Voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant

Voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant
ʑ
IPA number	183
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʑ
Unicode (hex)	U+0291
X-SAMPA	z\
Braille
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Sound
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The voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʑ⟩ ("z", plus the curl also found in its voiceless counterpart ⟨ɕ⟩), and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is z\. It is the sibilant equivalent of the voiced palatal fricative.

The voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant fricative does not occur in any major dialect of English. However, it is the usual realization of /ʒ/ (as in vision) in the Ghanaian variety.^[1]

Features

alveolo-palatal sibilant fricatives [ɕ, ʑ]

Features of the voiced alveolo-palatal fricative:

• Its manner of articulation is sibilant fricative, which means it is generally produced by channeling air flow along a groove in the back of the tongue up to the place of articulation, at which point it is focused against the sharp edge of the nearly clenched teeth, causing high-frequency turbulence.

• Its place of articulation is alveolo-palatal. This means that:
  • Its place of articulation is postalveolar, meaning that the tongue contacts the roof of the mouth in the area behind the alveolar ridge (the gum line).
  • Its tongue shape is laminal, meaning that it is the tongue blade that contacts the roof of the mouth.
  • It is heavily palatalized, meaning that the middle of the tongue is bowed and raised towards the hard palate.

• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.

• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.

• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.

• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		ажьа	[aˈʑa]	'hare'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe		жьау	[ʑaːw]	'shadow'
Catalan	Eastern and Majorcan[2]	ajut	[əˈʑut]	'help' (n.)	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Jiangshan dialect of Wu	十	[ʑyœʔ]	'ten'
	Southern Min	今仔日/kin-á-ji̍t	[kɪn˧a˥ʑɪt˥]	'today'
English	Ghanaian[1]	vision	[ˈviʑin]	'vision'	Educated speakers may use [ʒ], to which this phone corresponds in other dialects.[1]
Japanese		火事/kaji	[kaʑi]	'fire'	Found in free variation with [d͡ʑ] between vowels. See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		жьэ	[ʑa]	'mouth'
Luxembourgish[3]		héijen	[ˈhəi̯ʑɵ̞n]	'high'	Allophone of /ʁ/ after phonologically front vowels; some speakers merge it with [ʒ]. Occurs only in a few words.[3] See Luxembourgish phonology
Pashto	Wazirwola dialect	ميږ‎	[miʑ]	'we'
Polish[4]		źrebię	[ˈʑrɛbjɛw̃]	'foal'	Also denoted by the digraph ⟨zi⟩. See Polish phonology
Portuguese[5][6][7]		magia	[maˈʑi.ɐ]	'magic'	Also described as palato-alveolar [ʒ].[8][9] See Portuguese phonology
Romanian	Transylvanian dialects[10]	geană	[ʑanə]	'eyelash'	Realized as [d͡ʒ] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Russian	Conservative Moscow Standard[11]	езжу	[ˈjeʑːʊ]	'I drive'	Somewhat obsolete; most speakers realize it as hard [ʐː].[11] Present only in a few words, usually written ⟨жж⟩ or ⟨зж⟩. See Russian phonology
Sema[12][13]		aji	[à̠ʑì]	'blood'	Possible allophone of /ʒ/ before /i, e/; can be realized as [d͡ʑ ~ ʒ ~ d͡ʒ] instead.[13]
Serbo-Croatian	Croatian[14]	пуж ħе / puž će	[pûːʑ t͡ɕe̞]	'the snail will'	Allophone of /ʒ/ before /t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ/.[14] See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Sorbian	Lower[15]	źasety	[ʑäs̪ɛt̪ɨ]	'tenth'
Uzbek[16]
Xumi	Upper[17]	[Hʑɜ]		'beer, wine'
Yi		ꑳ/yi	[ʑi˧]	'tobacco'

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

References

Bibliography

International Phonetic Alphabet
IPA topics IPA International Phonetic Association History of the IPA Extensions to the IPA Voice Quality Symbols Kiel convention (1989) Journal of the IPA (JIPA) Naming conventions Phonetics Diacritics Segments Tone letter Place of articulation Manner of articulation Special topics Case variants of IPA letters Handwritten IPA Obsolete and nonstandard symbols IPA chart for English dialects Encodings SAMPA X-SAMPA Kirshenbaum TIPA Phonetic symbols in Unicode WorldBet IPA Braille
Consonants IPA pulmonic consonantschart image • audio Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Laryngeal ↓ Manner Bilabial Labio­dental Linguo­labial Dental Alveolar Palato- alveolar Retroflex Alveolo- palatal Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal / Epiglottal Glottal Nasal m̥ m ɱ n̼̊ n̼ n̥ n ɳ̊ ɳ ɲ̊ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ̥ ɴ Stop p b p̪ b̪ t̼ d̼ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Sibilant affricate ts dz tʃ dʒ ʈʂ ɖʐ tɕ dʑ Non-sibilant affricate pɸ bβ p̪f b̪v tθ dð tθ̠ dð̠ t̠ɹ̠̊˔ d̠ɹ̠˔ cç ɟʝ kx ɡɣ qχ ɢʁ ʡħ ʡʕ ʔh Sibilant fricative s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ Non-sibilant fricative ɸ β f v θ̼ ð̼ θ ð θ̱ ð̠ ɹ̠̊˔ ɹ̠˔ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ h ɦ ʔ̞ Approximant ʋ̥ ʋ ɹ̥ ɹ ɻ̊ ɻ j̊ j ɰ̊ ɰ Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ̼ ɾ̥ ɾ ɽ̊ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̮ Trill ʙ r̼ r̥ r ɽr̥ ɽr ʀ̥ ʀ ʜ ʢ Lateral affricate tɬ dɮ ʈɭ̊˔ cʎ̥˔ kʟ̝̊ ɡʟ̝ Lateral fricative ɬ ɮ ɭ̊˔ ʎ̥˔ ʎ̝ ʟ̝̊ ʟ̝ Lateral approximant l̼ l̥ l ɭ̊ ɭ ʎ̥ ʎ ʟ̥ ʟ ʟ̠ Lateral flap ɺ̼ ɺ ɭ̆ ʎ̮ ʟ̆ Non-pulmonic consonants Simple clicks ʘ ʘ̬ ʘ̃ ǀ ǀ̬ ǀ̃ ǃ ǃ̬ ǃ̃ ǂ ǂ̬ ǂ̃ ǁ ǁ̬ ǁ̃ ǃ˞ ǃ̬˞ ǃ̃˞ Other clicks ʘ̃ˀ ʘˀ ˀʘ̃ ʘ͡q ʘ͡qχ ʘ͡qʼ ʘ͡qχʼ ¡ ʞ Implosives ɓ ɗ ᶑ ʄ ɠ ʛ ɓ̥ ɗ̥ ᶑ̥ ʄ̊ ɠ̊ ʛ̥  Ejectives pʼ tʼ ʈʼ cʼ kʼ qʼ ʡʼ fʼ θʼ sʼ ɬʼ ʃʼ ʂʼ ɕʼ xʼ χʼ tsʼ tɬʼ tʃʼ ʈʂʼ tɕʼ cʎ̝̥ʼ kxʼ kʟ̝̊ʼ qχʼ Co-articulated consonants Continuants ʍ w ɥ̊ ɥ ɫ Occlusives k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m ɧ t͡p d͡b n͡m q͡ʡ — These tables contain phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] — Where symbols appear in pairs, left–right represent the voiceless–voiced consonants. — Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible or not distinctive. Chart image Pulmonics Non-pulmonics Affricates Co-articulated
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