Voiceless palatal fricative

A voiceless 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 ⟨ç⟩. It is the non-sibilant equivalent of the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative. Palatal fricatives are relatively rare phonemes, and only 5% of the world's languages have /ç/ as a phoneme.^[1] The sound further occurs as an allophone of /x/ (e.g. in German or Greek), or, in other languages, of /h/ in the vicinity of front vowels.

Voiceless palatal fricative
ç
IPA number	138
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ç
Unicode (hex)	U+00E7
X-SAMPA	C
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Image

Features

Voiceless palatal fricative (ç)

Features of a voiceless 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 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 that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
• 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 only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Palatal

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Blackfoot[citation needed]		ᖱᑊᖽᒧᐧᖿ / ihkitsíkaa	[ɪçkit͡síkaː]	'Seven'	Allophone of /x/.
Chinese	Taizhou dialect	嬉	[çi]	'to play'	Corresponds to alveolo-palatal /ɕ/ in other Wu dialects.
	Meixian dialect	香	[çʲɔŋ˦]	'fragrant'	Corresponds to palatalized fricative /hj/ in romanised as "hi-" or "hy-" Hakka dialect writing.
Danish	Standard[2]	pjaske	[ˈpçæskə]	'splash'	May be alveolo-palatal [ɕ] instead.[2] Before /j/, aspiration of /p, t, k/ is realized as devoicing and fortition of /j/.[2] Note, however, that the sequence /tj/ is normally realized as an affricate [t͡ɕ].[3] See Danish phonology
Dutch	Standard Northern[4]	wiegje	[ˈʋiçjə]	'crib'	Allophone of /x/ before /j/ for some speakers.[4] See Dutch phonology
English	Australian[5]	hue	[çʉː]	'hue'	Phonetic realization of the sequence /hj/.[5][6][7] See Australian English phonology and English phonology
	British[6][7]
	Scouse[8]	like	[laɪ̯ç]	'like'	Allophone of /k/; ranges from palatal to uvular, depending on the preceding vowel.[8] See English phonology
Estonian[citation needed]		vihm	[viçm]	'rain'	Allophone of /h/. See Estonian phonology
Finnish[citation needed]		vihko	[ʋiçko̞]	'notebook'	Allophone of /h/. See Finnish phonology
French	Parisian[9]	merci	[mɛʁ̥ˈsi̥ç]ⓘ	'thank you'	The close vowels /i, y, u/ and the mid front /e, ɛ/ at the end of utterances can be devoiced.[9] See French phonology
German[citation needed]		nicht	[nɪçt]ⓘ	'not'	Traditionally allophone of /x/, or vice versa, but phonemic for some speakers who have both /aːx/ and /aːç/ (< /aʁç/). See Standard German phonology.
Haida[citation needed]		xíl	[çɪ́l]	'leaf'
Hmong	White (Dawb)	𖬗𖬰𖬧𖬰 / xya	[ça˧]	'seven'	Corresponds to alveolo-palatal /ɕ/ in Dananshan dialect
	Green (Njua)
Hungarian[10]		kapj	[ˈkɒpç]	'get' (imperative)	Allophone of /j/ between a voiceless obstruent and a word boundary. See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic		hérna	[ˈçɛ(ɾ)tnä]	'here'	Allophone of /h/ near /j/ and /i/.[11] See Icelandic phonology
Irish[citation needed]		a Sheáin	[ə çaːnʲ]	'John' (voc.)	See Irish phonology
Japanese[12]		日 / hi	[çi]ⓘ	'day'	Allophone of /h/ before /i/ and /j/. See Japanese phonology
Kabyle[citation needed]		ḵtil	[çtil]	'to measure'
Korean[citation needed]		힘 / him	[çim]ⓘ	'strength'	Allophone of /h/ word-initially before /i/ and /j/. See Korean phonology
Minangkabau	Mukomuko[citation needed]	loyh	[lojç]	'loose'	Allophone of /h/ after /i/, /oj/, and /uj/ in coda.
Moksha[citation needed]		шалхка	[ʃalçka]	'nose'
Muniche		[tʃaçu]		'plant stalk'	[13]
Norwegian	Urban East[14]	kjerne	[ˈçæ̂ːɳə̌]ⓘ	'core'	Often alveolo-palatal [ɕ] instead; younger speakers in Bergen, Stavanger and Oslo merge it with /ʂ/.[14] See Norwegian phonology
Pashto	Ghilji dialect[15]	پښه‎	[pça]	'foot'	See Pashto phonology
	Wardak dialect
Romanian	Standard[citation needed]	Rohia	[r̠̊o̞ˈçijä]ⓘ	'Rohia'	Allophone of /h/ before /i/. Typically transcribed with [hʲ]. See Romanian phonology
Russian	Standard[16]	твёрдый / tvjordyj	[ˈt̪ʋʲɵrd̪ɨ̞ç]ⓘ	'hard'	Possible realization of /j/.[16] See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic[17]		eich	[eç]	'horses'	Slender allophone of /x/. See Scottish Gaelic phonology and orthography
Sicilian[citation needed]		ciumi	[ˈçuːmɪ]	'river'	Evolved from the Latin /fl/ nexus. Realized as [t͡ʃ] when preceded by a consonant. See Sicilian phonology
Spanish	Chilean[18]	mujer	[muˈçe̞ɾ]	'woman'	Allophone of /x/ before front vowels. See Spanish phonology
Turkish[19]		zihin	[ziˈçin]ⓘ	'intellect'	Allophone of /h/.[19] See Turkish phonology
Uzbek[citation needed]		maktab	[mɑçtɑb]	'school'	Occurs when /k/ comes before /t/ and /b/ sounds.
Walloon[citation needed]		texhe	[tɛç]ⓘ	'to knit'	⟨xh⟩ spelling proper in Common Walloon, in the Feller system it would be written ⟨hy⟩
Welsh		hiaith	[çaɪ̯θ]ⓘ	'language'	Occurs in words where /h/ comes before /j/ due to h-prothesis of the original word, i.e. /jaɪ̯θ/ iaith 'language' becomes ei hiaith 'her language', resulting in /j/ i → /ç/ hi.[20] See Welsh phonology

Post-palatal

Voiceless post-palatal fricative
ç᫢
x̟
Audio sample
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There is also a voiceless post-palatal fricative in some languages, which is articulated slightly farther back compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical voiceless palatal fricative, though not as back as the prototypical voiceless velar fricative. The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, though it can be transcribed as ⟨ç̠⟩, ⟨ç᫢⟩ (both symbols denote a retracted ⟨ç⟩) or ⟨x̟⟩ (advanced ⟨x⟩).

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.
• Its place of articulation is post-palatal, also called retracted palatal, backed palatal, palato-velar, pre-velar, advanced velar or front(ed-)velar, which means it is articulated between the position of palatal consonants and velar consonants.
• 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 that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
• 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 only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Belarusian[citation needed]		глухі / hluchí	[ɣɫuˈx̟i]ⓘ	'deaf'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨xʲ⟩. See Belarusian phonology
Dutch	Standard Belgian[4]	acht	[ˈax̟t]ⓘ	'eight'	May be velar [x] instead.[4] See Dutch phonology
	Southern accents[4]
Greek[21]		ψυχή / psychí	[ps̠iˈç̠i]ⓘ	'soul'	See Modern Greek phonology
Limburgish	Weert dialect[22]	ich	[ɪ̞x̟]	'I'	Allophone of /x/ before and after front vowels.[22] See Weert dialect phonology
Lithuanian[23][24]		chemija	[ˈx̟ɛmija]	'chemistry'	Very rare;[25] typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨xʲ⟩. See Lithuanian phonology
Russian	Standard[16]	хинди / chindi	[ˈx̟inʲdʲɪ]ⓘ	'Hindi'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨xʲ⟩. See Russian phonology
Spanish		mujer	[muˈx̟e̞ɾ]	'woman'	Allophone of /x/ before front vowels.[26] See Spanish phonology
Ukrainian[citation needed]		алхімія / alchimija	[ɐl̞ʲˈx̟imʲijɐ]ⓘ	'alchemy'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨xʲ⟩. See Ukrainian phonology
Uzbek[27]		xurmo	[x̟urmɒ]	'date palm'	Weakly fricated; occurs word-initially and pre-consonantally, otherwise it is post-velar [x̠].[27]

Voiceless palatal approximant

Voiceless palatal approximant
ȷ̊
ç᫛
IPA number	153 402A
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	j​̊
Unicode (hex)	U+006A U+030A
X-SAMPA	j_0

The voiceless palatal approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. Some scholars posit it distinct from the fricative. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ j̊ ⟩, a j with a ring,^[28] indicating the voiceless homologue of the voiced palatal approximant, or ⟨ç˕⟩, a c with cedilla with a lowering diacritic after it, which indicates a weaker or lowered version of the voiceless palatal fricative. The IPA also had a dedicated symbol ⟨ꞕ⟩, an h with palatal hook, which also represented a palatalized h sound, but that is now obsolete. In the Finno-Ugric transcription, it is transcribed ⟨ᴊ⟩, a small capital j.

The palatal approximant can in many cases be considered the semivocalic equivalent of the voiceless variant of the close front unrounded vowel [i̥]. The sound is essentially an Australian English ⟨y⟩ (as in year) pronounced strictly without vibration of the vocal cords.

Features

• Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but not enough to produce a turbulent airstream.
• 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 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 that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
• 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 only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

It is found as a phoneme in Jalapa Mazatec and Washo as well as in Kildin Sami.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Breton	Bothoa dialect	[example needed]			Contrasts voiceless /j̊/, plain voiced /j/ and nasal voiced /ȷ̃/ approximants.[29]
Chinese	Standard	票 / piào	[pj̊äʊ̯˥˩]ⓘ	'ticket'	Common allophony of /j/ after aspirated consonants. Normally transcribed as [pʰj]. See Standard Chinese phonology
English	Australian	huge	[j̊ʉːdʒ]	'huge'	H-dropping, also allophone of /j/. See Australian English phonology[30][31]
	New Zealand		[j̊i̠(ːʷ)dʒ]		H-dropping, also allophone of /j/, also can be [ç] instead. See New Zealand English phonology[32][31]
French		pierre	[pj̊ʲɛːʀ̝̊]ⓘ	'stone'	Devoice allophone of /j/. See French phonology[33]
Icelandic		hérna	[ˈj̊ɛ(ɾ)tnä]	'here'	Dialectal, or in free variation with [ç][34][35][36][37][38]
Jalapa Mazatec[39]		[example needed]			Contrasts voiceless /j̊/, plain voiced /j/ and glottalized voiced /ȷ̃/ approximants.[39]
Japanese		日 / hi	[j̊i]	'day'	Colloquial, Allophone of /j/[40][41][42]
Scottish Gaelic[43]		a-muigh	[əˈmuj̊]	'outside' (directional)	Allophone of /j/ and /ʝ/. See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Thai		[example needed]			Allophone of /j/.[44]
Tibetan	Khams				Phonemic[45]
Washo		t'á:Yaŋi	[ˈtʼaːj̊aŋi]	'he's hunting'	Contrasts voiceless /j̊/ and voiced /j/ approximants.
Koyukon (Denaakk'e)		[example needed]			Contrasts voiceless /j̊/ and voiced /j/ approximants.

See also

• Index of phonetics articles