Voiceless palatal fricative
| Voiceless palatal fricative | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ç | |||
| IPA Number | 138 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ç | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+00E7 | ||
| X-SAMPA | C | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
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The voiceless palatal fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ç⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is C. It is the non-sibilant equivalent of the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative.
The symbol ç is the letter c with a cedilla, as used to spell French and Portuguese words such as façade and ação. However, the sound represented by the letter ç in French and Portuguese orthography is not a voiceless palatal fricative but /s/, the voiceless alveolar fricative.
Palatal fricatives are relatively rare phonemes, and only 5% of the world's languages have /ç/ as a phoneme.[1] The sound occurs, however, as an allophone of /x/ in German, or, in other languages, of /h/ in the vicinity of front vowels.
There is also the voiceless post-palatal fricative[2] in some languages, which is articulated slightly more back compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical voiceless palatal fricative, though not as back as the prototypical voiceless velar fricative. The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, though it can be transcribed as ⟨ç̠⟩, ⟨ç˗⟩ (both symbols denote a retracted ⟨ç⟩) or ⟨x̟⟩ (advanced ⟨x⟩). The equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are C_- and x_+, respectively.
Especially in broad transcription, the voiceless post-palatal fricative may be transcribed as a palatalized voiceless velar fricative (⟨xʲ⟩ in the IPA, x' or x_j in X-SAMPA).
Features
Features of the voiceless palatal fricative:
- 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.
- 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. The otherwise identical post-palatal variant is articulated slightly behind the hard palate, making it sound slightly closer to the velar [x].
- 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 intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.
Occurrence
Palatal
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assamese | সীমা/xima | [çima] | 'limit/border' | ||
| Azerbaijani[3] | Some dialects | çörək | [tʃœˈɾæç] | 'bread' | Allophone of /c/. |
| Danish | Standard[4] | pjaske | [ˈpça̝sɡ̊ə] | 'splash' | May be alveolo-palatal [ɕ] instead.[4] Before /j/, aspiration of /p, t, k/ is realized as devoicing and fortition of /j/.[4] Note, however, that the sequence /tj/ is normally realized as an affricate [t͡ɕ].[5] See Danish phonology |
| Dutch | Standard Northern[6] | wiegje | [ˈʋiçjə] | 'crib' | Allophone of /x/ before /j/ for some speakers.[6] See Dutch phonology |
| English | Australian[7] | hue | [çʉː] | 'hue' | Phonetic realization of the sequence /hj/.[7][8][9] See Australian English phonology and English phonology |
| British[8][9] | |||||
| Scouse[10] | like | [laɪ̯ç] | 'like' | Allophone of /k/; ranges from palatal to uvular, depending on the preceding vowel.[10] See English phonology | |
| Finnish | vihko | [ʋiçko̞] | 'notebook' | Allophone of /h/. See Finnish phonology | |
| German | nicht | ⓘ | 'not' | Traditionally allophone of /x/, but phonemic for some speakers who have both /aːx/ and /aːç/ (< /aʁç/). See Standard German phonology. | |
| Haida | xíl | [çɪ́l] | 'leaf' | ||
| Hmong | White (Dawb) | xya | [ça] | 'seven' | Corresponds to alveolo-palatal /ɕ/ in Dananshan dialect |
| Green (Njua) | |||||
| Hungarian[11] | kapj | [ˈkɒpç] | 'get' (imperative) | Allophone of /j/ between a voiceless obstruent and a word boundary. See Hungarian phonology | |
| Icelandic | hérna | [ˈçɛrtn̥a] | 'here' | See Icelandic phonology | |
| Irish | a Sheáin | [ə çaːnʲ] | 'John' (voc.) | See Irish phonology | |
| Japanese[12] | 人/hito | [çi̥to̞] | 'person' | Allophone of /h/ before /i/ and /j/. See Japanese phonology | |
| Kabyle | ḵtil | [çtil] | 'to measure' | ||
| Korean | 힘 /him | [çim] | 'strength' | Allophone of /h/ word-initially before /i/ and /j/. See Korean phonology | |
| Norwegian | Urban East[13] | kjekk | [çe̞kː] | 'handsome' | Often alveolo-palatal [ɕ] instead; younger speakers in Bergen, Stavanger and Oslo merge it with /ʂ/.[13] See Norwegian phonology |
| Pashto | Ghilji dialect[14] | پښه | [pça] | 'foot' | |
| Wardak dialect | |||||
| Romanian | Muntenian dialects[15] | fir | [çir] | 'thread' | Allophone of /f/ before /i/.[15] Realized as [f] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology |
| Russian | Standard[16] | твёрдый/tvjordyj | ⓘ | 'hard' | Possible realization of /j/.[16] See Russian phonology |
| Scottish Gaelic[17] | eich | [eç] | 'horses' | ||
| Spanish | Chilean[18] | mujer | [muˈçe̞ɾ] | 'woman' | Allophone of /x/ before front vowels. See Spanish phonology |
| Walloon | texhe | [tɛç] | 'to knit' | ||
| Welsh | hiaith | [çaɪ̯θ] | 'language' | Occurs in words where /h/ comes before /j/ due to h-prothesis of the original word, i.e. jaɪ̯θ iaith 'language' becomes ei hiaith 'her language', resulting in /j/ i → /ç/ hi.[19] | |
Post-palatal
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belarusian | [example needed] | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨xʲ⟩. See Belarusian phonology | |||
| Dutch | Standard Belgian[6] | acht | [ɑx̟t] | 'eight' | May be velar [x] instead.[6] See Dutch phonology |
| Southern accents[6] | |||||
| Greek[20] | ψυχή/psychí | ⓘ | 'soul' | See Modern Greek phonology | |
| Limburgish | Weert dialect[21] | ich | [ɪ̞x̟] | 'I' | Allophone of /x/ before and after front vowels.[21] |
| Lithuanian[22][23] | [example needed] | Very rare;[24] typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨xʲ⟩. See Lithuanian phonology | |||
| Russian | Standard[16] | хинди/hindi | [ˈx̟indʲɪ] | 'Hindi' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨xʲ⟩. See Russian phonology |
| Spanish[25] | mujer | [muˈx̟e̞ɾ] | 'woman' | Allophone of /x/ before front vowels.[25] See Spanish phonology | |
| Ukrainian | хід/khid | [x̟id̪] | 'course' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨xʲ⟩. See Ukrainian phonology | |
| Uzbek[26] | [example needed] | Weakly fricated; occurs word-initially and pre-consonantally, otherwise it is post-velar [x̠].[26] | |||
See also
Notes
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), pp. 167–168.
- ^ Instead of "post-palatal", it can be called "retracted palatal", "backed palatal", "palato-velar", "pre-velar", "advanced velar", "fronted velar" or "front-velar". For simplicity, this article uses only the term "post-palatal".
- ^ Damirchizadeh (1972), p. 96.
- ^ a b c Basbøll (2005), pp. 65–66.
- ^ Grønnum (2005), p. 148.
- ^ a b c d e Collins & Mees (2003), p. 191.
- ^ a b Cox & Fletcher (2017), p. 159.
- ^ a b Roach (2009), p. 43.
- ^ a b Wells, John C (2009-01-29), "A huge query", John Wells's phonetic blog, retrieved 2016-03-13
- ^ a b Watson (2007), p. 353.
- ^ Siptár & Törkenczy (2007), p. 205.
- ^ Okada (1999), p. 118.
- ^ a b Kristoffersen (2000), p. 23.
- ^ Henderson (1983), p. 595.
- ^ a b Pop (1938), p. 30.
- ^ a b c Yanushevskaya & Bunčić (2015), p. 223.
- ^ Oftedal (1956), p. ?.
- ^ Palatal phenomena in Spanish phonology Page 113
- ^ Ball & Watkins (1993), pp. 300–301.
- ^ Arvaniti (2007), p. 20.
- ^ a b Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998), p. 108.
- ^ Mathiassen (1996), pp. 22–23).
- ^ Ambrazas et al. (1997), p. 36.
- ^ Ambrazas et al. (1997), p. 35.
- ^ a b Canellada & Madsen (1987), p. 21.
- ^ a b Sjoberg (1963), p. 11.
References
- Ambrazas, Vytautas; Geniušienė, Emma; Girdenis, Aleksas; Sližienė, Nijolė; Valeckienė, Adelė; Valiulytė, Elena; Tekorienė, Dalija; Pažūsis, Lionginas (1997), Ambrazas, Vytautas (ed.), Lithuanian Grammar, Vilnius: Institute of the Lithuanian Language, ISBN 978-9986-813-22-4
- Arvaniti, Amalia (2007), "Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art" (PDF), Journal of Greek Linguistics, 8: 97–208, CiteSeerX 10.1.1.692.1365, doi:10.1075/jgl.8.08arv, archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-11, retrieved 2013-12-11
- Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, ISBN 978-0-203-97876-4
- Canellada, María Josefa; Madsen, John Kuhlmann (1987), Pronunciación del español: lengua hablada y literaria, Madrid: Castalia, ISBN 978-8470394836
- Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2003) [First published 1981], The Phonetics of English and Dutch (PDF) (5th ed.), Leiden: Brill Publishers, ISBN 978-9004103405
- Cox, Felicity; Fletcher, Janet (2017) [First published 2012], Australian English Pronunciation and Transcription (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1-316-63926-9
- Damirchizadeh, A (1972), Modern Azerbaijani Language: Phonetics, Orthoepy and Orthography, Maarif Publ
- Grønnum, Nina (2005), Fonetik og fonologi, Almen og Dansk (3rd ed.), Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, ISBN 978-87-500-3865-8
- Heijmans, Linda; Gussenhoven, Carlos (1998), "The Dutch dialect of Weert" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 28 (1–2): 107–112, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006307
- Henderson, Michael M. T. (1983), "Four Varieties of Pashto", Journal of the American Oriental Society, 103 (3): 595–597, doi:10.2307/602038, JSTOR 602038
- Kristoffersen, Gjert (2000), The Phonology of Norwegian, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-823765-5
- Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996), The sounds of the World's Languages, Oxford: Blackwell, ISBN 978-0-631-19815-4
- Mathiassen, Terje (1996), A Short Grammar of Lithuanian, Slavica Publishers, Inc., ISBN 978-0893572679
- Oftedal, M. (1956), The Gaelic of Leurbost, Oslo: Norsk Tidskrift for Sprogvidenskap
- Okada, Hideo (1999), "Japanese", in International Phonetic Association (ed.), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–119, ISBN 978-0-52163751-0
- Pop, Sever (1938), Micul Atlas Linguistic Român, Muzeul Limbii Române Cluj
- Roach, Peter (2009), English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course, vol. 1 (4th ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-71740-3
- Siptár, Péter; Törkenczy, Miklós (2007), The Phonology of Hungarian, The Phonology of the World's Languages, Oxford University Press
- Sjoberg, Andrée F. (1963), Uzbek Structural Grammar, Uralic and Altaic Series, vol. 18, Bloomington: Indiana University
- Watson, Kevin (2007), "Liverpool English" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (3): 351–360, doi:10.1017/s0025100307003180
- Yanushevskaya, Irena; Bunčić, Daniel (2015), "Russian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 45 (2): 221–228, doi:10.1017/S0025100314000395
- Ball, Martin J.; Watkins, T. Arwyn (1993), The Celtic Languages, Routledge Reference Grammars, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-28080-8
