Voiced palato-alveolar sibilant

Voiced palato-alveolar sibilant
ʒ
Image
IPA number	135
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʒ
Unicode (hex)	U+0292
X-SAMPA	Z
Kirshenbaum	Z
Sound

The voiced palato-alveolar fricative or voiced domed postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʒ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is Z. An alternative symbol used in some older and American linguistic literature is ⟨ž⟩, a z with a háček. The sound occurs in many languages and, as in English and French, may have simultaneous lip rounding ([ʒʷ]), although this is rarely indicated in transcription.

Features

Features of the voiced palato-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 palato-alveolar, that is, domed (partially palatalized) postalveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the front of the tongue bunched up ("domed") at the palate.
• 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
Adyghe		жакӀэ	[ʒatʃɛ]	'beard'
Albanian		zhurmë	[ʒuɾmə]	'noise'
Angas		zhaam	[ʒaːm]	'chin'
Arabic	Maghrebi	زوج	[ʒuʒ]	'two'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian		ժամ	[ʒɑm]	'hour'
Avar		жакъа	[ˈʒaqʼːa]	'today'
Azerbaijani		pəjmürdə	[pæʒmyrˈdæ]	'sad'
Berber	Kabyle	jeddi	[ʒəddi]	'my grandfather'
Berta		[ŋɔ̀nʒɔ̀ʔ]		'honey'
Bulgarian		мъжът	[mɐˈʒɤt]	'the man'
Chechen		?/ƶiy	[ʒiː]	'sheep'
Corsican		ghjesgia	[ˈjeːʒa]	'church'	Also in Gallurese
Czech		muži	[muʒɪ]	'men'	See Czech phonology
Dutch		garage	[ɣaraʒə]	'garage'	See Dutch phonology
English		vision	[ˈvɪʒən]	'vision'	See English phonology
Esperanto		manĝaĵo	[maɳd͡ʒaʒo]	'food'	See Esperanto phonology
French		jour	[ʒuʁ]	'day'	See French phonology
German		Garage	[ɡaˈʁaːʒə]	'garage'	See German phonology
Georgian		ჟურნალი	[ʒuɾnali]	'magazine'
Goemai		zhiem	[ʒiem]	'sickle'
Gwich’in		zhòh	[ʒôh]	'wolf'
Hän		zhùr	[ʒûr]	'wolf'
Hebrew		ז'קט	[ʒaket]	'jacket '	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindi		अझ़दहा	[əʒd̪ahaː]	'dragon'	See Hindi–Urdu phonology
Hungarian		rózsa	[r̪oːʒɒ]	'rose'	See Hungarian phonology
Ingush		жий/žii	[ʒiː]	'sheep'
Italian	Tuscan dialect	pigiare	[piʒare]	'press'	See Italian phonology
Juǀʼhoan		[ʒu]		'person'
Kabardian		жыг	[ʒɪɣʲ]	'tree'
Kazakh		жеті	[ʒeti]	'seven'
Ladino		mujer	[muʒɛʀ]	'woman'
Latvian		žāvēt	[ʒaːveːt]	'smoke'	See Latvian phonology
Lithuanian		žmona	[ʒmoːna]	'wife'
Livonian		kūž	[kuːʒ]	'six'
Macedonian		жaбa	[ʒaba]	'toad'	See Macedonian phonology
Megrelian		ჟირი	[ʒiɾi]	'two'
Navajo		łizh	[ɬiʒ]	'urine'
Ngwe	Mmockngie dialect	[ʒíá]		'to split'
Occitan	Southern Auvergnat	argent	[aʀʒẽ]	'money'
	Gascon		[arʒen]
Pashto		ژوول	[ʒowul]	'chew'
Persian		مژه	[moʒe]	'eyelash'	See Persian phonology
Portuguese		jogo	[ˈʒoɡu]	'game'	See Portuguese phonology
Romanian		jar	[ʒar]	'embers'	See Romanian phonology
Serbo-Croatian		жут/žut	[ʒut]	'yellow'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Sioux	Lakota	waŋži	[wãˈʒi]	'one'
Slovenian		žito	[ʒito]	'cereal'
Spanish	Some South American dialects	yo	[ʒo̞]	'I'	See Spanish phonology and yeismo
Dawsahak		[ˈʒɐwɐb]		'to answer'
Tagish		[ʒé]		'what'
Turkish		jale	[ʒäːlɛ]	'dew'	See Turkish phonology
Turkmen		žiraf	[ʒiraf]	'giraffe'
Tutchone	Northern	zhi	[ʒi]	'what'
	Southern	zhǜr	[ʒɨ̂r]	'berry'
Ukrainian		жaбa	[ʒaba]	'frog'	See Ukrainian phonology
Urdu		اژدہا	[əʒd̪ahaː]	'dragon'	See Hindi–Urdu phonology
Veps		vīž	[viːʒ]	'five'
Welayta		[aʒa]		'bush'
West Frisian		bagaazje	[bɑɡaʒǝ]	'luggage'
Yiddish		אָראַנזש	[ɔʀanʒ]	'orange'	See Yiddish phonology
Zapotec	Tilquiapan	llan	[ʒaŋ]	'anger'

The sound in Russian denoted by <ж> is commonly transcribed as a palato-alveolar fricative but is actually a laminal retroflex fricative.

See also

• Ezh
• List of phonetics topics

Bibliography

• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223 
• Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874 
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373 
• Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 38 (1): 107–114 
• Shosted, Ryan K.; Vakhtang, Chikovani (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255–264, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659 
• Watson, Janet (2002), The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, New York: Oxford University Press