| Ipa Symbol: | ɕ |
| Ipa Number: | 182 |
| Decimal1: | 597 |
| X-Sampa: | s\ |
| Braille: | 236 |
| Braille2: | c |
| Imagefile: | IPA Unicode 0x0255.svg |
The voiceless alveolo-palatal 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 (IPA|ɕ) ("c", plus the curl also found in its voiced counterpart pronounced as /link/). It is the sibilant equivalent of the voiceless palatal fricative, and as such it can be transcribed in IPA with (IPA|ç˖).
Features of the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative:
In British Received Pronunciation, pronounced as //j// after syllable-initial pronounced as //p, t, k// (as in Tuesday) is realized as a devoiced palatal fricative. The amount of devoicing is variable, but the fully voiceless variant tends to be alveolo-palatal pronounced as /[ɕ]/ in the pronounced as //tj// sequence: . It is a fricative, rather than a fricative element of an affricate because the preceding plosive remains alveolar, rather than becoming alveolo-palatal, as in Dutch.[1]
The corresponding affricate can be written with (IPA|t̠ʲ͡ɕ) or (IPA|c̟͡ɕ) in narrow IPA, though (IPA|tɕ) is normally used in both cases. In the case of English, the sequence can be specified as (IPA|t̺ɕ) as pronounced as //t// is normally apical (although somewhat palatalized in that sequence), whereas alveolo-palatal consonants are laminal by definition.
An increasing number of British speakers merge this sequence with the voiceless palato-alveolar affricate pronounced as //tʃ//: pronounced as /[ˈtʃʉːzdeɪ]/ (see yod-coalescence), mirroring Cockney, Australian English and New Zealand English. On the other hand, there is an opposite tendency in Canadian accents that have preserved pronounced as //tj//, where the sequence tends to merge with the plain pronounced as //t// instead: (see yod-dropping), mirroring General American which does not allow pronounced as //j// to follow alveolar consonants in stressed syllables.[2]
| Language | Word | Meaning | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kabardian: [[Cyrillic script|'''щ'''ы]]/šə/شہ | 'three' | |||||
| Assamese: [[Assamese alphabet|ব্ৰিটি'''ছ''']]/British | pronounced as /[bɹitiɕ]/ | 'British' | ||||
| Bengali: '''শ'''কুন | pronounced as /[ɕokun]/ | 'Vulture' | May be transliterated as pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Catalan; Valencian: [[Catalan orthography|ca'''ix'''a]] | pronounced as /[ˈkä(ɪ̯)ɕɐ]/ | 'box' | See Catalan phonology | |||
| Some Hokkien dialects | [[Chinese characters|心]]/[[Pe̍h-ōe-jī|'''s'''in]] | pronounced as /[ɕín]/ | 'heart' | Allophone of pronounced as //s// before pronounced as //i//. | ||
| [[Chinese characters|西安]]/[[Hanyu Pinyin|'''X'''ī'ān]] | 'Xi'an' | Complementary distribution allophone of pronounced as //ʂ// in front of high front vowels and palatal glides. See Mandarin phonology. | ||||
| Chuvash: [[Chuvash language|'''ç'''и'''ç'''ĕм]]/şişĕm | pronounced as /[ˈɕiɕ̬əm]/ | 'lightning' | Contrasts with pronounced as //ʂ// and pronounced as //s//. Lenis when intervocalic. | |||
| Danish: [[Danish phonology|'''sj'''æl]] | pronounced as /[ˈɕeːˀl]/ | 'soul' | See Danish phonology | |||
| Some speakers | Dutch; Flemish: [[Dutch orthography|'''sj'''abloon]] | pronounced as /[ɕäˈbloːn]/ | 'template' | May be [{{IPA link|ʃ}}] or pronounced as /[sʲ]/ instead. See Dutch phonology | ||
| pronounced as /[ˈɕumːən]/ | 'human' | Phonetic realization of pronounced as //hj//. More front and more strongly fricated than RP pronounced as /link/. Broad varieties drop the pronounced as //h//: pronounced as /[ˈjumːən]/. See English phonology | ||||
| 'Tuesday' | Allophone of pronounced as //j// after syllable-initial pronounced as //t// (which is alveolar in this sequence), may be only partially devoiced. pronounced as //tj// is often realized as an affricate pronounced as /link/ in British English. Mute in General American: . Typically transcribed with (IPA|j) in broad IPA. See English phonology, yod-coalescence and yod-dropping | |||||
| Some Canadian English | ||||||
| pronounced as /[ɕip]/ | 'ship' | Educated speakers may use pronounced as /link/, to which this phone corresponds in other dialects. | ||||
| Paraguayan | Guarani: [[Guarani language|'''ch'''e]] | pronounced as /[ɕɛ]/ | 'I' | |||
| Hindi: '''श'''निवार | pronounced as /[ɕəniʋaːr]/ | Saturday | Sometimes may be transliterated as 'ʃ' | |||
| Japanese: [[kanji|塩]]/Japanese: [[Romanization of Japanese|'''sh'''io]] | pronounced as /[ɕi.o]/ | 'salt' | See Japanese phonology | |||
| Korean | / | [ɕʰi] | 'poem' | See Korean phonology. | ||
| Kabardian: [[Cyrillic script|'''щ'''э]]/ščè/صە | 'hundred' | |||||
| Lower Sorbian: p'''ś'''ija'''ś'''el | pronounced as /[ˈpɕijäɕɛl]/ | 'friend' | ||||
| Luxembourgish; Letzeburgesch: lii'''ch'''t | pronounced as /[liːɕt]/ | 'light' | Allophone of pronounced as //χ// after phonologically front vowels; some speakers merge it with pronounced as /link/. See Luxembourgish phonology | |||
| Marathi | शेतकरी/shetkari | [ɕeːt̪kəɾiː] | 'farmer' | Contrasts with [ʂ]. Allophone of [ʃ]. See Marathi phonology. | ||
| കുരിശ്/kuriś | pronounced as /[kuɾɪɕ]/ | 'Cross' | See Malayalam phonology | |||
| Norwegian: [[Danish and Norwegian alphabet|'''kj'''ekk]] | pronounced as /[ɕe̞kː]/ | 'handsome' | Typically transcribed in IPA with (IPA|ç); less often realized as palatal pronounced as /link/. Younger speakers in Bergen, Stavanger and Oslo merge it with pronounced as /link/. See Norwegian phonology | |||
| Polish: [[Polish orthography|'''ś'''ruba]] | 'screw' | Contrasts with pronounced as //ʂ// and pronounced as //s//. See Polish phonology | ||||
| Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|me'''x'''endo]] | pronounced as /[meˈɕẽd̪u]/ | 'moving' | Also described as palato-alveolar pronounced as /link/. See Portuguese phonology | |||
| [[Romani alphabets|'''ćh'''avo]] | pronounced as /[ɕaˈvo]/ | 'Romani boy; son' | Realized as pronounced as /link/ in conservative dialects. | |||
| Transylvanian dialects | Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: [[Romanian alphabet|'''c'''e]] | pronounced as /[ɕɛ]/ | 'what' | Realized as pronounced as /link/ in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology | ||
| Russian: [[Russian orthography|'''сч'''астье]]/schast'e | 'happiness' | Also represented by (щ). Contrasts with pronounced as //ʂ//, pronounced as //s//, and pronounced as //sʲ//. See Russian phonology | ||||
| a'''sh'''i | pronounced as /[à̠ɕì]/ | 'meat' | Possible allophone of pronounced as //ʃ// before pronounced as //i, e//. | |||
| [[Gaj's Latin alphabet|mi'''š''' će]] | pronounced as /[mîɕ t͡ɕe̞]/ | 'the mouse will' | Allophone of pronounced as //ʃ// before pronounced as //t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ//. See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |||
| [[Montenegrin alphabet|'''с́'''утра]]/[[Montenegrin alphabet|'''ś'''utra]] | pronounced as /[ɕût̪ra̠]/ | 'tomorrow' | Phonemically pronounced as //sj// or, in some cases, pronounced as //s//. | |||
| Swedish: [[Swedish alphabet|'''sj'''ok]] | pronounced as /[ɕuːk]/ | 'chunk' | Allophone of pronounced as /link/. | |||
| Sweden | Swedish: [[Swedish alphabet|'''kj'''ol]] | 'skirt' | See Swedish phonology | |||
| Tibetan | Lhasa dialect | Tibetan: [[Tibetan script|བཞི་]]/bzhi | pronounced as /[ɕi˨˧]/ | 'four' | Contrasts with pronounced as //ʂ//. | |
| Tatar: ө'''ч'''по'''ч'''мак/өçpoçmaq | pronounced as /[ˌøɕpoɕˈmɑq]/ | 'triangle' | ||||
| Lower | pronounced as /[d͡ʑi ɕɐ˦]/ | 'one hundred' | ||||
| Upper | ||||||
| Šúša | pronounced as /[ɕúɕa]/ | 'penguin' | ||||
| Sichuan Yi; Nuosu: [[Yi script|ꑟ]]/Sichuan Yi; Nuosu: [[Yi script|'''x'''i]] | pronounced as /[ɕi˧]/ | 'thread' | ||||
| Zhuang | Zhuang; Chuang: '''c'''ib | pronounced as /[ɕǐp]/ | 'ten' | |||
pronounced as /navigation/