| Ipa Symbol: | ʂ |
| Ipa Number: | 136 |
| Decimal1: | 642 |
| X-Sampa: | s` |
| Kirshenbaum: | s. |
| Braille: | 256 |
| Braille2: | 234 |
| Imagefile: | IPA Unicode 0x0282.svg |
The voiceless 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 (IPA|ʂ) which is a Latin letter s combined with a retroflex hook. Like all the retroflex consonants, the IPA letter is formed by adding a rightward-pointing hook to the bottom of (s) (the letter used for the corresponding alveolar consonant). A distinction can be made between laminal, apical, and sub-apical articulations. Only one language, Toda, appears to have more than one voiceless retroflex sibilant, and it distinguishes subapical palatal from apical postalveolar retroflex sibilants; that is, both the tongue articulation and the place of contact on the roof of the mouth are different.
Some scholars also posit the voiceless retroflex approximant distinct from the fricative. The approximant may be represented in the IPA as (IPA|ɻ̊).
Features of the voiceless retroflex fricative:
In the following transcriptions, diacritics may be used to distinguish between apical pronounced as /[ʂ̺]/ and laminal pronounced as /[ʂ̻]/.
The commonality of pronounced as /[ʂ]/ cross-linguistically is 6% in a phonological analysis of 2155 languages.[1]
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abkhazian: [[Abkhaz alphabet|ам'''ш'''/amš]] | pronounced as /[amʂ]/ | 'day' | ||||
| Kabardian: [[Cyrillic script|п'''шъ'''а'''шъ'''э/pšáša]] | 'girl' | Laminal. | ||||
| [[Chinese characters|石]]/[[Hanyu Pinyin|'''sh'''í]] | pronounced as /[ʂ̺ɻ̩˧˥]/ | 'stone' | Apical. See Mandarin phonology | |||
| Emilian-Romagnol | Romagnol | '''s'''é | pronounced as /[ˈʂĕ]/ | 'yes' | Apical; may be pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ instead. | |
| Faroese: fý'''rs''' | pronounced as /[fʊʂ]/ | 'eighty' | ||||
| Faroese: [[Faroese orthography|be'''r'''t]] | pronounced as /[pɛɻ̊ʈ]/ | 'only' | Devoiced approximant allophone of pronounced as //r//. See Faroese phonology | |||
| Hindi: [[Devanagari|कष्ट/kašť]] | pronounced as /[ˈkəʂʈ]/ | 'trouble' | See Hindi phonology | |||
| Kannada | ಕಷ್ಟ/kašťa | pronounced as /[kɐʂʈɐ]/ | 'difficult' | Only in loanwords. See Kannada phonology. | ||
| Kazakh | Kazakh: шағын, şağın | pronounced as /[ʂɑɣɯn]/ | 'small, compact' | See Kazakh phonology | ||
| Khanty | Most northern dialects | '''ш'''а'''ш'''/šaš | pronounced as /[ʂɑʂ]/ | 'knee' | Corresponds to a voiceless retroflex affricate pronounced as //ʈ͡ʂ// in the southern and eastern dialects. | |
| Lower Sorbian: gla'''ž'''k | pronounced as /[ˈɡläʂk]/ | 'glass' | ||||
| Malayalam: [[Malayalam script|കഷ്ടം/kaštam]] | pronounced as /[kɐʂʈɐm]/ | 'difficult' | Only occurs in loanwords.See Malayalam phonology | |||
| Mapudungun; Mapuche: [[Mapudungun alphabet|truku'''r''']] | pronounced as /[ʈ͡ʂʊ̝ˈkʊʂ]/ | 'fog' | Possible allophone of pronounced as //ʐ// in post-nuclear position. | |||
| Marathi: [[Devanagari|ऋ'''षी'''/reši]] | pronounced as /[r̩ʂiː]/ | 'sage' | See Marathi phonology | |||
| Nepali: [[Devanāgarī|षष्ठी/sóšthi]] | pronounced as /[sʌʂʈʰi]/ | 'Shashthi (day)' | Allophone of /s/ in neighbourhood of retroflex consonants.See Nepali phonology | |||
| Norwegian: [[Norwegian alphabet|no'''rs'''k]] | pronounced as /[nɔʂk]/ | 'Norwegian' | Allophone of the sequence pronounced as //ɾs// in many dialects, including Urban East Norwegian. See Norwegian phonology | |||
| Cuk-Ṣon | pronounced as /[tʃʊk ʂɔn]/ | Tucson | ||||
| Southern dialect | pronounced as /[ʂodəl]/ | 'to show' | ||||
| Standard | Polish: [[Polish orthography|'''sz'''um]] | 'rustle' | After voiceless consonants it is also represented by (rz). When written so, it can be instead pronounced as the voiceless raised alveolar non-sonorant trill by few speakers.[2] It is transcribed pronounced as //ʃ// by most Polish scholars. See Polish phonology | |||
| Southeastern Cuyavian dialects[3] | Polish: [[Polish orthography|'''s'''chowali]] | pronounced as /[ʂxɔˈväli]/ | 'they hid' | Some speakers. It's a result of hypercorrecting the more popular merger of pronounced as //ʂ// and pronounced as //s// into pronounced as /link/ (see szadzenie). | ||
| Suwałki dialect[4] | ||||||
| Moldavian dialects | Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: [[Romanian alphabet|'''ș'''ură]] | pronounced as /['ʂurə]/ | 'barn' | Apical. See Romanian phonology | ||
| Transylvanian dialects | ||||||
| Russian: [[Russian orthography|'''ш'''ут/šut]] | pronounced as /[ʂut̪]/ | 'jester' | See Russian phonology | |||
| [[Serbian Cyrillic alphabet|'''ш'''ал]] / [[Gaj's Latin alphabet|'''š'''al]] | pronounced as /[ʂȃ̠l]/ | 'scarf' | Typically transcribed as /ʃ/. See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |||
| Slovak: [[Slovak alphabet|'''š'''atka]] | pronounced as /[ˈʂätkä]/ | 'kerchief' | ||||
| Swedish: [[Swedish alphabet|fo'''rs''']] | pronounced as /[fɔʂ]/ | 'rapids' | Allophone of the sequence pronounced as //rs// in many dialects, including Central Standard Swedish. See Swedish phonology | |||
| Tamil | Tamil: [[Tamil script|கஷ்டம்/kaštham]] | pronounced as /[kɐʂʈɐm]/ | 'difficult' | Only occurs in loanwords, often replaced with /s/. See Tamil phonology | ||
| Telugu | Telugu: [[Telugu script|కష్టం/kaštam]] | Only occurs in loanwords. See Telugu phonology | ||||
| pronounced as /[pɔʂ]/ | '(clan name)' | Subapical, contrasts /θ s̪ s̠ ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ/. | ||||
| pronounced as /[ʂeʂ]/ | 'thin rope' | |||||
| pronounced as /[ʂ̺a]/ | 'head' | See Ubykh phonology | ||||
| Ukrainian | Ukrainian: [[Ukrainian orthography|'''ш'''ахи/šahy]] | [ˈʂɑxɪ] | 'chess' | See Ukrainian phonology | ||
| Some dialects | — | — | Used in dialects spoken in villages north of Hoyerswerda; corresponds to pronounced as /link/ in standard language. | |||
| Vietnamese | Southern dialects | Vietnamese: [[Vietnamese alphabet|'''s'''ữa]] | pronounced as /[ʂɨə˧ˀ˥]/ | 'milk' | See Vietnamese phonology | |
| Sichuan Yi; Nuosu: [[Yi script|ꏂ]]/Sichuan Yi; Nuosu: '''sh'''y | pronounced as /[ʂ̺ɹ̩˧]/ | 'gold' | ||||
| Yurok[5] | segep | pronounced as /[ʂɛɣep]/ | 'coyote' | |||
| Zapotec | — | — | Allophone of pronounced as //ʃ// before pronounced as /[a]/ and pronounced as /[u]/. | |||
| Above: | Voiceless retroflex non-sibilant fricative |
| Ipa Symbol: | ɻ̝̊ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | ɻ̊˔ |
| Ipa Symbol3: | ʈ˕ |
| Ipa Number: | 152 402B 429 |
| Xsampa: | r\`_0_r |
| Above: | Voiceless retroflex approximant |
| Ipa Symbol: | ɻ̊ |
| Ipa Number: | 152 402A |
| Xsampa: | r\`_0 |
Features of the voiceless retroflex non-sibilant fricative:
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Angami[6] | ɻ̥ə³ | pronounced as /[ɻ̥ə˨]/ | Contrasts with pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Chokri[7] | pronounced as /[təɻ̥ɨ˥˧]/ | In free variation with pronounced as /link/; contrasts with pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Ormuri[8] [9] | Kaniguram dialect | suř | pronounced as /[suɻ̝̊]/ | Usually corresponds to pronounced as /link/ in the Logar dialect | ||
pronounced as /navigation/