Voiceless palatal fricative

The 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⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is C. It is the non-sibilant equivalent of the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative.

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

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.

Features

Voiceless palatal fricative (ç)

Features of the 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 exclusively allowed to escape through the mouth.

• 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.

Occurrence

Palatal

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Assamese		সীমা / xima	[ç̠ima]	'limit/border'	Pre Palatal
Azerbaijani[2]	Some dialects	çörək	[tʃœˈɾæç]	'bread'	Allophone of /k/.
Blackfoot		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[3]	pjaske	[ˈpçæskə]	'splash'	May be alveolo-palatal [ɕ] instead.[3] Before /j/, aspiration of /p, t, k/ is realized as devoicing and fortition of /j/.[3] Note, however, that the sequence /tj/ is normally realized as an affricate [t͡ɕ].[4] See Danish phonology
Dutch	Standard Northern[5]	wiegje	[ˈʋiçjə]	'crib'	Allophone of /x/ before /j/ for some speakers.[5] See Dutch phonology
English	Australian[6]	hue	[çʉː]	'hue'	Phonetic realization of the sequence /hj/.[6][7][8] See Australian English phonology and English phonology
	British[7][8]
	Scouse[9]	like	[laɪ̯ç]	'like'	Allophone of /k/; ranges from palatal to uvular, depending on the preceding vowel.[9] See English phonology
Estonian		vihm	[viçm]	'rain'	Allophone of /h/. See Estonian phonology
Finnish		vihko	[ʋiçko̞]	'notebook'	Allophone of /h/. See Finnish phonology
French	Parisian[10]	merci	[mɛʁ̥ˈsi̥ç]ⓘ	'thank you'	The close vowels /i, y, u/ and the mid front /e, ɛ/ at the end of utterances can be devoiced.[10] See French phonology
German		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		xíl	[çɪ́l]	'leaf'
Hmong	White (Dawb)	𖬗𖬰𖬧𖬰 / xya	[ça˧]	'seven'	Corresponds to alveolo-palatal /ɕ/ in Dananshan dialect
	Green (Njua)
Hungarian[11]		kapj	[ˈkɒpç]	'get' (imperative)	Allophone of /j/ between a voiceless obstruent and a word boundary. See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic		hérna	[ˈçɛrtn̥a]	'here'	See Icelandic phonology
Irish		a Sheáin	[ə çaːnʲ]	'John' (voc.)	See Irish phonology
Jalapa Mazatec[12]		[example needed]			Described as an approximant. Contrasts with plain voiced /j/ and glottalized voiced /ȷ̃/.[12]
Japanese[13]		人 / hito	[çi̥to̞]	'person'	Allophone of /h/ before /i/ and /j/. See Japanese phonology
Kabyle		ḵtil	[çtil]	'to measure'
Korean		힘 / him	[çim]	'strength'	Allophone of /h/ word-initially before /i/ and /j/. See Korean phonology
Minangkabau	Mukomuko	tangih	[taŋiç]	'cry'	Allophone of /h/ after /i/ and /j/ in coda.
Moksha		шалхка	[ʃalçka]	'nose'
Norwegian	Urban East[14]	kjekk	[çe̞kː]	'handsome'	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	vlahi	[vlaç]	'valahians'	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		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]		hile	[çiːʎ̟ɛ]	'trick'	Allophone of /h/.[19] See Turkish phonology
Uzbek		maktab	[mɑçtɑb]	'school'	Occurs when /k/ comes before /t/ and /b/ sounds.
Walloon		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
ç˗
x̟
xʲ
Audio sample
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There is also the voiceless post-palatal fricative^[21] 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⟩, ⟨ç˗⟩ (both symbols denote a retracted ⟨ç⟩) or ⟨x̟⟩ (advanced ⟨x⟩). The equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are C_- and x_+, respectively.

Especially in broad transcription, the voiceless post-palatal fricative may be transcribed as a palatalized voiceless velar fricative (⟨xʲ⟩ in the IPA, x' or x_j in X-SAMPA).

Features: The otherwise identical post-palatal variant is articulated slightly behind the hard palate, making it sound slightly closer to the velar [x].

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Belarusian		глухі / hluchí	[ɣɫuˈxʲi]	'deaf'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨xʲ⟩. See Belarusian phonology
Dutch	Standard Belgian[5]	acht	[ax̟t]ⓘ	'eight'	May be velar [x] instead.[5] See Dutch phonology
	Southern accents[5]
Greek[22]		ψυχή / psychí	[ps̠iˈç̠i]ⓘ	'soul'	See Modern Greek phonology
Limburgish	Weert dialect[23]	ich	[ɪ̞x̟]	'I'	Allophone of /x/ before and after front vowels.[23] See Weert dialect phonology
Lithuanian[24][25]		chemija			Very rare;[26] 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.[27] See Spanish phonology
Ukrainian		хід / chid	[x̟id̪]	'course'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨xʲ⟩. See Ukrainian phonology
Uzbek[28]		xurmo	[x̟urmɒ]	'date palm'	Weakly fricated; occurs word-initially and pre-consonantally, otherwise it is post-velar [x̠].[28]

See also

• Index of phonetics articles