Voiced postalveolar fricative

This article is about the palato-alveolar consonant. For the retroflex consonant, see Voiced retroflex fricative. For the alveolo-palatal consonant, see Voiced alveolo-palatal 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

Voiced postalveolar fricative
ʒ
IPA number	135
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʒ
Unicode (hex)	U+0292
X-SAMPA	Z
Braille
Image

The voiced palato-alveolar fricative or voiced domed postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages.

Transcription

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⟩.

palato-alveolar fricative [ʃ, ʒ]

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 as a borrowed phoneme in a number of languages under the influence of French, Persian or Slavic languages, as in the Germanic languages (Dutch, English, German and Luxembourgish), the Romance languages (Italian, and Romanian), the Turkic languages (Azerbaijani, Bashkir, Turkish, and Uyghur), and the Uralic languages (Estonian and Hungarian), Breton and Maltese.^[2] The phoneme has the lowest consonant frequency in both English and Persian.^[3]

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

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

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		жакӀэ/žač'a	[ʒaːtʃʼa]ⓘ	'beard'
Albanian		zhurmë	[ʒuɾm]	'noise'
Arabic	Maghrebi[4]	زوج/zūj	[zuːʒ]	'husband'
	Hejazi	جاهِز/jāhiz	[ʒaːhɪz]	'ready'	an allophone of /d͡ʒ/ used by a number of speakers.
Armenian	Eastern[5]	ժամ/žam	[ʒɑm]ⓘ	'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	[ˈvɪʒən]ⓘ	'vision'	Only occurs in loanwords[citation needed] See English phonology.
Esperanto		manĝaĵo	[mänˈd͡ʒäʒo̞]	'food'	See Esperanto phonology
French[6]		jour	[ʒuʁ]ⓘ	'day'	See French phonology
German	Standard[7]	Garage	[ɡaˈʁaːʒʷə]	'garage'	Laminal or apico-laminal and strongly labialized.[7] Some speakers may merge it with /ʃ/. Only occurs in loanwords. See Standard German phonology
Georgian[8]		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[9]		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[10]	zjuweleer	[ʒy̠β̞əˈleːʀ̝̊]	'jeweller'	Laminal post-alveolar with an unclear amount of palatalization.[11]
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[12]
	Malbork dialect[12]
	Ostróda dialect[12]
	Warmia dialect[12]
Portuguese[13][14]		loja	[ˈlɔʒɐ]	'shop'	Also described as alveolo-palatal [ʑ].[15][16][17] See Portuguese phonology
Romani		[ʒanel]		'to know'
Romanian		jar	[ʒär]	'embers'	See Romanian phonology
Scottish Gaelic	Barra[18]	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[19]	[example needed]			These dialects merge /ʐ/ and /ʑ/ into [ʒ].
	Jablunkov[19]	[example needed]
Sioux	Lakota	waŋži	[wãˈʒi]	'one'
Slovak		žena	[ʒena]	'woman'	See Slovak phonology
Slovene		žito	[ˈʒìːt̪ɔ́]	'cereal'	See Slovene phonology
Spanish	Rioplatense[20]	yo	[ʒo̞]	'I'	Most dialects.[20] See Spanish phonology and yeísmo
	Ecuadorian Andean Spanish[21]	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[22]	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

Voiced postalveolar non-sibilant fricative
ɹ̠˔
ɹ̝˗
IPA number	151 414 429
Audio sample
source · help
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

• 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

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Dutch[23]	meer	[meːɹ̠˔]	'lake'	A rare post-vocalic allophone of /r/.[24] Realization of /r/ varies considerably among dialects. See Dutch phonology
Manx[25]	mooar	[muːɹ̠˔]	'lake'	Pre-consonantal and word-final realization of /r/, in free variation with other allophones.

See also

• Ezh
• Voiceless postalveolar fricative
• Index of phonetics articles