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 (crossed-tail j). It is the non-sibilant equivalent of the voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant.
In broad transcription, the symbol for the palatal approximant, , 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. 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 sound (IPA: ) in the English word .
Features Features of a voiced palatal fricative:
Occurrence Palatal Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Asturian 'to destroy' Burmese Allophone of , particularly word initially. Catalan Mallorcan 'fig tree' Occurs in complementary distribution with . Corresponds to in other varieties. See Catalan phonology Danish Standard 'tallow' Possible word-final allophone of when it occurs after . See Danish phonology Dutch Standard 'yes' Frequent allophone of , especially in emphatic speech. See Dutch phonology German Standard 'jacket' Most often transcribed in IPA with ; also described as an approximant and a sound variable between a fricative and an approximant. See Standard German phonology Greek Standard 'hi' Cypriot 'olive' Allophone of Hungarian 'throw in' An allophone of . See Hungarian phonology Irish 'the sun' See Irish phonology Italian Southern dialects 'son' Corresponds to in standard Italian. See Italian phonology Kabyle 'to slip' Korean / '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 'she' Most often transcribed in IPA with ; also described as an approximant . See Lithuanian phonology Margi Contrasts /ɟ, ᶮɟ, ç, ʝ, j, j̰, ɣ/. Mapudungun 'six' This phoneme corresponds to the letter Y in Mapudungün. See Mapuche language Norwegian Urban East 'to give' Allophone of , especially before and after close vowels and in energetic speech. See Norwegian phonology Pashto Ghilji dialect موږ 'we' Wardak dialect Ripuarian 'to show' Russian 'pit' Allophone of in emphatic speech. See Russian phonology Scottish Gaelic 'of them' Weak fricative; merges with in some dialects. See Scottish Gaelic phonology Spanish 'smock' May also be represented by in many dialects. See Spanish phonology and Yeísmo Swedish 'soil' Allophone of . See Swedish phonology Vietnamese Middle VietnameseSee Vietnamese alphabet#Consonants ⟨gi⟩Gió [𩙋] (Tonkinese dialect) 'wind' See Middle Vietnamese phonology
Post-palatal
There is also a voiced post-palatal or pre-velar 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 , (a retracted ), , (an advanced ) or (palatalized , though this is more ambiguous than the others; see below).
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Belarusian 'geography' Typically transcribed in IPA with . See Belarusian phonology Dutch Standard Belgian 'nine' Often (partially) devoiced. May be velar instead, even near non-front vowels. See Dutch phonology Southern accents German Standard 'giant' Allophone of the fricative before and after front vowels. See Standard German phonology Greek Standard Modern 'grammatical gender' See Modern Greek phonology Limburgish Weert dialect 'gladly' Allophone of before and after front vowels. See Weert dialect phonology Lithuanian 'Houston' Very rare; typically transcribed in IPA with . See Lithuanian phonology Russian Standard 'of other anthems' Allophone of before voiced soft consonants; typically transcribed in IPA with . The example also illustrates . See Russian phonology Southern 'anthem' Typically transcribed in IPA with ; corresponds to in standard Russian. See Russian phonology Scottish Gaelic 'yes, indeed' Allophone of after
Variable Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Mapudungun Allophone of before the front vowels .
See also Index of phonetics articles
Notes
References
External links