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Voiced retroflex fricative

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Voiced retroflex fricative
ʐ
IPA number137
Audio sample
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ʐ
Unicode (hex)U+0290
X-SAMPAz`
Braille⠲ (braille pattern dots-256)⠵ (braille pattern dots-1356)

The voiced retroflex sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʐ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is z`. Like all the retroflex consonants, the IPA symbol is formed by adding a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of a z (the letter used for the corresponding alveolar consonant).

Features

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Schematic mid-sagittal section

Features of the voiced retroflex 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 retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical subapical articulation, the tongue can be apical (pointed) or, in some fricatives, laminal (flat).
  • Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
  • It is an oral consonant, which means that air is exclusively allowed to escape through the mouth.

Occurrence

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

The commonality of [ʐ] cross-linguistically is 2% in a phonological analysis of 2155 languages.[1]

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Abkhaz абжа/abža [ˈabʐa] 'half' See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe жъы / jı / ظہـ [ʐ̻ə] 'old' Laminal.
Awetí[2] [pɨtiˈʐɨk˺] 'to pray' Diachronically related to [ɾ] and also to some other alveolar sounds in certain occasions. As word lists created in the 1900s appoint for [ɾ] where there is [ʐ] now, the latter sound is supposed to be the result of a very recent sound change that is analogically happening in Waurá.[2]
Chinese Mandarin /ròu [ʐoʊ̯˥˩] 'meat' Also transcribed as a retroflex approximant [ɻ] depending on accent and dialect. See Mandarin phonology.
Changshu dialect 常熟 /dʐan ʐɔʔ/ [tʂʱä̃233 ʐɔʔ23] (without tone sandhi) 'Changshu' Pronounced [ʂʱ] when occurring at the first syllable. A native Wu Chinese speaker may reduce it a sound closer to a retroflex approximant [ɻ] (similar to the Standard Mandarin r) when trying to force a unnatural voiced pronunciation on the first syllable.
Faroese renn [ʐɛn] 'run'
Lower Sorbian[3][4] Łužyca [ˈwuʐɨt͡sa] 'Lusatia'
Mapudungun[5] rayen [ʐɜˈjën] 'flower' May be [ɻ] or [ɭ] instead.[5]
Marrithiyel Marri Tjevin dialect [wiˈɲaʐu] 'they are laughing' Voicing is non-contrastive.
Mehináku[6] [ɨˈʐũte] 'parrot' Resulted from the voicing of /ʂ/ in between vowels.[6]
Pashto Southern dialect تږى/tâjai [ˈtəʐai] 'thirsty' See Pashto phonology
Polish Standard[7] żona [ˈʐ̻ɔn̪ä] 'wife' Also represented orthographically by ⟨rz⟩ and, when written so, may be instead pronounced as the raised alveolar non-sonorant trill by few speakers.[8] It is transcribed as /ʒ/ by most Polish scholars. See Polish phonology
Southeastern Cuyavian dialects[9] zapłacił [ʐäˈpwät͡ɕiw] 'he paid' Some speakers. It is a result of hypercorrecting the more popular merger of /ʐ/ and /z/ into [z] (see Szadzenie).
Suwałki dialect[10]
Romagnol di [ˈdiːʐ] 'ten' Apical; may be [z̺ʲ] or [ʒ] instead.
Russian Standard[7] жена/žená [ʐɨ̞ˈna] 'wife' Concave apical postalveolar, no true subapicality as expected from retroflexes.[11] Tend to be labialised and/ or velarised.[12] See Russian phonology
Most speakers in most words заезжа́ть/zajeátʹ [zə(j)ɪˈʐːatʲ] 'to drive into/ to call in casually' Modern pronunciation of older /ʑː/ often derived from underlying /zʐ/ or /sʐ/. Subsists as such in some words for conservative Moskovite accents.[12]
Serbo-Croatian жут / žut [ʐûːt̪] 'yellow' Typically transcribed as /ʒ/. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Shina Gilgiti[13] ڙَکُݨ / akuṇ [ʐəkuɳ] 'donkey'
Kohistani
Slovak[14] žaba [ˈʐäbä] 'frog'
Spanish Andean hacer [a'seʐ] 'do' The phoneme /r/ changes to [ʐ], when it is at the end of a syllable
marrón, ratón [maˈʐon], [ʐa'ton] 'brown', 'mouse' See Spanish phonology
Swedish Central dialects[15] rå [ʐo̞ə̰̑˧˥˨] 'raw' Apical. Allophone of rhotic, may also be pronounced [ɹ], [r] or [ɾ].[15][16] See Swedish phonology
Taruma[17] hoza [ˈho.ʐa] 'rain' Main allophone of a marginal retroflex phoneme, with [ɖʐ] as quasi-allohpone word initially before /ɨ/.[17]
Tilquiapan Zapotec[18] ? [ʐan] 'bottom'
Torwali[19] ݜوڙ [ʂuʐ] 'straight'
Ubykh [ʐa] 'firewood' See Ubykh phonology
Ukrainian жaбa/žaba [ˈʐɑbɐ] 'frog' See Ukrainian phonology
Upper Sorbian Some dialects[20][21] [example needed] Used in dialects spoken in villages north of Hoyerswerda; corresponds to [ʒ] in the standard language.[3]
Yi ry [ʐʐ̩˧] 'grass'

Voiced retroflex non-sibilant fricative

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Voiced retroflex non-sibilant fricative
ɻ̝
ɻ˔
ɖ̞
ɖ˕
IPA number152 429
Audio sample
Encoding
X-SAMPAr\`_r

Features

[edit]

Features of the voiced retroflex non-sibilant 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 retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical subapical articulation, the tongue can be apical (pointed) or, in some fricatives, laminal (flat).
  • Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
  • It is an oral consonant, which means that air is exclusively allowed to escape through the mouth.

Occurrence

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Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
English Eastern Cape[22] red [ɻ˔ed] 'red' Apical; typical realization of /r/ in that region.[22] See South African English phonology

See also

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Citations

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  1. ^ Phoible.org. (2018). PHOIBLE Online – Segments. [online] Available at: http://phoible.org/parameters.
  2. ^ a b Drude (2020), p. 190.
  3. ^ a b Šewc-Schuster (1984:40–41)
  4. ^ Zygis (2003:180–181, 190–191)
  5. ^ a b Sadowsky et al. (2013), p. 90.
  6. ^ a b Felipe (2020), pp. 87–89.
  7. ^ a b Hamann (2004:65)
  8. ^ "Gwary polskie – Frykatywne rż (ř)". Archived from the original on 2013-11-13. Retrieved 2013-11-06.
  9. ^ "Gwary polskie – Gwara regionu". www.gwarypolskie.uw.edu.pl. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  10. ^ "Gwary polskie – Szadzenie". www.gwarypolskie.uw.edu.pl. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  11. ^ Hamann (2004:56, 64)
  12. ^ a b Yanushevskaya, Irena; Bunčić, Daniel (2015), "Russian" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 45 (2): 224, doi:10.1017/S0025100314000395
  13. ^ Ziya, Muhammad Amin (2010). ݜِناٗ - اُردو لغت [Gilti Shina Urdu Dictionary] (in Urdu). Gilgit: Zia Publications. ISBN 978-969-942-00-8?. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  14. ^ Hanulíková & Hamann (2010:374)
  15. ^ a b Elert, Claes-Christian (2000). Allmän och svensk fonetik [General and Swedish phonetics] (in Swedish) (8 ed.). Stockholm: Norstedts. p. ?. ISBN 91-1-300939-7.
  16. ^ Andersson, Erik (2002). "Swedish". In König, Ekkehard; van der Auwera, Johan (eds.). The Germanic Languages. Routledge language family descriptions. Routledge. p. 273. ISBN 0-415-28079-6.
  17. ^ a b Serke, Anna (2022). A description of Taruma phonology (Master thesis). Leiden: Universiteit Leiden. pp. 26–27. Archived from the original on 14 July 2025.
  18. ^ Merrill (2008:109)
  19. ^ Lunsford (2001:16–20)
  20. ^ Šewc-Schuster (1984:41)
  21. ^ Zygis (2003:180)
  22. ^ a b Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:165)

References

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