Voiced postalveolar fricative
The voiced postalveolar or palato-alveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The International Phonetic Association uses the term voiced postalveolar fricative only for the sound [ʒ],[1] but it also describes the voiced postalveolar non-sibilant fricative [ɹ̠˔], for which there are significant perceptual differences, as one is a sibilant and one is not.
Voiced palato-alveolar fricative
[edit]Voiced postalveolar fricative | |||
---|---|---|---|
ʒ | |||
IPA number | 135 | ||
Audio sample | |||
Encoding | |||
Entity (decimal) | ʒ | ||
Unicode (hex) | U+0292 | ||
X-SAMPA | Z | ||
Braille | ![]() | ||
|
The voiced palato-alveolar fricative or voiced domed postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages.
Transcription
[edit]The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is the lower case form of the letter Ezh ⟨Ʒ ʒ⟩ (/ɛʒ/ ⓘ), and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is Z
. An alternative symbol used in some older and American linguistic literature is ⟨ž⟩, a z with a caron. In some transcriptions of alphabets such as the Cyrillic, the sound is represented by the digraph ⟨zh⟩.

Although present in English, the sound is not represented by a specific letter or digraph, but is formed by yod-coalescence of [z] and [j] in words such as measure. It also appears in some loanwords, mainly from French (thus written with ⟨g⟩ and ⟨j⟩). It occurs in loanwords in a number of languages including Afrikaans, Azerbaijani, Dutch, German, Hebrew, Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu), Italian, Maltese, Turkish, Turkmen, Uyghur and Uzbek. The phoneme has the lowest consonant frequency in both English and Persian.[2]
The sound occurs in many languages and, as in English and French, may have simultaneous lip rounding ([ʒʷ]), although this is rarely indicated in transcription.
Features
[edit]Features of the voiced palato-alveolar 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 postalveolar, which means it is articulated with the tip or blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge.
- 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.
- Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.
Occurrence
[edit]Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adyghe | жакӀэ/žač'a | ⓘ | 'beard' | ||
Albanian | zhurmë | [ʒuɾm] | 'noise' | ||
Arabic | Maghrebi[3] | زوج/zūj | [zuːʒ] | 'husband' | |
Hejazi | جاهِز/jāhiz | [ʒaːhɪz] | 'ready' | an allophone of /d͡ʒ/ used by a number of speakers. | |
Armenian | Eastern[4] | ժամ/žam | ⓘ | 'hour' | |
Assyrian | ܐܘܪܡܓ̰ܢܝܐ Urmižnaiya | [urmɪʒnaɪja] | 'Assyrian from Urmia' | ||
Avar | жакъа/žaq'a | [ˈʒaqʼːa] | 'today' | ||
Azerbaijani | jalüz | [ʒalyz] | 'blinds' | Only occurs in loanwords. | |
Berta | [ŋɔ̀nʒɔ̀ʔ] | 'honey' | |||
Bulgarian | мъжът/myžyt | [mɐˈʒɤ̞t̪] | 'the man' | See Bulgarian phonology | |
Catalan | Eastern | gel | [ˈʒɛl] | 'ice' | Its pronunciation varies between an alveolo-palatal [ʑ] and postalveolar [ʒ] fricative. See Catalan phonology. |
Chechen | жий / žiy | [ʒiː] | 'sheep' | ||
Chinese | Quzhou dialect | 床 | [ʒɑ̃] | 'bed' | |
Fuzhou dialect | 只隻 | [tsi˥˥ ʒieʔ˨˦] | 'this one' | ||
Corsican | ghjesgia | [ˈɟeːʒa] | 'church' | Also in Gallurese | |
Czech | muži | [ˈmuʒɪ] | 'men' | See Czech phonology | |
Dutch | garage | [ɣäˈräːʒə] | 'garage' | Only occurs in loanwords. See Dutch phonology. | |
Emilian | Bolognese | chèṡ | [ˈkɛːð̠] | 'case' | Apical; not labialized; may be [z̺ʲ] or [ʐ] instead. |
English | vision | ⓘ | 'vision' | Only occurs in loanwords[citation needed] See English phonology. | |
Esperanto | manĝaĵo | [mänˈd͡ʒäʒo̞] | 'food' | See Esperanto phonology | |
French[5] | jour | ⓘ | 'day' | See French phonology | |
German | Standard[6] | Garage | [ɡaˈʁaːʒʷə] | 'garage' | Laminal or apico-laminal and strongly labialized.[6] Some speakers may merge it with /ʃ/. Only occurs in loanwords. See Standard German phonology |
Georgian[7] | ჟურნალი/žurnali | [ʒuɾnali] | 'magazine' | ||
Goemai | zhiem | [ʒiem] | 'sickle' | ||
Greek | Cypriot | γαλάζ̌ο/galažo | [ɣ̞ɐˈlɐʒːo̞] | 'sky blue' | |
Gwich’in | zhòh | [ʒôh] | 'wolf' | ||
Hän | zhùr | [ʒûr] | 'wolf' | ||
Hebrew | ז׳אנר/žaner | [ʒaneʁ] | 'genre' | Phoneme present in loanwords only. See Modern Hebrew phonology | |
Hindustani | Hindi | अझ़दहा/aždahá | [əʒd̪əhaː] | 'dragon' | Only occurs in loanwords. See Hindustani phonology |
Urdu | اژدہا/aždahá | ||||
Hungarian | rózsa | [ˈr̪oːʒɒ] | 'rose' | See Hungarian phonology | |
Ingush | жий/žiy | [ʒiː] | 'sheep' | ||
Italian | Tuscan | pigiare | [piˈʒäːre] | 'press' | See Italian phonology |
Judaeo-Spanish | mujer | [muˈʒɛr] | 'woman' | ||
Juǀʼhoan | ju | [ʒu] | 'person' | ||
Kabardian | жыг/žëğ | [ʒəɣʲ] | 'tree' | ||
Kabyle | jeddi | [ʒəddi] | 'my grandfather' | ||
Kashubian[8] | kòżdi rôz | [kʷʒdi rɞz] | 'constantly' | ||
Kazakh | жеті/jeti | [ʒeti] | 'seven' | ||
Latvian | žāvēt | [ˈʒäːveːt̪] | 'to dry' | See Latvian phonology | |
Ligurian | lüxe | ['ly:ʒe] | 'light' | ||
Limburgish | Maastrichtian[9] | zjuweleer | [ʒy̠β̞əˈleːʀ̝̊] | 'jeweller' | Laminal post-alveolar with an unclear amount of palatalization.[10] |
Lithuanian | žmona | [ʒmoːˈn̪ɐ] | 'wife' | See Lithuanian phonology | |
Livonian | kūž | [kuːʒ] | 'six' | ||
Lombard | Western | resgiôra | [reˈʒu(ː)ra] | 'matriarch' | |
Macedonian | жaбa/žaba | [ˈʒaba] | 'toad' | See Macedonian phonology | |
Megrelian | ჟირი/žiri | [ʒiɾi] | 'two' | ||
Navajo | łizh | [ɬiʒ] | 'urine' | ||
Neapolitan | sbattere | [ˈʒbɑttərə] | 'to slam' | ||
Ngas | zhaam | [ʒaːm] | 'chin' | ||
Ngwe | Mmockngie dialect | [ʒíá] | 'to split' | ||
Occitan | Auvergnat | argent | [aʀʒẽ] | 'money' | Southern dialects |
Gascon | [arʒen] | ||||
Pashto | ژوول/žowul | [ʒowul] | 'chew' | ||
Persian | مژه/može | [moʒe] | 'eyelash' | See Persian phonology | |
Polish | Gmina Istebna | zielony | [ʒɛˈlɔn̪ɘ] | 'green' | /ʐ/ and /ʑ/ merge into [ʒ] in these dialects. In standard Polish, /ʒ/ is commonly used to transcribe what actually is a laminal voiced retroflex sibilant. |
Lubawa dialect[11] | |||||
Malbork dialect[11] | |||||
Ostróda dialect[11] | |||||
Warmia dialect[11] | |||||
Portuguese[12][13] | loja | [ˈlɔʒɐ] | 'shop' | Also described as alveolo-palatal [ʑ].[14][15][16] See Portuguese phonology | |
Romani | [ʒanel] | 'to know' | |||
Romanian | jar | [ʒär] | 'embers' | See Romanian phonology | |
Scottish Gaelic | Barra[17] | uair | [uəʒ] | 'hour' | Dialectal allophone of /ɾʲ/, now primarily heard among older speakers in the south of the island and Vatersay. |
Serbo-Croatian | жут / žut | [ʒûːt̪] | 'yellow' | May be laminal retroflex instead, depending on the dialect. See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |
Silesian | Gmina Istebna[18] | [example needed] | These dialects merge /ʐ/ and /ʑ/ into [ʒ]. | ||
Jablunkov[18] | [example needed] | ||||
Sioux | Lakota | waŋži | [wãˈʒi] | 'one' | |
Slovak | žena | [ʒena] | 'woman' | See Slovak phonology | |
Slovene | žito | [ˈʒìːt̪ɔ́] | 'cereal' | See Slovene phonology | |
Spanish | Rioplatense[19] | yo | [ʒo̞] | 'I' | Most dialects.[19] See Spanish phonology and yeísmo |
Ecuadorian Andean Spanish[20] | ellos | [eʒos] | 'they' | See Spanish phonology and yeísmo | |
Tadaksahak | [ˈʒɐwɐb] | 'to answer' | |||
Tagish | [ʒé] | 'what' | |||
Turkish | jale | [ʒɑːˈʎ̟ɛ] | 'dew' | Only occurs in loanwords. See Turkish phonology | |
Turkmen | žiraf | [ʒiraf] | 'giraffe' | Only occurs in loanwords. | |
Tutchone | Northern | zhi | [ʒi] | 'what' | |
Southern | zhǜr | [ʒɨ̂r] | 'berry' | ||
Ukrainian | жaбa/žaba | [ˈʒɑbɐ] | 'frog' | See Ukrainian phonology | |
Veps | vīž | [viːʒ] | 'five' | ||
Welayta | [aʒa] | 'bush' | |||
West Frisian | bagaazje | [bɑˈɡaʒə] | 'luggage' | See West Frisian phonology | |
Yiddish | אָראַנזש/oranž | [ɔʀanʒ] | 'orange' | See Yiddish phonology | |
Zapotec | Tilquiapan[21] | llan | [ʒaŋ] | 'anger' |
The sound in Russian denoted by ⟨ж⟩ is commonly transcribed as a palato-alveolar fricative but is actually a laminal retroflex fricative.
Voiced postalveolar non-sibilant fricative
[edit]Voiced postalveolar non-sibilant fricative | |
---|---|
ɹ̠˔ | |
ɹ̝˗ | |
IPA number | 151 414 429 |
Audio sample | |
Encoding | |
X-SAMPA | r\_-_r |
The voiced postalveolar non-sibilant fricative is a consonantal sound. As the International Phonetic Alphabet does not have separate symbols for the post-alveolar consonants (the same symbol is used for all coronal places of articulation that are not palatalized), this sound is usually transcribed ⟨ɹ̠˔⟩ (retracted constricted [ɹ]). The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r\_-_r
.
Features
[edit]- Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence. However, it does not have the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.
- Its place of articulation is postalveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge.
- 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.
- Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.
Occurrence
[edit]Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Dutch[22] | meer | [meːɹ̠˔] | 'lake' | A rare post-vocalic allophone of /r/.[23] Realization of /r/ varies considerably among dialects. See Dutch phonology |
Manx[24] | mooar | [muːɹ̠˔] | 'lake' | Pre-consonantal and word-final realization of /r/, in free variation with other allophones. |
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ "IPA i-charts (2018)". International Phonetic Association. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
- ^ Qaracholloo, Mahmoud; Nejad, Ali (2012). "Frequency System of Phonemes: Contrastive Analysis of Common Standard Persian and English Consonants in Context-Based Corpora". Frequency System of Phonemes: Contrastive Analysis of Common Standard Persian and English Consonants in Context-Based Corpora: 85.
- ^ Watson (2002:16)
- ^ Dum-Tragut (2009:18)
- ^ Fougeron & Smith (1993:73)
- ^ a b Mangold (2005:51)
- ^ Shosted & Chikovani (2006:255)
- ^ "Projekt Rastko Kaszuby - Fonetyka i fonologia". Archived from the original on 2014-11-02. Retrieved 2013-11-18.
- ^ Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999), p. 156.
- ^ Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999:156). The authors state that /ʒ/ is "pre-palatal, articulated with the blade of the tongue against the post-alveolar place of articulation". This makes it unclear whether this sound is palato-alveolar (somewhat palatalized post-alveolar) or alveolo-palatal (strongly palatalized post-alveolar).
- ^ a b c d Dubisz, Karaś & Kolis (1995:62)
- ^ Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91)
- ^ Medina (2010)
- ^ Mateus & d'Andrade (2000)
- ^ Silva (2003:32)
- ^ Guimarães (2004)
- ^ Borgstrom (1937:118)
- ^ a b Dąbrowska (2004:?)
- ^ a b Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:258)
- ^ Argüello, Fanny M. (1980-03-10). "El rehilamiento en el español hablado en la región andina del Ecuador". Lexis (in Spanish). 4 (2): 151–155. doi:10.18800/lexis.198002.003. ISSN 0254-9239. S2CID 170724900.
- ^ Merrill (2008:108)
- ^ Goeman & van de Velde (2001:94–98, 101–102)
- ^ Goeman & van de Velde (2001:95–97, 102)
- ^ Broderick (1986:17–18)
References
[edit]- Borgstrøm, Carl Hj. (1937), The dialect of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Oslo: Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap
- Broderick, George (1986), A Handbook of Late Spoken Manx, vol. 3, Tübingen: Niemeyer, ISBN 3-484-42903-8
- Canepari, Luciano (1992), Il MªPi – Manuale di pronuncia italiana [Handbook of Italian Pronunciation] (in Italian), Bologna: Zanichelli, ISBN 88-08-24624-8
- Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223, S2CID 249414876
- Dąbrowska, Anna (2004), Język polski, Wrocław: wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie, ISBN 83-7384-063-X
- Dubisz, Stanisław; Karaś, Halina; Kolis, Nijola (1995), Dialekty i gwary polskie, Warsaw: Wiedza Powszechna, ISBN 83-2140989-X
- Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
- Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 23 (2): 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874, S2CID 249404451
- Goeman, Ton; van de Velde, Hans (December 2001), "Co-occurrence constraints on /r/ and /ɣ/ in Dutch dialects", in van de Velde, Hans; van Hout, Roeland (eds.), 'r-atics: Sociolinguistics, phonetic and phonological characteristics of /r/, Rapport d'Activités de l'Institut des Langues Vivantes et de Phonétique, vol. 4, Brussels: Etudes & Travaux, pp. 91–112, ISSN 0777-3692
- Guimarães, Daniela (2004), Seqüências de (Sibilante + Africada Alveopalatal) no Português Falado em Belo Horizonte (PDF), Belo Horizonte: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-04-07, retrieved 2014-12-06
- Gussenhoven, Carlos; Aarts, Flor (1999), "The dialect of Maastricht" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 29 (2), University of Nijmegen, Centre for Language Studies: 155–166, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006526, S2CID 145782045
- Mangold, Max (2005) [First published 1962], Das Aussprachewörterbuch (6th ed.), Mannheim: Dudenverlag, ISBN 978-3-411-04066-7
- Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
- Mateus, Maria Helena; d'Andrade, Ernesto (2000), The Phonology of Portuguese, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-823581-X
- Medina, Flávio (2010), Análise Acústica de Sequências de Fricativas Seguidas de [i] Produzidas por Japoneses Aprendizes de Português Brasileiro (PDF), Anais do IX Encontro do CELSUL Palhoça, SC, Palhoça: Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina, archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-23, retrieved 2014-12-06
- Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 38 (1): 107–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344
- Shosted, Ryan K.; Chikovani, Vakhtang (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (2): 255–264, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659
- Silva, Thaïs Cristófaro (2003), Fonética e Fonologia do Português: Roteiro de Estudos e Guia de Exercícios (7th ed.), São Paulo: Contexto, ISBN 85-7244-102-6
- Watson, Janet (2002), The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, New York: Oxford University Press