A voiced postalveolar fricative is a type of
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced ...
al sound used in some
spoken language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
s. The
International Phonetic Association uses term ''voiced postalveolar fricative'' only for the sound
,
but it also describes the
voiced postalveolar non-sibilant fricative
A voiced postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The International Phonetic Association uses term ''voiced postalveolar fricative'' only for the sound , but it also describes the voiced postalveo ...
, for which there are significant perceptual differences.
Voiced palato-alveolar fricative
The voiced palato-alveolar fricative or voiced domed postalveolar fricative is a type of
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced ...
al sound, used in some
spoken language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
s.
Transcription
The symbol in the
International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is the lower case form of the letter
Ezh
Ezh (Ʒ ʒ) , also called the "tailed z", is a letter whose lower case form is used in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), representing the voiced postalveolar fricative consonant. For example, the pronunciation of "si" in ''vi ...
(), and the equivalent
X-SAMPA
The Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet (X-SAMPA) is a variant of SAMPA developed in 1995 by John C. Wells, professor of phonetics at University College London. It is designed to unify the individual language SAMPA alphabets, a ...
symbol is
Z
. An alternative symbol used in some older and American linguistic literature is , a ''z'' with a
caron
A caron (), háček or haček (, or ; plural ''háčeks'' or ''háčky'') also known as a hachek, wedge, check, kvačica, strešica, mäkčeň, varnelė, inverted circumflex, inverted hat, flying bird, inverted chevron, is a diacritic mark ( ...
. In some
transcriptions of alphabets such as the
Cyrillic, the sound is represented by the digraph .
Although present in English, the sound is not represented by a specific letter or digraph, but is formed by
yod-coalescence of and in words such as measure. It also appears in some loanwords, mainly from French (thus written with and ).
The sound occurs in many languages and, as in
English and
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
, may have simultaneous
lip rounding (), although this is rarely indicated in transcription.
Features
Features of the voiced palato-alveolar fricative:
Occurrence
The sound in
Russian denoted by is commonly transcribed as a palato-alveolar fricative but is actually a
laminal retroflex fricative.
Voiced postalveolar non-sibilant fricative
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 (
retracted constricted ). The equivalent
X-SAMPA
The Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet (X-SAMPA) is a variant of SAMPA developed in 1995 by John C. Wells, professor of phonetics at University College London. It is designed to unify the individual language SAMPA alphabets, a ...
symbol is
r\_-_r
.
Features
However, it does not have the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.
* Its
place of articulation
In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a consonant is a location along the vocal tract where its production occurs. It is a point where a constriction is made between an active and a passive articul ...
is
postalveolar
Postalveolar or post-alveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but no ...
, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge.
Occurrence
See also
*
Ezh
Ezh (Ʒ ʒ) , also called the "tailed z", is a letter whose lower case form is used in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), representing the voiced postalveolar fricative consonant. For example, the pronunciation of "si" in ''vi ...
*
Voiceless postalveolar fricative
*
Index of phonetics articles
A
* Acoustic phonetics
* Active articulator
* Affricate
* Airstream mechanism
* Alexander John Ellis
* Alexander Melville Bell
* Alfred C. Gimson
* Allophone
* Alveolar approximant ()
* Alveolar click ()
* Alveolar consonant
* Alveolar ...
Notes
References
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External links
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{{IPA navigation
Postalveolar consonants
Fricative consonants
Pulmonic consonants
Voiced oral consonants
Central consonants
Labial–coronal consonants