Voiced alveolar fricative

The voiced alveolar fricatives are consonantal sounds. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents these sounds depends on whether a sibilant or non-sibilant fricative is being described.

• The symbol for the alveolar sibilant is ⟨z⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is z. The IPA letter ⟨z⟩ is not normally used for dental or postalveolar sibilants unless modified by a diacritic (⟨z̪⟩ and ⟨z̠⟩ respectively).
• The IPA symbol for the alveolar non-sibilant fricative is derived by means of diacritics; it can be ⟨ð̠⟩ or ⟨ɹ̝⟩.

Voiced coronal fricatives

	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar
			retracted	retroflex	palato- alveolar	alveolo- palatal
sibilant	z̪	z͇	z̠	ʐ	ʒ	ʑ
non-sibilant	ð	ð̠/ð͇/ɹ̝		ɻ̝

Voiced alveolar sibilant

Voiced alveolar sibilant
z
IPA number	133
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	z
Unicode (hex)	U+007A
X-SAMPA	z
Kirshenbaum	z
Braille
Sound
source · help

The voiced alveolar sibilant is common across European languages but is relatively uncommon cross-linguistically compared to the voiceless variant. Only about 28% of the world's languages contain a voiced dental or alveolar sibilant. Moreover, 85% of the languages with some form of [z] are languages of Europe, Africa or Western Asia.

In the eastern half of Asia, the Pacific and the Americas, [z] is very rare as a phoneme. The presence of [z] in a given language always implies the presence of a voiceless [s].^{[citation needed]}

Features

Features of the voiced alveolar fricative:

• 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 alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
• 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

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

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		зы	[ˈzə]	'one'
Albanian		zjarr	[zjar]	'fire'
Arabic	Standard	زائِر	[ˈzaːʔir]	'visitor'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern	զարդ	[zɑɾtʰ]	'decoration'
Breton		iliz	[iliz]	'church'
Chechen		зурма / zurma	[zuɾma]	'music'
Czech		zima	[ˈzɪma]	'winter'	See Czech phonology
Dutch	Standard	zee	[zeː]	'sea'	See Dutch phonology
	Friesland	ezel	[ˈeɪ̯zəɫ]	'donkey'	It is always devoiced if word initially. See Dutch phonology
English		size	[saɪz]	'size'	See English phonology
Georgian		ზარი	[ˈzɑɾi]	'bell'
German		süß	[zyːs]	'sweet'	See German phonology
Greek	Athens dialect	ζάλη záli	[ˈz̻ali]	'dizziness'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew		זאב	[zeʔˈev]	'wolf'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindi		ज़मीन	[zəmiːn]	'land'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Hungarian		zálog	[ˈzaːloɡ]	'pledge'	See Hungarian phonology
Japanese		全部 zenbu	[zembɯ]	'everything'	See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		зы	[ˈzə]	'one'
Kala Lagaw Ya		zilamiz	[zilʌmiz]	'go'
Kashmiri		ज़ानुन, زانُن	[zaːnun]	'to know'
Malay		zaman	[zaman]	'age, period'
Maltese		zelu	[zelu]	'zeal'
Marathi		जर	[zər]	'if'	See Marathi phonology.
Mirandese		daprendizaige	[dɐpɾẽdiˈz̻ajʒ(ɯ̟)]	'learning'	Mirandese and neighboring Portuguese dialects were the only surviving oral tradition to preserve all seven mediaeval Ibero-Romance sibilants: ⟨ch⟩ /tʃ/, ⟨x⟩ /ʃ/, ⟨g/j⟩ /ʒ/, ⟨c/ç⟩ /s̻/, ⟨z⟩ /z̻/, ⟨s/-ss-⟩ /s̺/, ⟨-s-⟩ /z̺/
Occitan	Limousin	jòune	[ˈzɒwne]	'young'	See Occitan phonology
Portuguese		casa	[ˈkazɐ]	'house'	See Portuguese phonology
Spanish	Andalusian	comunismo	[ko̞muˈnizmo̞]	'Communism'	Allophone of /s/ before voiced consonants, when it is not debuccalized to [h ~ ɦ]. Present in dialects which realize /s/ as a non-retracted alveolar fricative. Before /d/ it's always dental [z̪].
	Latin American
	Mexican	zapato	[zäˈpät̪o̞]	'shoe'	Some northern dialects. Corresponds to /s/ in other Mexican dialects, and to /θ/ in Peninsular Spanish. See Spanish phonology
Slovak		zima	[ˈzɪma]	'winter'
Swahili		lazima	[lɑzimɑ]	'must'
Turkish		göz	[ɡœz]	'eye'	See Turkish phonology
Urdu		زمین	[zəmiːn]	'land'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Vietnamese	Northern dialects	da	[zaː]	'skin'	See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian		sizze	[ˈsɪzə]	'to say'	Never occurs in word-initial positions
Yi		ꍂ ssy	[zɿ˧]	'generation'
Yiddish		zien	[zin]	'son'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan	guanaz	[ɡʷanaz]

Voiced alveolar retracted sibilant

Voiced alveolar retracted sibilant
z̺
z̠
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	z​̺
Unicode (hex)	U+007A U+033A

The voiced alveolar retracted sibilant, [z̺], is a fricative which is articulated with the tip of the tongue (apex) against the alveolar ridge. It is the sibilant found in dialects of central and northern Portuguese, several dialects of European Spanish, Antioqueño Spanish, Catalan, Gascon, Languedocien Occitan, and Modern Greek. Often to speakers of languages or dialects which do not have an alveolar retracted sibilant, they are said to have a "whistling" quality.

Features

Features of the voiced alveolar retracted 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 alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
• It is normally apical, which means it is pronounced with the very tip of the tongue.
• 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

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Catalan		zel	[ˈz̺ɛɫ]	'zeal'	See Catalan phonology
Galician		mesmo	[ˈme̞z̺mo̞]	'same'	Allophone of /s/ before voiced consonants. Before /d/ it's pronounced dentally [z̺].
Greek		μάζα máza	[ˈmɐz̠ɐ]	'mass'	See Modern Greek phonology
Maldivian		zaraafaa	[z̺aˈraːfaː]	'giraffe'
Mirandese		eisistir	[e̞jz̺is̺ˈtiɾ]	'to exist'	Mirandese and neighboring Portuguese dialects were the only surviving oral tradition to preserve all seven mediaeval Ibero-Romance sibilants: ⟨ch⟩ /tʃ/, ⟨x⟩ /ʃ/, ⟨g/j⟩ /ʒ/, ⟨c/ç⟩ /s̻/, ⟨z⟩ /z̻/, ⟨s/-ss-⟩ /s̺/, ⟨-s-⟩ /z̺/
Occitan	Gascon	casèrna	[kaz̺ɛrno]	'barracks'	See Occitan phonology
	Languedocien	véser	[bez̺e]	'to see'
Portuguese	European, inland northern				Contrasts with non-retracted /z/. See Portuguese phonology
	European, coastal northern				Merges with non-retracted /z/. See Portuguese phonology
Spanish	Castilian	mismo	[ˈmiz̺mo̞]	'same'	Allophone of /s/ before voiced consonants. Before /d/ it's pronounced dentally [z̺]. See Spanish phonology
	Paisa Region

Voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative

Voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative
ð̠
ɹ̝
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ð​̠
Unicode (hex)	U+00F0 U+0320

The voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative is a consonantal sound. As the International Phonetic Alphabet does not have separate symbols for the alveolar consonants (the same symbol is used for all coronal places of articulation that aren't palatalized), it can represent this sound as in a number of ways including ⟨ð̠⟩ or ⟨ð͇⟩ (retracted or alveolarized ⟨ð⟩, respectively), or ⟨ɹ̝⟩ (constricted ⟨ɹ⟩).

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. However, it does not have the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.
• Its place of articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
• 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

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Icelandic		þakið	[ˈθ̠akið̠]	'the roof'	See Icelandic phonology
English	Scouse	maid	[ˈmeɪð̠]	'maid'	Allophone of /d/ See English phonology

See also

• Voiced dental sibilant
• Voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant
• Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative
• Index of phonetics articles

Bibliography

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