Voiced alveolo-palatal fricative

Voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant (vector)

Voiced alveolo-palatal fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) that represents this sound is ⟨ʑ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is z\`.

Characteristics

The voiced alveolo-palatal fricative is a type of consonantal sound that is made with the blade of the tongue close to the alveolar ridge and the body of the tongue raised towards the palate, creating a narrow constriction through which air flows with a turbulent noise. This sound is voiced, meaning the vocal cords vibrate during its production.

Features

The features of the voiced alveolo-palatal fricative are:

• Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means the sound is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
• Its place of articulation is alveolo-palatal. This means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue raised towards the palate.
• 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

The voiced alveolo-palatal fricative occurs in languages such as Polish, where it is represented by the letter ⟨ź⟩ or ⟨zi⟩ in certain contexts, and in Mandarin Chinese, where it is represented by the pinyin letters ⟨j⟩. Its occurrence is not as widespread as that of the voiced alveolar fricative or the voiced palatal fricative, making it a relatively less common sound in the world's languages.

See also

• List of phonetics topics