Voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative

The voiceless alveolo-palatal 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 ⟨ɕ⟩ ("c", plus the curl also found in its voiced counterpart ⟨ʑ⟩). It is the sibilant equivalent of the voiceless palatal fricative, and as such it can be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ç˖⟩.

Voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative
ɕ
IPA Number	182
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɕ
Unicode (hex)	U+0255
X-SAMPA	s\
Braille
Image

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.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

In English

In British Received Pronunciation, /j/ after syllable-initial /p, t, k/ (as in Tuesday) is realized as a devoiced palatal fricative. The amount of devoicing is variable, but the fully voiceless variant tends to be alveolo-palatal [ɕ] in the /tj/ sequence: [ˈt̺ʲɕuːzdeɪ]^ⓘ. It is a fricative, rather than a fricative element of an affricate because the preceding plosive remains alveolar, rather than becoming alveolo-palatal, as in Dutch.^[1]

The corresponding affricate can be written with ⟨t̠ʲ͡ɕ⟩ or ⟨c̟͡ɕ⟩ in narrow IPA, though ⟨tɕ⟩ is normally used in both cases. In the case of English, the sequence can be specified as ⟨t̺ɕ⟩ as /t/ is normally apical (although somewhat palatalized in that sequence), whereas alveolo-palatal consonants are laminal by definition.^[2][3]

An increasing number of British speakers merge this sequence with the voiceless palato-alveolar affricate /tʃ/: [ˈtʃʉːzdeɪ] (see yod-coalescence), mirroring Cockney, Australian English and New Zealand English. On the other hand, there is an opposite tendency in Canadian accents that have preserved /tj/, where the sequence tends to merge with the plain /t/ instead: [ˈt̺ʰʉːzdeɪ]^ⓘ (see yod-dropping), mirroring General American which does not allow /j/ to follow alveolar consonants in stressed syllables.^[4][5][6]

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		щы/šə/شہ‍	[ɕə]ⓘ	'three'
Assamese		ব্ৰিটিছ/British	[bɹitiɕ]	'British'
Bengali		শকুন	[ɕokun]	'Vulture'	May be transliterated as ʃ
Catalan[7]		caixa	[ˈkä(ɪ̯)ɕɐ]	'box'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Some Hokkien dialects	心/sin	[ɕín]	'heart'	Allophone of /s/ before /i/.
	Mandarin	西安/Xī'ān	[ɕí.án]ⓘ	'Xi'an'	Complementary distribution allophone of /ʂ/ in front of high front vowels and palatal glides. See Mandarin phonology.
Chuvash		çиçĕм/şişĕm	[ˈɕiɕ̬əm]	'lightning'	Contrasts with /ʂ/ and /s/. Lenis when intervocalic.
Danish		sjæl	[ˈɕeːˀl]	'soul'	See Danish phonology
Dutch	Some speakers	sjabloon	[ɕäˈbloːn]	'template'	May be [ʃ] or [sʲ] instead. See Dutch phonology
English	Cardiff[8]	human	[ˈɕumːən]	'human'	Phonetic realization of /hj/. More front and more strongly fricated than RP [ç]. Broad varieties drop the /h/: [ˈjumːən].[8] See English phonology
	Conservative Received Pronunciation[1]	tuesday	[ˈt̺ʲɕuːzdeɪ]ⓘ	'Tuesday'	Allophone of /j/ after syllable-initial /t/ (which is alveolar in this sequence), may be only partially devoiced. /tj/ is often realized as an affricate [tʃ] in British English. Mute in General American: [ˈt̺ʰuːzdeɪ]ⓘ.[4][5][6] Typically transcribed with ⟨j⟩ in broad IPA. See English phonology, yod-coalescence and yod-dropping
	Some Canadian English[1][6]
	Ghanaian[9]	ship	[ɕip]	'ship'	Educated speakers may use [ʃ], to which this phone corresponds in other dialects.[9]
Guarani	Paraguayan	che	[ɕɛ]	'I'
Hindi		शनिवार	[ɕəniʋaːr]	Saturday	Sometimes may be transliterated as 'ʃ'
Japanese[10]		塩/shio	[ɕi.o]	'salt'	See Japanese phonology
Korean		시/詩/si	[ɕʰi]	'poem'	See Korean phonology.
Kabardian		щэ/ščè/صە	[ɕa]ⓘ	'hundred'
Lower Sorbian[11]		pśijaśel	[ˈpɕijäɕɛl]	'friend'
Luxembourgish[12]		liicht	[liːɕt]	'light'	Allophone of /χ/ after phonologically front vowels; some speakers merge it with [ʃ].[12] See Luxembourgish phonology
Marathi		शेतकरी/shetkari	[ɕeːt̪kəɾiː]	'farmer'	Contrasts with [ʂ]. Allophone of [ʃ]. See Marathi phonology.
Malayalam		കുരിശ്/kuriś	[kuɾɪɕ]	'Cross'	See Malayalam phonology
Norwegian	Urban East[13]	kjekk	[ɕe̞kː]	'handsome'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ç⟩; less often realized as palatal [ç]. Younger speakers in Bergen, Stavanger and Oslo merge it with /ʂ/.[13] See Norwegian phonology
Polish[14]		śruba	[ˈɕrubä]ⓘ	'screw'	Contrasts with /ʂ/ and /s/. See Polish phonology
Portuguese[15][16][17] [failed verification]		mexendo	[meˈɕẽd̪u]	'moving'	Also described as palato-alveolar [ʃ].[18][19][failed verification] See Portuguese phonology
Romani	Kalderash[20]	ćhavo	[ɕaˈvo]	'Romani boy; son'	Realized as [t͡ʃʰ] in conservative dialects.
Romanian	Transylvanian dialects[21]	ce	[ɕɛ]	'what'	Realized as [t͡ʃ] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Russian		счастье/schast'e	[ˈɕːæsʲtʲjə]ⓘ	'happiness'	Also represented by ⟨щ⟩. Contrasts with /ʂ/, /s/, and /sʲ/. See Russian phonology
Sema[22]		ashi	[à̠ɕì]	'meat'	Possible allophone of /ʃ/ before /i, e/.[22]
Serbo-Croatian	Croatian[23]	miš će	[mîɕ t͡ɕe̞]	'the mouse will'	Allophone of /ʃ/ before /t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ/.[23] See Serbo-Croatian phonology
	Some speakers of Montenegrin	с́утра/śutra	[ɕût̪ra̠]	'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་/bzhi	[ɕi˨˧]	'four'	Contrasts with /ʂ/.
Tatar		өчпочмак/өçpoçmaq	[ˌøɕpoɕˈmɑq]	'triangle'
Uzbek[24]		[example needed]
Xumi	Lower[25]	[d͡ʑi ɕɐ˦]		'one hundred'
	Upper[26]
Yámana (Yahgan)		Šúša	[ɕúɕa]	'penguin'
Yi		ꑟ/xi	[ɕi˧]	'thread'
Zhuang		cib	[ɕǐp]	'ten'

See also

• Index of phonetics articles
• Voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant

References

1. Collins & Mees (2003:172–173), Cruttenden (2014:229–231). The first source specifies the place of articulation of /j/ after /t/ as more front than the main allophone of /j/.
2. Cruttenden (2014), p. 177.
3. Esling (2010), p. 693.
4. Collins & Mees (2003), pp. 173, 306.
5. Cruttenden (2014), pp. 230–231.
6. Chambers, J.K. (1998). "Changes in progress in Canadian English: Yod-dropping". Journal of English Linguistics. Excerpts from article "Social embedding of changes in progress". 26. Canada: U.Toronto. Archived from the original on 29 February 2008. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
7. Recasens & Espinosa (2007:145, 167)
8. Collins & Mees (1990), p. 90.
9. Huber (2004:859)
10. Okada (1999:117)
11. Zygis (2003), pp. 180–181.
12. Gilles & Trouvain (2013), pp. 67–68.
13. Kristoffersen (2000), p. 23.
14. Jassem (2003:103)
15. Mateus & d'Andrade (2000)
16. Silva (2003:32)
17. Guimarães (2004)
18. Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91)
19. Medina (2010)
20. Boretzky & Igla (1994:XVI–XVII)
21. Pop (1938), p. 29.
22. Teo (2012:368)
23. Landau et al. (1999:68)
24. Sjoberg (1963:11)
25. Chirkova & Chen (2013), p. 365.
26. Chirkova, Chen & Kocjančič Antolík (2013), p. 382.

Sources

• Boretzky, Nobert; Igla, Birgit (1994). Wörterbuch Romani-Deutsch-Englisch für den südosteuropäischen Raum: mit einer Grammatik der Dialektvarianten. Wiesbaden, DE: Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 3-447-03459-9.
• Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya (2013). "Xumi, Part 1: Lower Xumi, the variety of the lower and middle reaches of the Shuiluo River". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 43 (3): 363–379. doi:10.1017/S0025100313000157.^{[permanent dead link]}
• Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya; Kocjančič Antolík, Tanja (2013). "Xumi, Part 2: Upper Xumi, the variety of the upper reaches of the Shuiluo River" (PDF). Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 43 (3): 381–396. doi:10.1017/S0025100313000169.^{[permanent dead link]}
• Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (1990). "The phonetics of Cardiff English". In Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan Richard (eds.). English in Wales: Diversity, conflict, and change. Multilingual Matters Ltd. pp. 87–103. ISBN 1-85359-032-0.
• Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2003) [1981]. The Phonetics of English and Dutch (5th ed.). Leiden, NL: Brill Publishers. ISBN 9004103406.
• Cruttenden, Alan (2014). Gimson's Pronunciation of English (8th ed.). Routledge. ISBN 9781444183092.
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995). "European Portuguese". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 25 (2): 90–94. doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223. S2CID 249414876.
• Esling, John (2010). "Phonetic notation". In Hardcastle, William J.; Laver, John; Gibbon, Fiona E. (eds.). The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781405145909.
• Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013). "Luxembourgish". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 43 (1): 67–74. doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278.
• Guimarães, Daniela (2004). Seqüências de (Sibilante + Africada Alveopalatal) no Português Falado em Belo Horizonte (PDF). Belo Horizonte: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-04-07. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
• Huber, Magnus (2004). "Ghanaian English: phonology". In Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.). A handbook of varieties of English. Vol. 1: Phonology. Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 842–865. ISBN 3-11-017532-0.
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003). "Polish". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 33 (1): 103–107. doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191.
• Kristoffersen, Gjert (2000). The Phonology of Norwegian. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-823765-5.
• Landau, Ernestina; Lončarić, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999). "Croatian". Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 66–69. ISBN 0-521-65236-7.
• Mateus, Maria Helena; d'Andrade, Ernesto (2000). The Phonology of Portuguese. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-823581-X.
• Medina, Flávio (2010). Análise Acústica de Sequências de Fricativas Seguidas de [i] Produzidas por Japoneses Aprendizes de Português Brasileiro (PDF). Anais do IX Encontro do CELSUL Palhoça, SC. Palhoça: Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2014-12-06.
• Okada, Hideo (1999). "Japanese". In International Phonetic Association (ed.). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Cambridge University Press. pp. 117–119. ISBN 978-0-52163751-0.
• Pop, Sever (1938). Micul Atlas Linguistic Român. Muzeul Limbii Române Cluj.
• Recasens, Daniel; Espinosa, Aina (2007). "An electropalatographic and acoustic study of affricates and fricatives in two Catalan dialects" (PDF). Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 37 (2): 143–172. doi:10.1017/S0025100306002829. S2CID 14275190.
• Silva, Thaïs Cristófaro (2003). Fonética e Fonologia do Português: Roteiro de estudos e guia de exercícios (7th ed.). São Paulo: Contexto. ISBN 85-7244-102-6.
• Sjoberg, Andrée F. (1963). Uzbek Structural Grammar. Uralic and Altaic Series. Vol. 18. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University.
• Teo, Amos B. (2012). "Sumi (Sema)". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 42 (3): 365–373. doi:10.1017/S0025100312000254.
• Zygis, Marzena (2003). "Phonetic and phonological aspects of Slavic sibilant fricatives". ZAS Papers in Linguistics. 3: 175–213. doi:10.21248/zaspil.32.2003.191.

External links

• List of languages with [ɕ] on PHOIBLE