Voiced palato-alveolar sibilant

Voiced palato-alveolar sibilant
ʒ
IPA Number	135
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʒ
Unicode (hex)	U+0292
X-SAMPA	Z
Braille
Image

The voiced palato-alveolar sibilant fricative or voiced domed postalveolar sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʒ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is Z. An alternative symbol used in some older and American linguistic literature is ⟨ž⟩, a z with a háček. The sound occurs in many languages and, as in English and French, may have simultaneous lip rounding ([ʒʷ]), although this is rarely indicated in transcription.

Although present in English, the sound is not represented by a specific letter or digraph, but is formed by yod-coalescence of [z] and [j] in words such as measure. It also appears in some loanwords, mainly from French (thus written with ⟨g⟩ and ⟨j⟩), In some transcriptions of alphabets such as Cyrillic, as well as the Wikipedia pronunciation respelling for English, the sound is represented by the digraph zh.

Some scholars use the symbol /ʒ/ to transcribe the laminal variant of the voiced retroflex sibilant. In such cases, the voiced palato-alveolar sibilant is transcribed /ʒʲ/.

palato-alveolar fricative [ʃ, ʒ]

Features

Features of the voiced palato-alveolar 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 palato-alveolar, that is, domed (partially palatalized) postalveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the front of the tongue bunched up ("domed") at 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

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		жакӀэ	<phonos file="Zhacha.ogg">[ʒaːtʃʼa]</phonos>	'beard'
Albanian		zhurmë	[ʒuɾmə]	'noise'
Angas		zhaam	[ʒaːm]	'chin'
Arabic	Maghrebi	زوج	[zuʒ]	'husband'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern	ժամ	<phonos file="ʒɑm.ogg">[ʒɑm]</phonos>	'hour'
Avar		жакъа	[ˈʒaqʼːa]	'today'
Azerbaijani		pəjmürdə/پژمرده	[pæʒmyrˈdæ]	'sad'
Berber	Kabyle	jeddi	[ʒəddi]	'my grandfather'
Berta		[ŋɔ̀nʒɔ̀ʔ]		'honey'
Bulgarian		мъжът	[mɐˈʒɤ̞t]	'the man'
Chechen		жий / ƶiy	[ʒiː]	'sheep'
Chinese	Quzhou dialect of Wu	床	[ʒɑ̃]	'bed'
Corsican		ghjesgia	[ˈjeːʒa]	'church'	Also in Gallurese
Czech		muži	[ˈmuʒɪ]	'men'	See Czech phonology
Dutch		garage	[ɣäˈräːʒə]	'garage'	See Dutch phonology
English		vision	[ˈvɪʒən]	'vision'	See English phonology
Esperanto		manĝaĵo	[maɲˈd͡ʒaʒo̞]	'food'	See Esperanto phonology
French		jour	[ʒuʁ]	'day'	See French phonology
German		Garage	[ɡaˈʁaːʒə]	'garage'	See German phonology
Georgian		ჟურნალი	[ʒuɾnali]	'magazine'
Goemai		zhiem	[ʒiem]	'sickle'
Greek	Cypriot	γαλάζ̌ο	[ɣ̞ɐˈlɐʒːo̞]	'sky blue'
Gwich’in		zhòh	[ʒôh]	'wolf'
Hän		zhùr	[ʒûr]	'wolf'
Hebrew		ז׳אנר	[ʒaneʁ]	'genre'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindi		अझ़दहा	[əʒd̪əhaː]	'dragon'	See Hindi–Urdu phonology
Hungarian		rózsa	[ˈr̪oːʒɒ]	'rose'	See Hungarian phonology
Ingush		жий/žii	[ʒiː]	'sheep'
Italian	Marked accents of Emilia-Romagna	caso	[ˈkäːʒo]	'case'	Apical; not labialized; may be [z̺ʲ] or [ʐ] instead. It corresponds to [z] in standard Italian. See Italian phonology
	Tuscan	pigiare	[piˈʒare]	'press'	See Italian phonology
Judaeo-Spanish		mujer	[muˈʒɛʀ]	'woman'
Juǀ'hoan		[ʒu]		'person'
Kabardian		жыг	[ʒəɣʲ]	'tree'
Kashubian
Kazakh		жеті	[ʒeti]	'seven'
Latvian		žāvēt	[ˈʒäːveːt̪]	'to dry'	See Latvian phonology
Ligurian		lüxe	['ly:ʒe]	'light'
Limburgish	Maastrichtian	zjuweleer	[ʒy̠β̞əˈleːʀ̝̊]	'jeweller'	Laminal post-alveolar with an unclear amount of palatalization.
Lithuanian		žmona	[ʒmoːˈn̪ɐ]	'wife'	See Lithuanian phonology
Livonian		kūž	[kuːʒ]	'six'
Lombard	Western	resgiôra	[reˈʒu(ː)ra]	'matriarch'
Macedonian		жaбa	[ˈʒaba]	'toad'	See Macedonian phonology
Megrelian		ჟირი	[ʒiɾi]	'two'
Navajo		łizh	[ɬiʒ]	'urine'
Ngwe	Mmockngie dialect	[ʒíá]		'to split'
Occitan	Auvergnat	argent	[aʀʒẽ]	'money'	Southern dialects
	Gascon		[arʒen]
Pashto		ژوول	[ʒowul]	'chew'
Persian		مژه	[moʒe]	'eyelash'	See Persian phonology
Polish	Gmina Istebna	zielony	[ʒɛˈlɔn̪ɘ]	'green'	/ʐ/ and /ʑ/ merge into [ʒ] in these dialects. In standard Polish, /ʒ/ is commonly used to transcribe what actually is a laminal voiced retroflex sibilant.
	Lubawa dialect
	Malbork dialect
	Ostróda dialect
	Warmia dialect
Portuguese	European	beringela	[bɯ̟ɾĩˈʒɛlɐ]	'eggplant'	National spellings diverge in its representation with ⟨j⟩ or ⟨g⟩ in many words. There is some dispute as to whether the sound is palato-alveolar or alveolo-palatal in Brazilian. See Portuguese phonology
	Brazilian	jenipapo	[ʒẽ̞n̠ʲiˈpapu]	'genipap'
Romanian		jar	[ʒar]	'embers'	See Romanian phonology
Serbo-Croatian		жут / žut	[ʒûːt̪]	'yellow'	May be laminal retroflex instead, depending on the dialect. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Silesian	Gmina Istebna				These dialects merge /ʐ/ and /ʑ/ into [ʒ].
	Jablunkov
Sioux	Lakota	waŋži	[wãˈʒi]	'one'
Slovenian		žito	[ʒito]	'cereal'
Spanish	Rioplatense	yo	[ʒo̞]	'I'	Some dialects. See Spanish phonology and yeísmo
Tadaksahak		[ˈʒɐwɐb]		'to answer'
Tagish		[ʒé]		'what'
Turkish		jale	[ʒäːlɛ]	'dew'	See Turkish phonology
Turkmen		žiraf	[ʒiraf]	'giraffe'
Tutchone	Northern	zhi	[ʒi]	'what'
	Southern	zhǜr	[ʒɨ̂r]	'berry'
Ukrainian		жaбa	[ˈʒɑbɐ]	'frog'	See Ukrainian phonology
Urdu		اژدہا	[əʒd̪ahaː]	'dragon'	See Hindi–Urdu phonology
Veps		vīž	[viːʒ]	'five'
Welayta		[aʒa]		'bush'
West Frisian		bagaazje	[bɑˈɡaʒǝ]	'luggage'
Yiddish		אָראַנזש	[ɔʀanʒ]	'orange'	See Yiddish phonology
Zapotec	Tilquiapan	llan	[ʒaŋ]	'anger'

The sound in Russian denoted by ⟨ж⟩ is commonly transcribed as a palato-alveolar fricative but is actually a laminal retroflex fricative.

Voiced postalveolar non-sibilant fricative

Voiced postalveolar non-sibilant fricative
ɹ̠˔
IPA Number	151 414 429
Encoding
X-SAMPA	r\_-_r

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 ⟨ɹ̠˔⟩ (retracted constricted [ɹ]). The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r\_-_r.

Features

• 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. However, it does not have the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.
• Its place of articulation is postalveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge.
• 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
Dutch		meer	[meːɹ̠˔]	'lake'	A rare post-vocallic allophone of /r/. Realization of /r/ varies considerably among dialects. See Dutch phonology

See also

• Ezh
• Index of phonetics articles