Voiced postalveolar fricative

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IPA – number	135
IPA – text	ʒ
IPA – image
Entity	ʒ
X-SAMPA	Z
Kirshenbaum	Z
Sound sample (help·info)

The voiced palato-alveolar fricative or domed postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ʒ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is Z. An alternative commonly used in linguistic works, particularly in older or American literature, is ž.

Contents 1 Features 2 In English 3 In other languages 4 Note 5 See also

[edit] Features

Features of the voiced postalveolar fricative:

• Its manner of articulation is sibilant fricative, which means it is produced by directing air flow through a groove in the tongue at the place of articulation and directing it over the sharp edge of the 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 front of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue bunched up ("domed") at the palate.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

[edit] In English

The voiced postalveolar fricative occurs in English, although in only a handful of words, and is the sound denoted by the letter 's' in treasure and the final sound of the word mirage. One of the very few minimal contrasts of the voiced and voiceless postalveolar fricatives (for some dialects only) is the pair of words allusion and Aleutian. It usually occurs medially, but may occur word-initially or word-finally in relatively recent borrowings from French.

In English the sound is labialized, [ʒʷ], although few transcriptions bother with this level of detail.

[edit] In other languages

It also occurs in Belarusian, Bulgarian, Serbian, and Ukrainian, represented by the letter Ж (zhe).^[1]

The sound is more common in Catalan, French, Occitan, and Portuguese, where it is represented by the letters j and g (the latter before e or i). In those languages, the consonant is labialized, [ʒʷ], as in English.

It also occurs in Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Serbian and Latvian, where it is represented by the letter Ž, ž.

It also occurs in Esperanto, represented by the letter Ĵ.

In Hebrew, this sound is represented with the letter 'ז (Zayin with geresh). It is only used in foreign words, mostly French.

It also occurs in Hungarian, represented by the digraph zs (see Hungarian zs).

It also occurs in Ido, represented by the letter J.

It also occurs word-initially and word-medially in Ladino.

In Polish, the sound is represented with the letter ż.

In Romanian, represented by the letter J.

The sound is also notable in Rioplatense Spanish, spoken in Argentina and Uruguay, where the consonant ll takes on the sound.

[edit] Note

1. ^ The Russian language, which might be expected to appear in this list, is omitted, because the analogous Russian phoneme is realized as a laminal retroflex fricative.

[edit] See also

• Ezh
• List of phonetics topics

Consonants (List, table)	See also: IPA, Vowels
Pulmonics Bilabial Lab'den. Dental Alveolar Postalv. Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn. Epiglottal Glottal Non-pulmonics and other symbols Nasals m ɱ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ Clicks  ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ Plosives p b • • t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Implo­­sives  ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ Fricatives ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Ejec­­tives  pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ sʼ Approximants β̞ ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Other laterals  ɺ ɫ Trills ʙ r • ʀ • Co-articulated approximants  ʍ w ɥ Flaps & Taps ѵ̟ ѵ ɾ ɽ • Co-articulated fricatives  ɕ ʑ ɧ Lat. Fricatives ɬ ɮ • • • Affricates  ʦ ʣ ʧ ʤ Lat. Appr'mants l ɭ ʎ ʟ Co-articulated stops  k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m
This page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged impossible.