Voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative

IPA – number	182
IPA – text	ɕ
IPA – image
Entity	ɕ
X-SAMPA	s\
Kirshenbaum	S;
Sound sample (help·info)

The voiceless alveolo-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 ɕ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is s\.

Features

alveolo-palatal fricative [ɕ, ʑ]

Features of the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative:

• Its manner of articulation is sibilant fricative: it is produced by directing air flow through a groove in the tongue at the place of articulation and directing it over the sharp edge of the teeth, causing high-frequency turbulence.
• Its place of articulation is alveolo-palatal (palatalized laminal postalveolar): it is articulated with the front of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the body (middle) of the tongue raised toward the palate.
• Its phonation type is voiceless: it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
• It is an oral consonant: air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
• It is a central consonant: it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive: it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Catalan[1]		xinxa	[ˈɕinʲɕə]	'bedbug'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Mandarin	西安/Xī'ān	[ɕi˥ an˥]	'Xi'an'	Contrasts with /ʂ/. See Standard Mandarin
Chuvash		çиçĕм	[ˈɕiɕ̬əm]	'lightning'	Contrasts with /ʂ/ and /s/.
Danish		sjæl	[ɕɛːlˀ]	'soul'	See Danish phonology
Japanese[2]		塩/shio	[ɕio]	'salt'	See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		щэ	[ɕɛ]	'hundred'
Korean		시장/sijang	[ɕid͡ʑaŋ]	'market'	See Korean phonology
Polish[3]		śruba	[ɕruba] (help·info)	'screw'	Contrasts with /ʂ/. See Polish phonology
Russian		счастью	[ˈɕɕasʲtʲju]	'happiness (dative)'	Contrasts with /ʂ/ and /sʲ/. See Russian phonology
Swedish		kjol	[ɕuːl] (help·info)	'skirt'	See Swedish phonology
Tibetan	Lhasa dialect	བཞི་	[ɕi˨˧]	'four'	Contrasts with /ʂ/.

See also

• List of phonetics topics

References

Bibliography

• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103-107
• Okada, Hideo (1991), "Phonetic Representation:Japanese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 21 (2): 94-97
• Recasens, Daniel & Maria Dolores Pallarès (2001), "Coarticulation, Assimilation and Blending in Catalan Consonant Clusters", Journal of Phonetics 29 (3): 273-301