Voiceless palatal plosive

Voiceless palatal plosive
c
Image
IPA number	107
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	c
Unicode (hex)	U+0063
X-SAMPA	c
Kirshenbaum	c
Sound

The voiceless palatal plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨c⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is c.

It is similar to a voiceless postalveolar affricate [tʃ] (as in English chip), and because it is difficult to get the tongue to touch just the hard palate without also touching the back part of the alveolar ridge, [c] is less common than [tʃ]. It is common for the symbol ⟨c⟩ to represent [tʃ] or other similar affricates, for example in the Indic languages. This may be considered appropriate when the place of articulation needs to be specified, but the distinction between plosive and affricate is not contrastive, and therefore of secondary importance.

Features

Features of the voiceless palatal plosive:

• Its manner of articulation is stop, or plosive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. (The term plosive contrasts with nasal stops, where the blocked airflow is redirected through the nose.)
• 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 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
Albanian		kuq	[kuc]	'red'
Basque		ttantta	[canca]	'droplet'
Blackfoot		akikoan	[aˈkicoan]	'girl'	Allophone of /k/ after front vowels.
Catalan	Majorcan	mags	[ˈmacs]	'wizards'	Corresponds to /k/ in other varieties. See Catalan phonology
Corsican		chjodu	[ˈcoːdu]	'nail'	Also present in the Gallurese dialect
Czech		čeština	[ˈtʃɛʃcɪna]	'Czech language'	See Czech phonology
Dawsahak		?	[cɛːˈnɐ]	'small'
Dinka		car	[car]	'black'
Ega		[cá]		'understand'
Ganda		caayi	[caːji]	'tea'
Greek		καί/kaí	[ce̞]	'and'	See Modern Greek phonology
Gweno		[ca]		'to come'
Hungarian		tyúk	[cuːk]	'hen'	See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic		gjóla	[couːla]	'light wind'	See Icelandic phonology
Irish		ceist	[cɛʃtʲ]	'question'	See Irish phonology
Khmer		ចាប	[caap]	'bird'	Contrasts unaspirated and unaspirated forms
Latvian		ķirbis	[ˈcirbis]	'pumpkin'
Low German	Plautdietsch	Kjoakj	[coac]	'church'	Corresponds to [kʲ] in all other dialects
Macedonian		вреќа	[ˈvrɛca]	'sack'	See Macedonian phonology
Norwegian	Northern and central dialects	fett	[fɛcː]	'fat'	See Norwegian phonology
Occitan	Limousin	tireta	[ciˈʀetɒ]	'drawer'
	Auvergnat	tirador	[ciʀaˈdu]	'drawer'
Romanian		chin	[cin]	'torture'	Allophone of /k/ before /i/ and /e/. See Romanian phonology.
Romansh	Sursilvan	notg	[nɔc]	'night'
	Sutsilvan	tgàn	[caŋ]	'dog'
	Surmiran	vatgas	[ˈvɑcɐs]	'cows'
	Puter	zücher	[ˈtsycər]	'sugar'
	Vallader	müs-chel	[ˈmyʃcəl]	'moss'
Kinyarwanda		ikintu	[iciːntu]	'question'
Serbo-Croatian	Chakavian dialect	Ćićarija	[cicaˈɾija]	'Ćićarija'
Slovak		deväť	[ˈɟɛvæc]	'nine'
Turkish		köy	[cʰœj]	'village'	See Turkish phonology
Vietnamese		chị	[ci˧ˀ˨ʔ]	'elder sister'	[t͡ɕɔ]. See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian		tjems	[cɛms]	'strainer'
Western Desert Language		kutju	[kucu]	'one'

See also

• List of phonetics topics

Bibliography

• Connell, Bruce; Ahoua, Firmin; Gibbon, Dafydd (2002), "Ega", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 32 (1): 99–104, doi:10.1017/S002510030200018X 
• Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.), Blackwell 
• Liver, Ricarda (1999), Rätoromanisch: Eine Einführung in das Bünderromanische, Gunter Narr Verlag, ISBN 3-8233-4973-2 
• Menzli, Gierdi (1993), Cuors da romontsch sursilvan: Lecziuns 1-18, Ligia romontscha, ISBN 3-906680-25-1 
• Newmark, Leonard; Hubbard, Philip; Prifti, Peter R. (1982), Standard Albanian: A Reference Grammar for Students, Stanford University Press, ISBN 9780804711296, http://books.google.com/?id=hqlYbhnII3QC&pg=PA1&dq=Standard+Albanian:+A+Reference+Grammar+for+Students&q= 
• Recasens, Daniel; Espinosa, Aina (2005), "Articulatory, positional and coarticulatory characteristics for clear /l/ and dark /l/: evidence from two Catalan dialects", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35 (1): 1–25, doi:10.1017/S0025100305001878 
• Skjekkeland, Martin (1997), Dei norske dialektane: Tradisjonelle særdrag i jamføring med skriftmåla, Høyskoleforlaget (Norwegian Academic Press) 
• Thompson, Laurence (1959), "Saigon phonemics", Language 35 (3): 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232