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⟩).

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 palato-alveolar, that is, domed (partially palatalized) postalveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the front of the tongue bunched up ("domed") at the 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.
• 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[2]	زوج/zūj	[zuːʒ]	'husband'
	Hejazi	جاهِز/jāhiz	[ʒaːhɪz]	'ready'	an allophone of /d͡ʒ/ used by a number of speakers.
Armenian	Eastern[3]	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 Catalan	gel	[ˈʒel]	'ice'
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. See English phonology.
Esperanto		manĝaĵo	[mänˈd͡ʒäʒo̞]	'food'	See Esperanto phonology
French[4]		jour	[ʒuʁ]ⓘ	'day'	See French phonology
German	Standard[5]	Garage	[ɡaˈʁaːʒʷə]	'garage'	Laminal or apico-laminal and strongly labialized.[5] Some speakers may merge it with /ʃ/. Only occurs in loanwords. See Standard German phonology
Georgian[6]		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
Hindi		अझ़दहा/aždahá	[əʒd̪əhaː]	'dragon'	Only occurs in loanwrods. See Hindi–Urdu phonology.
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[7]		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[8]	zjuweleer	[ʒy̠β̞əˈleːʀ̝̊]	'jeweller'	Laminal post-alveolar with an unclear amount of palatalization.[9]
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[10]
	Malbork dialect[10]
	Ostróda dialect[10]
	Warmia dialect[10]
Portuguese[11][12]		loja	[ˈlɔʒɐ]	'shop'	Also described as alveolo-palatal [ʑ].[13][14][15] See Portuguese phonology
Romani		[ʒanel]		'to know'
Romanian		jar	[ʒär]	'embers'	See Romanian phonology
Scottish Gaelic	Barra[16]	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[17]	[example needed]			These dialects merge /ʐ/ and /ʑ/ into [ʒ].
	Jablunkov[17]	[example needed]
Sioux	Lakota	waŋži	[wãˈʒi]	'one'
Slovak		žena	[ʒena]	'woman'	See Slovak phonology
Slovene		žito	[ˈʒìːt̪ɔ́]	'cereal'	See Slovene phonology
Spanish	Rioplatense[18]	yo	[ʒo̞]	'I'	Most dialects.[18] See Spanish phonology and yeísmo
	Ecuadorian Andean Spanish[19]	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
Urdu		اژدہا/aždahá	[əʒd̪əhaː]	'dragon'	Only occurs in loanwords. See Hindi–Urdu 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[20]	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 aren't 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[21]	meer	[meːɹ̠˔]	'lake'	A rare post-vocalic allophone of /r/.[22] Realization of /r/ varies considerably among dialects. See Dutch phonology
Manx	mooar	[muːɹ̠˔]	'lake'	In free variation with other coda allophones of /r/.[23]

See also

• Ezh
• Voiceless postalveolar fricative
• Index of phonetics articles

Notes

1. "IPA i-charts (2018)". International Phonetic Association. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
2. Watson (2002:16)
3. Dum-Tragut (2009:18)
4. Fougeron & Smith (1993:73)
5. Mangold (2005:51)
6. Shosted & Chikovani (2006:255)
7. "Projekt Rastko Kaszuby - Fonetyka i fonologia". Archived from the original on 2014-11-02. Retrieved 2013-11-18.
8. Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999), p. 156.
9. 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).
10. Dubisz, Karaś & Kolis (1995:62)
11. Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91)
12. Medina (2010)
13. Mateus & d'Andrade (2000)
14. Silva (2003:32)
15. Guimarães (2004)
16. Borgstrom (1937:118) harvcoltxt error: no target: CITEREFBorgstrom1937 (help)
17. Dąbrowska (2004:?)
18. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:258)
19. 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.
20. Merrill (2008:108)
21. Goeman & van de Velde (2001:94–98, 101–102)
22. Goeman & van de Velde (2001:95–97, 102)
23. Broderick (1986:17–18)

References

• 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

External links

• List of languages with [ʒ] on PHOIBLE