Voiced palatal fricative

A voiced 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 ⟨ʝ⟩ (crossed-tail j). It is the non-sibilant equivalent of the voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant.

Voiced palatal fricative
ʝ
IPA number	139
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʝ
Unicode (hex)	U+029D
X-SAMPA	j\
Braille
Image

In broad transcription, the symbol for the palatal approximant, ⟨j⟩, may be used for the sake of simplicity.

A voiced palatal fricative is an uncommon sound, occurring in only 7 of the 317 languages surveyed by the original UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database^{[citation needed]}. In Dutch, Kabyle, Margi, Modern Greek, and Scottish Gaelic, the sound occurs phonemically, along with its voiceless counterpart, and in several more, the sound occurs as a result of phonological processes.

To produce this sound, the tip of the tongue is placed against the roof of the mouth behind the upper front teeth; then, while exhaling, the space between the tongue and the palate is narrowed, creating a friction-like sound similar to the ⟨s⟩ sound (IPA: [ʒ]) in the English word measure.

Features

Features of a 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 that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
• It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Palatal

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Asturian		frayar	[fɾäˈʝär]	'to destroy'
Burmese		[example needed]			Allophone of /j/, particularly word initially.
Catalan	Majorcan[1]	figuera	[fiˈʝeɾə]	'fig tree'	Occurs in complementary distribution with [ɟ]. Corresponds to [ɣ] in other varieties. See Catalan phonology
Danish	Standard[2]	talg	[ˈtʰælˀʝ]	'tallow'	Possible word-final allophone of /j/ when it occurs after /l/.[2] See Danish phonology
Dutch	Standard[3]	ja	[ʝaː]	'yes'	Frequent allophone of /j/, especially in emphatic speech.[3] See Dutch phonology
German	Standard[4][5]	Jacke	[ˈʝäkə]	'jacket'	Most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨j⟩; also described as an approximant [j][6][7] and a sound variable between a fricative and an approximant.[8] See Standard German phonology
Greek	Standard	γεια	[ʝɐ]	'hi'
	Cypriot[9]	ελιά	[e̞ˈʝːɐ]	'olive'	Allophone of /ʎ/
Hungarian[10]		dobj be	[dobʝ bɛ]	'throw in'	An allophone of /j/. See Hungarian phonology
Irish[11]		an ghrian	[ənʲ ˈʝɾʲiən̪ˠ]	'the sun'	See Irish phonology
Italian	Southern dialects	figlio	[ˈfiʝːo]	'son'	Corresponds to /ʎ/ in standard Italian. See Italian phonology
Kabyle		cceǥ	[ʃʃəʝ]	'to slip'
Korean		사향노루 / sahyangnoru	[sɐʝɐŋnoɾu]	'Siberian musk deer'	The sound is sometimes heard by people when /h/ is between voiced and combined with /i/, /t/ and /j/, See Korean phonology
Lithuanian[12][13]		ji	[ʝɪ]	'she'	Most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨j⟩; also described as an approximant [j].[14] See Lithuanian phonology
Margi[15]		[example needed]			Contrasts /ɟ, ᶮɟ, ç, ʝ, j, j̰, ɣ/.
Mapudungun[16]		kayu	[kɜˈʝʊ]	'six'	This phoneme corresponds to the letter Y in Mapudungün. See Mapuche language
Norwegian	Urban East[17][18]	gi	[ʝiː]	'to give'	Allophone of /j/, especially before and after close vowels and in energetic speech.[18] See Norwegian phonology
Pashto	Ghilji dialect[19]	موږ	[muʝ]	'we'
	Wardak dialect[19]
Ripuarian		zeije	[ˈt͡sɛʝə]	'to show'
Russian[20]		яма	[ˈʝämə]	'pit'	Allophone of /j/ in emphatic speech.[20] See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic[21]		dhiubh	[ʝu]	'of them'	Weak fricative; merges with [j] in some dialects. See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Spanish[22]		sayo	[ˈsäʝo̞]	'smock'	May also be represented by ⟨ll⟩ in many dialects. See Spanish phonology and Yeísmo
Swedish[23]		jord	[ʝɯᵝːɖ]ⓘ	'soil'	Allophone of /j/. See Swedish phonology
Vietnamese	Middle Vietnamese[24]	Gió [𩙋]	[ʝɔB1] (Tonkinese dialect)	'wind'	See Middle Vietnamese phonology

Post-palatal

Voiced post-palatal fricative
ʝ᫢
ɣ᫈
Audio sample
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There is also a voiced post-palatal fricative in some languages, which is articulated slightly more back compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical voiced palatal fricative but not as back as the prototypical voiced velar fricative. The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, but it can be transcribed as ⟨ʝ̠⟩, ⟨ʝ᫢⟩ (a retracted ⟨ʝ⟩), ⟨ɣ̟⟩ or ⟨ɣ᫈⟩ (an advanced ⟨ɣ⟩).

Especially in broad transcription, a voiced post-palatal fricative may be transcribed as a palatalized voiced velar fricative, ⟨ɣʲ⟩.

• 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 post-palatal (or pre-velar; also called palato-velar, retracted palatal, backed palatal, advanced velar or fronted velar), which means it is articulated between the position of palatal consonants and velar consonants.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
• It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Belarusian		геаграфія	[ɣ̟e.äˈɣɾäfʲijä]	'geography'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɣʲ⟩. See Belarusian phonology
Dutch	Standard Belgian[25]	negen	[ˈneː.ʝ̠̊ø̜]ⓘ	'nine'	Often (partially) devoiced.[26] May be velar [ɣ] instead, even near non-front vowels.[25] See Dutch phonology
	Southern accents[25]
German	Standard[27]	Riese	[ˈɣ̟iːzə]	'giant'	Allophone of the fricative /ʁ/ before and after front vowels.[27] See Standard German phonology
Greek	Standard Modern[28][29]	γένος	[ˈʝ̠e̞no̞s̠]ⓘ	'grammatical gender'	See Modern Greek phonology
Limburgish	Weert dialect[30]	gèr	[ɣ̟ɛ̈ːʀ̝̊]	'gladly'	Allophone of /ɣ/ before and after front vowels.[30] See Weert dialect phonology
Lithuanian[14][31]		Hiustonas	[ˈɣ̟ʊs̪t̪ɔn̪ɐs̪]	'Houston'	Very rare;[32] typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɣʲ⟩. See Lithuanian phonology
Russian	Standard[20]	других гимнов	[d̪rʊˈɡ̟ɪɣ̟ ˈɡ̟imn̪əf]	'of other anthems'	Allophone of /x/ before voiced soft consonants;[20] typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɣʲ⟩. The example also illustrates [ɡ̟]. See Russian phonology
	Southern	гимн	[ɣ̟imn̪]	'anthem'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɣʲ⟩; corresponds to [ɡʲ] in standard Russian. See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic[33]		seadh	[ʃɤɣ̟]	'yes, indeed'	Allophone of /ɣ/ after /ɤ/

Variable

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Mapudungun[34]		[example needed]			Allophone of /ɣ/ before the front vowels /ɪ, e/.[34]

See also

• Index of phonetics articles