The voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some oral languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɕ⟩ ("c", plus the curl also found in its voiced counterpart ⟨ʑ⟩). It is the sibilant equivalent of the voiceless palatal fricative.

The voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant fricative does not occur in any major dialect of English. However, it is the usual realization of /ʃ/ (as in ship) in the Ghanaian variety.[1]

Features

alveolo-palatal sibilant fricatives [ɕ, ʑ]

Features of the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative:

Occurrence

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Adyghe щы About this sound [ɕə]  'three'
Assamese ব্ৰিটি [bɹitiɕ] 'British'
Catalan Eastern and Majorcan[2] caixa [ˈkaɕə] 'box' See Catalan phonology
Chinese Mandarin 西安/Xī'ān About this sound [ɕí.án]  'Xi'an' Contrasts with /ʂ/ and /s/. See Mandarin phonology
Chuvash çиçĕм [ˈɕiɕ̬əm] 'lightning' Contrasts with /ʂ/ and /s/.
Danish sjæl [ɕeˀl] 'soul' See Danish phonology
Dutch Some speakers sjabloon [ɕäˈbloːn] 'template' May be [ʃ] or [sʲ] instead. See Dutch phonology
English Ghanaian[1] ship [ɕip] 'ship' Educated speakers may use [ʃ], to which this phone corresponds in other dialects.[1]
Guarani Paraguayan che [ɕɛ] 'I'
Japanese[3] /shio [ɕi.o] 'salt' See Japanese phonology
Kabardian щэ About this sound [ɕa]  'hundred'
Korean /si [ɕi] 'poem' See Korean phonology
Luxembourgish[4] liicht [liːɕt] 'light' Allophone of /χ/ after phonologically front vowels; some speakers merge it with [ʃ].[4] See Luxembourgish phonology
Norwegian Standard Eastern[5] kjekk [ɕɛ̝kː] 'handsome' Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ç⟩; less often realized as palatal [ç]. Younger speakers in Bergen, Stavanger and Oslo merge it with /ʂ/.[5] See Norwegian phonology
Pashto Wazirwola dialect لښکي‎ [ˈləɕki] 'little, slight'
Polish[6] śruba About this sound [ˈɕrubä]  'screw' Contrasts with /ʂ/ and /s/. See Polish phonology
Portuguese[7][8][9] mexendo [meˈɕẽd̪u] 'moving' Also described as palato-alveolar [ʃ].[10][11] See Portuguese phonology
Romanian Transylvanian dialects[12] ce [ɕɛ] 'what' Realized as [] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Russian счастье About this sound [ˈɕːæsʲtʲjə]  'happiness' Also represented by ⟨щ⟩. Contrasts with /ʂ/, /s/, and /sʲ/. See Russian phonology
Sema[13][14] ashi [à̠ɕì] 'meat' Possible allophone of /ʃ/ before /i, e/.[13][14]
Serbo-Croatian Croatian[15] miš će [mîɕ t͡ɕe̞] 'the mouse will' Allophone of /ʃ/ before /t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ/.[15] See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Some speakers of Montenegrin śutra [ɕutra][stress?] 'tomorrow' Phonemically /sj/ or, in some cases, /s/.
Sorbian Lower[16] pśijaśel [ˈpɕijäɕɛl] 'friend'
Swedish Finland sjok [ɕuːk] 'chunk' Allophone of /ɧ/.
Sweden kjol About this sound [ɕuːl]  'skirt' See Swedish phonology
Tibetan Lhasa dialect བཞི་ [ɕi˨˧] 'four' Contrasts with /ʂ/.
Uzbek[17] [example needed]
Xumi Lower[18] [RPd͡ʑi ɕɐ] 'one hundred'
Upper[19] [RPd͡ʑi ɕɜ]
Yi /xi [ɕi˧] 'thread'

See also

References

Bibliography