Voiced palatal fricative

Voiced palatal fricative
ʝ
IPA number	139
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʝ
Unicode (hex)	U+029D
X-SAMPA	j\
Kirshenbaum	C<vcd>
Braille
Image
Sound
source · help

The voiced palatal fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʝ⟩ (crossed-tail j), or in broad transcription ⟨j⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is j\.

The voiced palatal fricative is a very rare sound, occurring in only seven of the 317 languages surveyed by the original UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database. In four of the languages listed below (Kabyle, Margi, Modern Greek, and Scottish Gaelic) this sound occurs phonemically along with its voiceless counterpart and in several more as a result of phonological processes.

There is also a voiced post-palatal fricative (also called pre-velar, fronted velar etc.) in some languages.

Features

Features of the voiced palatal fricative:

• 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.
• Its place of articulation is palatal, which means it is articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised to the hard 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

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Asturian		frayar	[fɾäˈʝär]	'to destroy'
Berber	Kabyle	cceǥ	[ʃʃəʝ]	'to slip'
Catalan	Majorcan	figuera	[fiˈʝeɾə]	'fig tree'	Occurs in complementary distribution with [ɟ]. Corresponds to [ɣ] in other varieties. See Catalan phonology
Danish	Standard	talg	[ˈtˢælˀʝ]	'tallow'	Possible word-final allophone of /j/ when it occurs after /l/. See Danish phonology
Dutch	Southern	geld	[ʝ̠ɛl̪t̪]	'money'	Post-palatal; more back in other dialects. See Hard and soft G in Dutch and Dutch phonology
Greek	Cypriot	ελιά	[e̞ˈʝːɐ]	'olive'	Allophone of /ʎ/
	Standard Modern	γένος	[ˈʝ̠e̞no̞s̠ ]	'gender'	Post-palatal. See Modern Greek phonology
Hungarian		dobj be	[dobʝ bɛ]	'throw (one/some) in'	An allophone of /j/. See Hungarian phonology
Irish		an ghrian	[ənʲ ˈʝɾʲiən̪ˠ]	'the sun'	See Irish phonology
Italian	Southern dialects	figlio	[ˈfiʝːo]	'son'	Corresponds to /ʎ/ in standard Italian. See Italian phonology
Limburgish	Weert dialect	gèr	[ʝ̠ɛ̈ːʀ̝̊]	'gladly'	Post-palatal; allophone of /ɣ/ before and after front vowels.
Norwegian	Standard Eastern	gi	[ʝiː]	'to give'	Allophone of /j/, especially before and after close vowels and in energetic speech. See Norwegian phonology
Pashto	Ghilji and Wardak dialects	موږ	[muʝ]	'we'
Ripuarian		zeije	[ˈt͡sɛʝə]	'to show'
Scottish Gaelic		dhiubh	[ʝu]	'of them'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Spanish		sayo	[ˈsaʝo̞]	'smock'	More often is an approximant. May also be represented by ⟨ll⟩ in most dialects. See Yeísmo
Swedish		jord	[ʝuːɖ]	'soil'	See Swedish phonology

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

Bibliography

• Arvaniti, Amalia (2007), "Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art" (PDF), Journal of Greek Linguistics, 8: 97–208, doi:10.1075/jgl.8.08arv
• Arvaniti, Amalia (2010), "A (brief) review of Cypriot Phonetics and Phonology", The Greek Language in Cyprus from Antiquity to the Present Day (PDF), University of Athens, pp. 107–124CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, ISBN 0-203-97876-5
• Engstrand, Olle (1999), "Swedish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 140–142, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
• Gósy, Mária (2004), Fonetika, a beszéd tudománya (in Hungarian), Budapest: OsirisCS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
• Heijmans, Linda; Gussenhoven, Carlos (1998), "The Dutch dialect of Weert" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 28: 107–112, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006307
• Henderson, Michael M. T. (1983), "Four Varieties of Pashto", Journal of the American Oriental Society, American Oriental Society, 103 (3): 595–597, JSTOR 602038
• Kristoffersen, Gjert (2000), The Phonology of Norwegian, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-823765-5
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
• Nicolaidis, Katerina (2003), "An Electropalatographic Study of Palatals in Greek", in D. Theophanopoulou-Kontou; C. Lascaratou; M. Sifianou; M. Georgiafentis; V. Spyropoulos (eds.), Current trends in Greek Linguistics (in Greek), Athens: Patakis, pp. 108–127CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
• Ó Sé, Diarmuid (2000), Gaeilge Chorca Dhuibhne (in Irish), Dublin: Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann, ISBN 0-946452-97-0CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
• Oftedal, M. (1956), The Gaelic of Leurbost, Oslo: Norsk Tidskrift for Sprogvidenskap
• Skaug, Ingebjørg (2003) [First published 1996], Norsk språklydlære med øvelser (3rd ed.), Oslo: Cappelen Akademisk Forlag AS, ISBN 82-456-0178-0
• Strandskogen, Åse-Berit (1979), Norsk fonetikk for utlendinger, Oslo: Gyldendal, ISBN 82-05-10107-8
• Vanvik, Arne (1979), Norsk fonetikk, Oslo: Universitetet i Oslo, ISBN 82-990584-0-6
• Wheeler, Max W (2005), The Phonology Of Catalan, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-925814-7