The voiced retroflex sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨d̠͡ʐ ⟩, sometimes simplified to ⟨dʐ ⟩ or ⟨ꭦ ⟩. It occurs in such languages as Polish (the laminal affricate dż) and Northwest Caucasian languages (apical).

This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2018)

Quick Facts ɖʐ, ꭦ ...

Voiced retroflex affricate
ɖʐ
ꭦ
IPA Number	106 (137)
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɖ​͡​ʐ
Unicode (hex)	U+0256 U+0361 U+0290
X-SAMPA	dz`
Image

Close

Features of the voiced retroflex affricate:

• Its manner of articulation is sibilant affricate, which means it is produced by first stopping the air flow entirely, then directing it with the tongue to the sharp edge of the 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)^{[citation needed]}, but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical subapical articulation, the tongue contact can be apical (pointed) or laminal (flat).
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• 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.

• Index of phonetics articles