Voiced alveolar fricative

The voiced alveolar fricatives are consonantal sounds. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents these sounds depends on whether a sibilant or non-sibilant fricative is being described.

• The symbol for the alveolar sibilant is ⟨z⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is z. The IPA letter ⟨z⟩ is not normally used for dental or postalveolar sibilants unless modified by a diacritic (⟨z̪⟩ and ⟨z̠⟩ respectively).
• The IPA symbol for the alveolar non-sibilant fricative is derived by means of diacritics; it can be ⟨ð̠⟩ or ⟨ɹ̝⟩.

Voiced alveolar sibilant

Voiced alveolar sibilant
z
IPA number	133
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	z
Unicode (hex)	U+007A
X-SAMPA	z
Kirshenbaum	z
Braille
Sound
source · help

The voiced alveolar sibilant is common across European languages but is relatively uncommon cross-linguistically compared to the voiceless variant. Only about 28% of the world's languages contain a voiced dental or alveolar sibilant. Moreover, 85% of the languages with some form of [z] are languages of Europe, Africa or Western Asia.

In the eastern half of Asia, the Pacific and the Americas, [z] is very rare as a phoneme. The presence of [z] in a given language always implies the presence of a voiceless [s].^{[citation needed]}

Features

Features of the voiced 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 passive articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with the tongue at the alveolar ridge just behind the gums.
• Its place of active articulation is usually laminal, meaning that the tongue blade (the part just behind the top) contacts the alveolar ridge, with the tongue tip resting behind the lower front teeth roots.

• 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

In the following transcriptions, diacritics may be used to distinguish between apical [z̺] and laminal [z̻].

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		зы	[ˈzə] (help·info)	'one'
Albanian		zjarr	[zjar]	'fire'
Arabic	Standard[1]	زائِر	[ˈzaːʔir]	'visitor'	See Arabic phonology
Breton		iliz	[iliz]	'church'
Chechen		зурма / zurma	[zuɾma]	'music'
Dutch	Standard[2]	zee	[zeː]	'sea'	See Dutch phonology
	Friesland	ezel	[ˈeɪ̯zəɫ]	'donkey'	It is always devoiced if word initially. See Dutch phonology
English		size	[saɪ̯z]	'size'	Absent from some Scottish and Asian dialects. See English phonology
Georgian[3]		ზარი	[ˈzɑɾi]	'bell'
German	Standard[4]	sauber	[ˈzäʊ̯bɐ]	'clean'	Voiceless in southern varieties; may be post-dental instead. See German phonology
Greek	Athens dialect[5]	ζάλη záli	[ˈz̻ali]	'dizziness'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew		זאב	[zeʔˈev]	'wolf'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindi		ज़मीन	[zəmiːn]	'land'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Hungarian		zálog	[ˈzaːloɡ]	'pledge'	See Hungarian phonology
Japanese[6]		全部 zenbu	[zembɯ]	'everything'	See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		зы	[ˈzə] (help·info)	'one'
Kala Lagaw Ya		zilamiz	[zilʌmiz]	'go'
Kashmiri		ज़ानुन, زانُن	[zaːnun]	'to know'
Malay		zaman	[zaman]	'age, period'
Maltese		żelu	[zelu]	'zeal'
Marathi		जर	[zər]	'if'	See Marathi phonology.
Mirandese		daprendizaige	[dɐpɾẽdiˈz̻ajʒ(ɯ̟)]	'learning'	Mirandese and neighboring Portuguese dialects were the only surviving oral tradition to preserve all seven mediaeval Ibero-Romance sibilants: ⟨ch⟩ /tʃ/, ⟨x⟩ /ʃ/, ⟨g⟩/⟨j⟩ /ʒ/, ⟨c⟩/⟨ç⟩ /s̻/, ⟨z⟩ /z̻/, ⟨s⟩/-⟨ss⟩- /s̺/, -⟨s⟩- /z̺/
Occitan	Limousin	jòune	[ˈzɒwne]	'young'	See Occitan phonology
Portuguese[7]		casa	[ˈkazɐ]	'house'	See Portuguese phonology
Spanish	Andalusian	comunismo	[ko̞muˈnizmo̞]	'Communism'	Allophone of /s/ before voiced consonants, when it is not debuccalized to [h ~ ɦ]. Present in dialects which realize /s/ as a non-retracted alveolar fricative. Before /d/ it's always dental [z̪].
	Latin American
	Mexican	zapato	[zäˈpät̪o̞]	'shoe'	Some northern dialects. Corresponds to /s/ in other Mexican dialects, and to /θ/ in Peninsular Spanish. See Spanish phonology
Slovak		zima	[ˈzɪma]	'winter'
Swahili		lazima	[lɑzimɑ]	'must'
Turkish		göz	[ɡœz]	'eye'	See Turkish phonology
Urdu		زمین	[zəmiːn]	'land'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
West Frisian		sizze	[ˈsɪzə]	'to say'	Never occurs in word-initial positions
Yi		ꍂ ssy	[zɿ˧]	'generation'
Yiddish		zien	[zin]	'son'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[8]	guanaz	[ɡʷanaz]

Voiced alveolar fronted sibilant

The voiced alveolar fronted sibilant (commonly termed the voiced dental sibilant) is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. In the International Phonetic Alphabet it's commonly represented as ⟨z̪⟩, a combination of the letter for the voiced alveolar sibilant and a diacritic indicating dental articulation. However, since this consonant is articulated behind the teeth, not against them, a notation ⟨z̟⟩ (a combination of the letter for the voiced alveolar sibilant and a diacritic indicating fronted articulation) would be more appropriate. This article uses ⟨z̪⟩ for simplicity.

Features

Features of the voiced alveolar fronted sibilant:

• 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 alveolar fronted (post-dental), which means it's articulated with the tongue blade against the alveolar ridge, but more front than usual: just behind the upper teeth.
• Its place of active articulation is laminal, meaning that the tongue blade (the part just behind the top) contacts the alveolar ridge, with the tongue tip resting behind the lower front teeth.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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
Armenian	Eastern[9]	զարդ	[z̪ɑɾt̪ʰ] (help·info)	'decoration'
Belarussian[10]		база	[ˈbäz̪ä]	'base'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Belarusian phonology
Bulgarian[11]		езеро	[ˈɛz̪ɛro]	'lake'	Contrasts with palatalized form.
Chinese	Suzhou dialect[12]
Czech[13]		zima	[ˈz̪ɪmä]	'winter'	See Czech phonology
French[14]		zèbre	[z̪ɛbʁ]	'zebra'	See French phonology
German	Standard[4]	sauber	[ˈz̪äʊ̯bɐ]	'clean'	Voiceless in southern varieties; may be alveolar non-fronted instead. See German phonology
Italian[15]		caso	[ˈkäz̪o]	'case'	See Italian phonology
Kashubian[16]
Kyrgyz[17]		заң	[z̪äŋ]	'law'
Latvian[18]		zars	[z̪ärs̪]	'branch'	See Latvian phonology
Macedonian[19]		зошто	[ˈz̪o̞ʃt̪o̞]	'why'	See Macedonian phonology
Polish[20]		zero	[ˈz̪ɛrɔ] (help·info)	'zero'	See Polish phonology
Romanian[21]		zar	[z̪är]	'dice'	See Romanian phonology
Russian[22]		заезжать zaezžat'	[z̪əɪˈʑʑætʲ] (help·info)	'to pick up'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian[23]		зима / zima	[z̪ǐːmä]	'winter'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Ukrainian[24]		зуб	[z̪ub]	'tooth'	See Ukrainian phonology
Upper Sorbian[25]		koza	[ˈkoz̪ä]	'goat'
Uzbek[26]
Vietnamese	Hanoi[27]	da	[z̪äː]	'skin'	See Vietnamese phonology

Voiced alveolar retracted sibilant

The voiced alveolar retracted sibilant, [z̺], is a fricative which is articulated with the tip of the tongue (apex) against the alveolar ridge. It is the sibilant found in dialects of central and northern Portuguese, several dialects of European Spanish, Antioqueño Spanish, Catalan, Gascon, Languedocien Occitan, and Modern Greek. Often to speakers of languages or dialects which do not have an alveolar retracted sibilant, they are said to have a "whistling" quality.

Features

Features of the voiced alveolar retracted sibilant:

• 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 passive articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with the tongue at the alveolar ridge just behind the gums.
• Its place of active articulation is normally apical, which means it is pronounced with the very tip of the tongue.

• 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

Voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative

The voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative is a consonantal sound. As the International Phonetic Alphabet does not have separate symbols for the alveolar consonants (the same symbol is used for all coronal places of articulation that aren't palatalized), it can represent this sound as in a number of ways including ⟨ð̠⟩ or ⟨ð͇⟩ (retracted or alveolarized ⟨ð⟩, respectively), or ⟨ɹ̝⟩ (constricted ⟨ɹ⟩).

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 alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.

• 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

See also

• Tongue shape
• Apical consonant
• Laminal consonant
• Index of phonetics articles

References

Bibliography

v t e   International Phonetic Alphabet   IPA topics IPA International Phonetic Association History of the IPA Extensions to the IPA 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 v t e IPA pulmonic consonantschart image • audio Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Radical Glottal ↓ Manner Bila­bial Labio-​dental Den​tal Alve​olar Post­alveolar Retro​flex Alveolo-​palatal Pal​a​tal Ve​lar Uvu​lar Pha​ryn​geal Epi​glot​tal Glot​tal Nasal m̥ m ɱ n̪ n̥ n n̠ ɳ̊ ɳ ɲ̟ ɲ̊ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ Stop p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Sibilant fricative s̪ z̪ s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ Non-sibilant fricative ɸ β f v θ ð θ̱ ð̠ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Approximant ʋ ɹ ɻ j̊ j ɰ Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̯ Trill ʙ r̥ r ɽ͡r ʀ ᴙ * Lateral fricative ɬ ɮ ꞎ * ʎ̝̊ ʟ̝̊ ʟ̝ Lateral approximant l̥ l ɭ ʎ̟ ʎ ʟ Lateral flap ɺ ɺ̢ * ʎ̯ ʟ̆ Non-pulmonic consonants Clicks ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ ʘ̃ ʘ̃ˀ ʘ͡q ʘ͡qʼ ‼ Implosives ɓ̥ ɓ ɗ̥ ɗ ᶑ ʄ̊ ʄ ɠ ʛ Ejectives pʼ t̪ʼ tʼ ʈʼ cʼ kʼ qʼ fʼ θʼ sʼ ɬʼ ʃʼ ʂʼ ɕʼ xʼ χʼ tsʼ tɬʼ cʎ̝̥ʼ tʃʼ ʈʂʼ kxʼ kʟ̝̊ʼ qχʼ Affricates p̪f b̪v ts dz t̪s̪ d̪z̪ tθ dð tʃ dʒ tɕ dʑ ʈʂ ɖʐ tɬ dɮ cç ɟʝ cʎ̥˔ kx ɡɣ kʟ̝̊ ɡʟ̝ qχ ɢʁ Co-articulated consonants Continuants ʍ w ɥ ɧ Occlusives k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m — 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. — Symbols marked with an asterisk (*) are not defined in the IPA. Chart image Pulmonics Non-pulmonics Affricates Co-articulated   Vowels Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ •ɯ̽ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ ə •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ æ ɐ •aɶ ä •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open IPA help • chart •  chart with audio • view