Voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant

Voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant
ɕ
IPA number	182
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɕ
Unicode (hex)	U+0255
X-SAMPA	s\
Kirshenbaum	S;
Braille
Image
Sound
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The voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some oral languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɕ⟩ ("c", plus the curl also found in its voiced counterpart ⟨ʑ⟩).

Features

alveolo-palatal sibilant fricatives [ɕ, ʑ]

Features of the voiceless alveolo-palatal 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 alveolo-palatal. This means that:
  • Its place of articulation is postalveolar, meaning that the tongue contacts the roof of the mouth in the area behind the alveolar ridge (the gum line).
  • Its tongue shape is laminal, meaning that it is the tongue blade that contacts the roof of the mouth.
  • It is heavily palatalized, meaning that the middle of the tongue is bowed and raised towards the hard palate.

• Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.

• 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

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		щы	[ɕə]	'three'
Catalan	Eastern and Majorcan[1]	caixa	[ˈkaɕə]	'box'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Mandarin	西安/Xī'ān	[ɕí.án]	'Xi'an'	Contrasts with /ʂ/ and /s/. See Mandarin phonology
Chuvash		çиçĕм	[ˈɕiɕ̬əm]	'lightning'	Contrasts with /ʂ/ and /s/.
Danish		sjæl	[ɕeˀl]	'soul'	See Danish phonology
Dutch	Some speakers	sjabloon	[ɕäˈbloːn]	'template'	May be [ʃ] or [sʲ] instead. See Dutch phonology
Guarani	Paraguayan	che	[ɕɛ]	'I'
Japanese[2]		塩/shio	[ɕi.o]	'salt'	See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		щэ	[ɕa]	'hundred'
Korean		시/si	[ɕi]	'poem'	See Korean phonology
Lower Sorbian[3]		pśijaśel	[ˈpɕijäɕɛl]	'friend'
Luxembourgish[4]		liicht	[liːɕt]	'light'	Allophone of /χ/ after phonologically front vowels; some speakers merge it with [ʃ].[4] See Luxembourgish phonology
Norwegian		sjel	[ɕe:l]	'soul'	See Norwegian phonology
Pashto	Wazirwola dialect	لښکي‎	[ˈləɕki]	'little, slight'
Polish[5]		śruba	[ˈɕrubä]	'screw'	Contrasts with /ʂ/ and /s/. See Polish phonology
Portuguese[6]	Brazilian	mexendo	[me̞ˈɕẽ̞du]	'moving'	Allophonic variation of /ʃ/. Contrasts with other sibilants only in onset. Argued both to be laminal [ʃ],[7] and generally produced "in the middle of the hard palate",[6] same of fellow alveolo-palatal [l̠ʲ] and [n̠ʲ],[8] and further palatalized than Italian post-alveolars.[9] Found in coda mainly before fricative, coronal and palatalized consonants in Brazil.[10][11] See Portuguese phonology
	European (?)	mesclas	[ˈmɛɕklɐɕ]	'mixtures'
	Carioca
	Many Brazilian dialects	estatísticas	[i̥ɕtaˈtɕiɕtɕikɐs]	'statistics'
	Some speakers		[i̥staˈtɕiɕːikɐs]
Romanian	Transylvanian dialects[12]	ce	[ɕɛ]	'what'	Realized as [tʃ] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Russian		счастье	[ˈɕːæsʲtʲjə]	'happiness'	Also represented by ⟨щ⟩. Contrasts with /ʂ/, /s/, and /sʲ/. See Russian phonology
Sema[13][14]		ashi	[à̠ɕì]	'meat'	Possible allophone of /ʃ/ before /i, e/.[13][14]
Serbo-Croatian	Croatian[15]	miš će	[mîɕ t͡ɕe̞]	'the mouse will'	Allophone of /ʃ/ before /t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ/.[15] See Serbo-Croatian phonology
	Some speakers of Montenegrin	śutra	[ɕutra]	'tomorrow'	Phonemically /sj/ or, in some cases, /s/.
Swedish	Finland	sjok	[ɕuːk]	'chunk'	Allophone of /ɧ/.
	Sweden	kjol	[ɕuːl]	'skirt'	See Swedish phonology
Tibetan	Lhasa dialect	བཞི་	[ɕi˨˧]	'four'	Contrasts with /ʂ/.
Uzbek[16]
Xumi	Lower[17]	[RPd͡ʑi ɕɐ]		'one hundred'
	Upper[18]	[RPd͡ʑi ɕɜ]
Yi		ꑟ/xi	[ɕi˧]	'thread'

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 Laryngeal ↓ Manner Bilabial Labio­dental Linguo­labial Dental Alveolar Palato- alveolar Retroflex Alveolo- palatal Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal / Epiglottal Glottal Nasal m̥ m ɱ n̼̊ n̼ n̥ n ɳ̊ ɳ ɲ̊ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ̥ ɴ Stop p b p̪ b̪ t̼ d̼ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Sibilant affricate ts dz tʃ dʒ ʈʂ ɖʐ tɕ dʑ Non-sibilant affricate pɸ bβ p̪f b̪v tθ dð tθ̠ dð̠ t̠ɹ̠̊˔ d̠ɹ̠˔ cç ɟʝ kx ɡɣ qχ ɢʁ ʡħ ʡʕ ʔh Sibilant fricative s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ Non-sibilant fricative ɸ β f v θ̼ ð̼ θ ð θ̱ ð̠ ɹ̠̊˔ ɹ̠˔ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ h ɦ ʔ̞ Approximant ɸ˕ ʋ θ̞ ɹ̥ ɹ ɻ̊ ɻ j̊ j ɰ̊ ɰ Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ̼ ɾ̥ ɾ ɽ̊ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̮ Trill ʙ r̼ r̥ r ɽr̥ ɽr ʀ̥ ʀ ʜ ʢ Lateral affricate tɬ dɮ ʈɭ̊˔ cʎ̥˔ kʟ̝̊ ɡʟ̝ Lateral fricative ɬ ɮ ɭ̊˔ ʎ̥˔ ʎ̝ ʟ̝̊ ʟ̝ Lateral approximant l̼ l̥ l ɭ̊ ɭ ʎ̥ ʎ ʟ ʟ̠ Lateral flap ɺ̼ ɺ ɭ̆ ʎ̮ ʟ̆ Non-pulmonic consonants Simple clicks ʘ ʘ̬ ʘ̃ ǀ ǀ̬ ǀ̃ ǃ ǃ̬ ǃ̃ ǂ ǂ̬ ǂ̃ ǁ ǁ̬ ǁ̃ ǃ˞ ǃ̬˞ ǃ̃˞ Other clicks ʘ̃ˀ ʘˀ ˀʘ̃ ʘ͡q ʘ͡qχ ʘ͡qʼ ʘ͡qχʼ ¡ ʞ Implosives ɓ ɗ ᶑ ʄ ɠ ʛ ɓ̥ ɗ̥ ᶑ̥ ʄ̊ ɠ̊ ʛ̥  Ejectives pʼ tʼ ʈʼ cʼ kʼ qʼ ʡʼ fʼ θʼ sʼ ɬʼ ʃʼ ʂʼ ɕʼ xʼ χʼ tsʼ tɬʼ tʃʼ ʈʂʼ tɕʼ cʎ̝̥ʼ kxʼ kʟ̝̊ʼ qχʼ Co-articulated consonants Continuants ʍ w ɥ̊ ɥ ɫ Occlusives k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m ɧ t͡p d͡b n͡m q͡ʡ — 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 or not distinctive. 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 •əɵ̞ •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ •ɐɞ̞ •aɶ •äɒ̈ •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open IPA help • chart •  chart with audio • view