Voiced retroflex sibilant

Voiced retroflex sibilant
ʐ
IPA number	137
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʐ
Unicode (hex)	U+0290
X-SAMPA	z`
Kirshenbaum	z.
Braille
Image
Sound
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The voiced retroflex fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʐ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is z`.Like all the retroflex consonants, the IPA symbol is formed by adding a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of a zee (the letter used for the corresponding alveolar consonant).

Some scolars transcribe the laminal variant of this sound as /ʒ/, even though it is not palatalized. In such cases the voiced palato-alveolar sibilant is transcribed /ʒʲ/.

Features

Features of the voiced retroflex 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 retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical sub-apical articulation, the tongue contact can be apical (pointed) or laminal (flat).

• 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 [ʐ̺] and laminal [ʐ̻].

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		абжа	[ˈabʐa]	'half'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe		жъы	[ʐə]	'old'
Chinese	Mandarin	肉 ròu	[ʐoʊ̯˥˩]	'meat'	May also be a retroflex approximant ([ɻ]). See Mandarin phonology
Faroese		renn	[ʐɛn]	'run'
Italian	Marked accents of Emilia-Romagna[1]	caso	[ˈkäːʐo]	'case'	Apical;[1] may be [z̺ʲ] or [ʒ] instead.[1] It corresponds to [z] in standard Italian. See Italian phonology
Marrithiyel	Marri Tjevin dialect	[wiˈɲaʐu]		'they are laughing'	Voicing is non-contrastive.
Pashto	Southern dialect	تږى‎	[ˈtəʐai]	'thirsty'	See Pashto phonology
Polish	Standard[2]	żona	[ˈʐ̠ɔn̪ä]	'wife'	Also represented by ⟨rz⟩ and when written so, it can be instead pronounced as the raised alveolar non-sonorant trill by few speakers.[3] It is transcribed as /ʒ/ by most Polish scholars. See Polish phonology
	Southeastern Cuyavian dialects[4]	zapłacił	[ʐäˈpwät͡ɕiw]	'he paid'	Some speakers. It's a result of hypercorrecting the more popular merger of /ʐ/ and /z/ into [z].
	Suwałki dialect[5]
Russian[2]		кожа	[ˈko̞ʐə]	'skin'	See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian		жут / žut	[ʐûːt̪]	'yellow'	Laminal. It may be palato-alveolar instead, depending on the dialect. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Sicilian		riccu	[ˈʐikːu]	'rich'
Slovak[6]		žaba	[ˈʐaba]	'frog'
Tilquiapan Zapotec[7]		?	[ʐan]	'bottom, beneath'
Torwali[8]		?	[ʂuʐ]	'straight'
Ubykh		[ʐa]		'firewood'	See Ubykh phonology
Vietnamese	Southern dialects	rô	[ʐow]	'diamond'	See Vietnamese phonology
Yi		ꏜ ry	[ʐʐ̩˧]	'grass'

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

References

Bibliography

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 IPA pulmonic consonantschart image • audio Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Radical Glottal ↓ Manner Bilabial Labio­dental Dental Alveolar Palato­alveolar Retroflex Alveolopalatal Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Epiglottal Nasal m̥ m ɱ n̥ n ɳ̊ ɳ ɲ̊ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ Stop p b p̪ b̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Sibilant fricative s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ Non-sibilant fricative ɸ β f v θ ð θ̱ ð̠ ɹ̠̊˔ ɹ̠˔ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Approximant ʋ ɹ ɻ̊ ɻ j̊ j ɰ̊ ɰ Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ̥ ɾ ɽ̊ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̯ Trill ʙ r̥ r ɽ͡r̥ ɽ͡r ʀ̥ ʀ ᴙ * Lateral fricative ɬ ɮ ꞎ * ʎ̥˔ ʎ̝ ʟ̝̊ ʟ̝ Lateral approximant l̥ l ɭ̊ ɭ ʎ̥ ʎ ʟ ʟ̠ Lateral flap ɺ ɺ̢ * ʎ̯ ʟ̆ Non-pulmonic consonants Clicks ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ ‼ ʞ 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 tθ dð tʃ dʒ tɕ dʑ ʈʂ ɖʐ tɬ dɮ cç ɟʝ cʎ̝̥ kx kʟ̝̊ ɡʟ̝ qχ 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 ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ •əɵ̞ •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ ɐ •aɶ •äɒ̈ •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open IPA help • chart •  chart with audio • view