Voiceless_post-palatal_fricative

Voiceless palatal fricative

Voiceless palatal fricative

Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ç⟩ in IPA


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.

Quick Facts ç, IPA Number ...
Quick Facts j̊, IPA Number ...

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 symbol ç in French and Portuguese orthography is not a voiceless palatal fricative; the cedilla, instead, changes the usual /k/, the voiceless velar plosive, when c is employed before a or o, to /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 further occurs as an allophone of /x/ (e.g. in German or Greek), 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 farther 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 (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 ( in the IPA, x' or x_j in X-SAMPA).

Some scholars also posit the voiceless palatal approximant distinct from the fricative, found in a few spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , the voiceless homologue of the voiced palatal approximant.

The palatal approximant can in many cases be considered the semivocalic equivalent of the voiceless variant of the close front unrounded vowel [i̥]. The sound is essentially an Australian English y (as in year) pronounced strictly without vibration of the vocal cords.

It is found as a phoneme in Jalapa Mazatec and Washo as well as in Kildin Sami.

Features

Voiceless palatal fricative (ç)

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

More information Language, Word ...

Post-palatal

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Voiceless approximant

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See also


Notes

  1. 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".
  2. Basbøll (2005), pp. 65–66.
  3. Wells, John C (2009-01-29), "A huge query", John Wells's phonetic blog, retrieved 2016-03-13
  4. Ball & Watkins (1993), pp. 300–301.
  5. Mathiassen (1996), pp. 22–23).
  6. Iosad, Pavel (2013). Representation and variation in substance-free phonology: A case study in Celtic. Universitetet i Tromso.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. Cox, Felicity; Palethorpe, Sallyanne (2007). Illustrations of the IPA: Australian English (Cambridge University Press ed.). Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37. pp. 341–350.
  8. Moran, Steven; McCloy, Daniel (2019). English sound inventory (UZ). Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  9. Bauer, Laurie; Warren, Paul (2007). Illustrations of the IPA: New Zealand English (Cambridge University Press ed.). Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37. pp. 97–102.
  10. Sten, H (1963). Manuel de Phonetique Francaise. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
  11. Bloch (1950), p. 86–125.
  12. Jorden (1963).
  13. Jorden (1952).
  14. Bauer, Michael. "Final devoicing or Why does naoidh sound like Nɯiç?". Akerbeltz. Retrieved 11 December 2016.

References


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This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Voiceless_post-palatal_fricative, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.