sample contains 31 of them, making 6.8% of the sample.</p>

<p>FUll output of my UPSID query:</p>

<p>The 'fricative' sounds do not occur in these languages:</p>

<p>Language (sounds)</p>

<p>ALAWA (26)
ANDAMANESE (24)
ANGAATIHA (21)
ARRERNTE (30)
AUCA (21)
BANDJALANG (16)
BARDI (24)
BORORO (20)
BURARRA (21)
DERA (17)
DINKA (32)
DIYARI (25)
DYIRBAL (16)
EKARI (15)
GARAWA (22)
GUGU-YALANDYI (16)
KALKATUNGU (23)
MALAKMALAK (19)
MBABARAM (24)
MURINHPATHA (25)
NASIOI (13)
NGARINJIN (24)
NGIYAMBAA (18)
NUNGGUBUYU (23)
PANARE (25)
WARAY (21)
WESTERN DESERT (20)
WIK-MUNKAN (18)
YANYUWA (32)
YIDINY (16)
YOLNGU (23)</p>

<p>These 31 languages are 6.87% of all languages in UPSID.</p>

<p>Querying for languages without voiced fricatives gives "These 222 languages are 49.22% of all languages in UPSID". So the absence of voiced fricatives is a quite common feature of natural languages.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-26T03:56:21.533Z
How many of those 31 are Australian?
Anton Sherwood
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-26T09:43:24.200Z
@AntonSherwood: Clicked through the sample, to my surprise there 8 non-Australian languages, and the Australian ones are distributed over several families (not all Pama-Nyugan)
Sir Cornflakes
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-18T09:39:53.873Z
2018-04-18T09:39:53.873Z
Sir Cornflakes
<p>Sure. <a href="http://wals.info/feature/4A#2/19.3/152.9" rel="nofollow noreferrer">A lot of languages</a> don't distinguish voicing in fricatives. This doesn't necessarily mean that fricatives in such languages will be unvoiced, but most of them will probably do that.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-17T18:46:58.127Z
2018-04-17T18:46:58.127Z
bb94
<p>According to the <a href="http://wals.info/chapter/4" rel="noreferrer">World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS)</a>, a large database of various world languages' structural properties gathered from descriptive materials like grammars, around a third of the surveyed languages have a voicing contrast in plosives but not fricatives, and another third have no voicing contrast in either plosives or fricatives. Based on this, it seems that by raw numbers you're <em>more</em> likely to have only voiceless fricatives than you are to have both voiced and voiceless fricatives. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-18T04:45:36.540Z
2018-04-18T04:45:36.540Z
Sparksbet
<p>I am working on a language and I am trying to bring it down to seventeen consonants. One of the ways I am trying to do that is by removing all voiced fricatives. Is this even reasonable?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-17T18:36:46.073Z
A friend and I were working up a language for rubber-suit aliens that were genetically engineered to not have audible voices. The language we worked up had no voiced consonants whatsoever.
Jeff Zeitlin
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-17T22:41:17.367Z
'course you can! Toki pona doesn't have any.
as4s4hetic
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-17T23:52:44.907Z
I'm looking for real ones
skout
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-20T18:24:55.330Z
Old English at some point had no voiced fricatives. They were allophones intervocalically, and by borrowing from French we got /v/. The further imbalance and loaning gave us all /v z ʒ ð/.
Duncan
<phonology><naturalism>
Could a language with no voiced fricatives exist?
# Could a language with no voiced fricatives exist?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-04-17)

I am working on a language and I am trying to bring it down to seventeen consonants. One of the ways I am trying to do that is by removing all voiced fricatives. Is this even reasonable?

**Tags:** phonology, naturalism

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: A friend and I were working up a language for rubber-suit aliens that were genetically engineered to not have audible voices. The language we worked up had no voiced consonants whatsoever.  
> **username_2**: 'course you can! Toki pona doesn't have any.  
> **username_0**: I'm looking for real ones  
> **username_3**: Old English at some point had no voiced fricatives. They were allophones intervocalically, and by borrowing from French we got /v/. The further imbalance and loaning gave us all /v z ʒ ð/.  

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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_7 on 2018-04-18. Score: 6 | Accepted answer

According to the [World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS)](http://wals.info/chapter/4), a large database of various world languages' structural properties gathered from descriptive materials like grammars, around a third of the surveyed languages have a voicing contrast in plosives but not fricatives, and another third have no voicing contrast in either plosives or fricatives. Based on this, it seems that by raw numbers you're *more* likely to have only voiceless fricatives than you are to have both voiced and voiceless fricatives.


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### Answer by username_4 on 2018-04-18. Score: 6

There are even languages with *no fricatives at all*. The [UPSID](http://menzerath.phonetik.uni-frankfurt.de/upsid_find.html) sample contains 31 of them, making 6.8% of the sample.

FUll output of my UPSID query:

The 'fricative' sounds do not occur in these languages:

Language (sounds)

ALAWA (26)
ANDAMANESE (24)
ANGAATIHA (21)
ARRERNTE (30)
AUCA (21)
BANDJALANG (16)
BARDI (24)
BORORO (20)
BURARRA (21)
DERA (17)
DINKA (32)
DIYARI (25)
DYIRBAL (16)
EKARI (15)
GARAWA (22)
GUGU-YALANDYI (16)
KALKATUNGU (23)
MALAKMALAK (19)
MBABARAM (24)
MURINHPATHA (25)
NASIOI (13)
NGARINJIN (24)
NGIYAMBAA (18)
NUNGGUBUYU (23)
PANARE (25)
WARAY (21)
WESTERN DESERT (20)
WIK-MUNKAN (18)
YANYUWA (32)
YIDINY (16)
YOLNGU (23)

These 31 languages are 6.87% of all languages in UPSID.

Querying for languages without voiced fricatives gives "These 222 languages are 49.22% of all languages in UPSID". So the absence of voiced fricatives is a quite common feature of natural languages.

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: How many of those 31 are Australian?  
> **username_4**: @username_5: Clicked through the sample, to my surprise there 8 non-Australian languages, and the Australian ones are distributed over several families (not all Pama-Nyugan)  

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### Answer by username_6 on 2018-04-17. Score: 2

Sure. [A lot of languages](http://wals.info/feature/4A#2/19.3/152.9) don't distinguish voicing in fricatives. This doesn't necessarily mean that fricatives in such languages will be unvoiced, but most of them will probably do that.


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