Voiced retroflex fricative

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Voiced retroflex fricative
ʐ
IPA number137
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ʐ
Unicode (hex)U+0290
X-SAMPAz`
Kirshenbaumz.
Braille⠲ (braille pattern dots-256)⠵ (braille pattern dots-1356)
Listen

The voiced retroflex 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 ⟨ʐ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is z`. Like all the retroflex consonants, the IPA symbol is formed by adding a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of a z (the letter used for the corresponding alveolar consonant).

Features[edit]

Features of the voiced retroflex sibilant:

  • 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 retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical subapical articulation, the tongue contact can be apical (pointed) or laminal (flat).
  • Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
  • 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.
  • The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence[edit]

In the following transcriptions, diacritics may be used to distinguish between apical [ʐ̺] and laminal [ʐ̻].

The commonality of [ʐ] cross-linguistically is 2% in a phonological analysis of 2155 languages[1]

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Abkhaz абжа [ˈabʐa] 'half' See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe жъы About this sound[ʐ̻ə] (help·info) 'old' Laminal.
Chinese Mandarin 肉/ròu About this sound[ʐoʊ̯˥˩] (help·info) 'meat' May also be a retroflex approximant [ɻ]. See Mandarin phonology
Faroese renn [ʐɛn] 'run'
Italian Marked accents of Emilia-Romagna[2] caso [ˈkäːʐo] 'case' Apical;[2] may be [z̺ʲ] or [ʒ] instead.[2] It corresponds to [z] in standard Italian. See Italian phonology
Lower Sorbian[3][4] Łužyca [ˈwuʐɨt͡sa] 'Lusatia'
Mapudungun[5] rayen [ʐɜˈjën] 'flower' May be [ɻ] or [ɭ] instead.[5]
Marrithiyel Marri Tjevin dialect [wiˈɲaʐu] 'they are laughing' Voicing is non-contrastive.
Pashto Southern dialect تږى‬ [ˈtəʐai] 'thirsty' See Pashto phonology
Polish Standard[6] żona About this sound[ˈʐ̻ɔn̪ä] (help·info) 'wife' Also represented by ⟨rz⟩ and when written so, it can be instead pronounced as the raised alveolar non-sonorant trill by few speakers.[7] It is transcribed as /ʒ/ by most Polish scholars. See Polish phonology
Southeastern Cuyavian dialects[8] zapłacił [ʐäˈpwät͡ɕiw] 'he paid' Some speakers. It's a result of hypercorrecting the more popular merger of /ʐ/ and /z/ into [z].
Suwałki dialect[9]
Russian[6] жена About this sound[ʐɨ̞ˈna] (help·info) 'wife' See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian жут / žut [ʐûːt̪] 'yellow' Typically transcribed as /ʒ/. See Serbo-Croatian_phonology
Slovak[10] žaba [ˈʐäbä] 'frog'
Tilquiapan Zapotec[11] ? [ʐan] 'bottom'
Torwali[12] ݜوڙ [ʂuʐ] 'straight'
Ubykh [ʐa] 'firewood' See Ubykh phonology
Upper Sorbian Some dialects[13][14] [example needed] Used in dialects spoken in villages north of Hoyerswerda; corresponds to [ʒ] in standard language.[3] See Upper Sorbian phonology
Vietnamese Southern dialects rô [ʐow] 'diamond' See Vietnamese phonology
Swedish Central dialects fri [fʐi] 'free' Allophone of /ɹ/. Also may be pronounced as [r] or [ɾ]. See Swedish phonology
Yi ꏜ ry [ʐʐ̩˧] 'grass'

Voiced retroflex non-sibilant fricative[edit]

Voiced retroflex non-sibilant fricative
ɻ̝
ɻ˔
IPA number152 429
Encoding
X-SAMPAr\`_r

Features[edit]

Features of the voiced retroflex non-sibilant fricative:

  • Its place of articulation is retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical subapical articulation, the tongue contact can be apical (pointed) or laminal (flat).
  • Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
  • 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.
  • The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence[edit]

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
English Eastern Cape[15] red [ɻ˔ed] 'red' Apical; typical realization of /r/ in that region.[15] See South African English phonology

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Phoible.org. (2018). PHOIBLE Online - Segments. [online] Available at: http://phoible.org/parameters.
  2. ^ a b c Canepari (1992), p. 73.
  3. ^ a b Šewc-Schuster (1984:40–41)
  4. ^ Zygis (2003:180–181, 190–191)
  5. ^ a b Sadowsky et al. (2013), p. 90.
  6. ^ a b Hamann (2004:65)
  7. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-03-13. Retrieved 2013-11-06.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
  8. ^ [1]
  9. ^ [2]
  10. ^ Hanulíková & Hamann (2010:374)
  11. ^ Merrill (2008:109)
  12. ^ Lunsford (2001:16–20)
  13. ^ Šewc-Schuster (1984:41)
  14. ^ Zygis (2003:180)
  15. ^ a b Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:165)

References[edit]

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