| Ipa Symbol: | j |
| Ipa Number: | 153 |
| Decimal: | 106 |
| X-Sampa: | j |
| Braille: | j |
| Above: | Voiced alveolo-palatal approximant |
| Ipa Symbol: | j˖ |
The voiced palatal approximant is a type of consonant used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is (IPA|j). The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is j, and in the Americanist phonetic notation it is (y). Because the English name of the letter J, jay, starts with pronounced as /[dʒ]/ (voiced postalveolar affricate), the approximant is sometimes instead called yod (jod), as in the phonological history terms yod-dropping and yod-coalescence.
The palatal approximant can often be considered the semivocalic equivalent of the close front unrounded vowel pronounced as /[i]/. They alternate with each other in certain languages, such as French, and in the diphthongs of some languages as (IPA|j) and (IPA|i̯), with the non-syllabic diacritic used in different phonetic transcription systems to represent the same sound.
A voiced alveolo-palatal approximant is attested as phonemic in the Huastec language,[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] and is represented as an advanced voiced palatal approximant (IPA|j̟|lang=Huastec),[8] or the plus sign may be placed after the letter, (IPA|j˖).
Some languages, however, have a palatal approximant that is unspecified for rounding and so cannot be considered the semivocalic equivalent of either pronounced as /[i]/ or its rounded counterpart, pronounced as /link/, which would normally correspond to pronounced as /link/. An example is Spanish, which distinguishes two palatal approximants: an approximant semivowel pronounced as /[j]/, which is always unrounded (and is a phonological vowel - an allophone of pronounced as //i//), and an approximant consonant unspecified for rounding, pronounced as /[ʝ̞]/ (which is a phonological consonant). Eugenio Martínez Celdrán describes the difference between them as follows (with audio examples added):
He also considers that "the IPA shows a lack of precision in the treatment it gives to approximants, if we take into account our understanding of the phonetics of Spanish. pronounced as /[ʝ̞]/ and pronounced as /[j]/ are two different segments, but they have to be labelled as voiced palatal approximant consonants. I think that the former is a real consonant, whereas the latter is a semi-consonant, as it has traditionally been called in Spanish, or a semi-vowel, if preferred. The IPA, though, classifies it as a consonant."
There is a parallel problem with transcribing the voiced velar approximant.
The symbol (IPA|ʝ̞) may not display properly in all browsers. In that case, (IPA|ʝ˕) should be substituted.
In the writing systems used for most languages in Central, Northern, and Eastern Europe, the letter j denotes the palatal approximant, as in German 'year', which is followed by IPA. Although it may be seen as counterintuitive for English-speakers, there are a few words with that orthographical spelling in certain loanwords in English like Hebrew "hallelujah" and German "Jägermeister".
In grammars of Ancient Greek, the palatal approximant, which was lost early in the history of Greek, is sometimes written as (ι̯), an iota with the inverted breve below, which is the nonsyllabic diacritic or marker of a semivowel.
There is also the post-palatal approximant[9] in some languages, which is articulated slightly more back than the place of articulation of the prototypical palatal approximant but less far back than the prototypical velar approximant. It can be considered the semivocalic equivalent of the close central unrounded vowel pronounced as /[ɨ]/The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, but it can be transcribed as (IPA|j̠), (IPA|j˗) (both symbols denote a retracted (IPA|j)), (IPA|ɰ̟) or (IPA|ɰ˖) (both symbols denote an advanced (IPA|ɰ)). The equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are j_- and M\_+, respectively. Other possible transcriptions include a centralized (IPA|j) ((IPA|j̈) in the IPA, j_" in X-SAMPA), a centralized (IPA|ɰ) ((IPA|ɰ̈) in the IPA, M\_" in X-SAMPA) and a non-syllabic (IPA|ɨ) ((IPA|ɨ̯) in the IPA, 1_^ in X-SAMPA).
For the reasons mentioned above and in the article velar approximant, none of those symbols are appropriate for languages such as Spanish, whose post-palatal approximant consonant (not a semivowel) appears as an allophone of pronounced as //ɡ// before front vowels and is best transcribed (IPA|ʝ̞˗), (IPA|ʝ˕˗) (both symbols denote a lowered and retracted (IPA|ʝ)), (IPA|ɣ̞˖) or (IPA|ɣ˕˖) (both symbols denote a lowered and advanced (IPA|ɣ)). The equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are j\_o_- and G_o_+.
Especially in broad transcription, the post-palatal approximant may be transcribed as a palatalized velar approximant ((IPA|ɰʲ), (IPA|ɣ̞ʲ) or (IPA|ɣ˕ʲ) in the IPA, M\', M\_j, G'_o or G_o_j in X-SAMPA).
A voiced alveolar-palatal approximant is attested as phonemic in the Huastec language.
Features of the voiced palatal approximant:
The most common type of this approximant is glide or semivowel. The term glide emphasizes the characteristic of movement (or 'glide') of pronounced as /[j]/ from the pronounced as /link/ vowel position to a following vowel position. The term semivowel emphasizes that, although the sound is vocalic in nature, it is not 'syllabic' (it does not form the nucleus of a syllable). For a description of the approximant consonant variant used e.g. in Spanish, see above. The otherwise identical post-palatal variant is articulated slightly behind the hard palate, making it sound slightly closer to the velar pronounced as /link/.
| Language | Word | Meaning | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adyghe; Adygei: [[Cyrillic script|'''я'''тӀэ]]/yat’a | 'dirt' | |||||
| Afrikaans: '''j'''a|italic=yes | pronounced as /[jɑː]/ | 'yes' | See Afrikaans phonology | |||
| Arabic: [[Arabic alphabet|يوم]]|rtl=yes/yawm | pronounced as /[jawm]/ | 'day' | See Arabic phonology | |||
| Aragonese: ca'''y'''e|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈkaʝ̞e̞]/ | 'falls' | Unspecified for rounding approximant consonant; the language also features an unrounded palatal approximant semivowel (which may replace pronounced as //ʝ̞// before pronounced as //e//). | |||
| Armenian: [[Armenian alphabet|'''յ'''ուղ]]/yuq | pronounced as /[juʁ]/ | 'fat' | ||||
| Assamese: [[Assamese alphabet|মানৱী'''য়'''তা]]/manowiyota | pronounced as /[manɔwijɔta]/ | 'humanity' | ||||
| Assyrian | ܝܡܐ [[Syriac alphabet|'''y'''ama]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[jaːma]/ | 'sea' | |||
| Azerbaijani: [[Azerbaijani alphabet|'''y'''uxu]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[juχu]/ | 'dream' | ||||
| Basque: [[Basque alphabet|ba'''i''']]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[baj]/ | 'yes' | ||||
| Bengali: [[Bengali alphabet|ন'''য়'''ন]]/noyon | pronounced as /[nɔjon]/ | 'eye' | See Bengali phonology | |||
| Bulgarian: [[Cyrillic script|ма'''й'''ка]] / Bulgarian: ma'''j'''ka|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈmajkɐ]/ | 'mother' | See Bulgarian phonology | |||
| All dialects | Catalan; Valencian: [[Catalan orthography|fe'''i'''a]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈfejɐ]/ | 'I did' | See Catalan phonology | ||
| Some dialects | Catalan; Valencian: [[Catalan orthography|'''j'''o]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈjɔ]/ | 'I' | |||
| Chechen: [[Cyrillic script|'''я'''лх]] / Chechen: '''y'''alx|italic=yes | pronounced as /[jalx]/ | 'six' | ||||
| [[Chinese characters|日]] / [[Jyutping|'''j'''at9]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[jɐt˨ʔ]/ | 'day' | See Cantonese phonology | |||
| Chinese: [[Chinese characters|鸭]] (Chinese: [[Chinese characters|鴨]]) / [[Hanyu Pinyin|'''y'''ā]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ja˥]/ | 'duck' | See Mandarin phonology | |||
| Chuvash | йывăç/yıvëş | [jɯʋəɕ̬] | 'tree' | |||
| Czech: [[Czech alphabet|'''j'''e]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[jɛ]/ | 'is' | See Czech phonology | |||
| Danish: [[Danish alphabet|'''j'''eg]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[jɑ]/ | 'I' | See Danish phonology | |||
| Standard | Dutch; Flemish: [[Dutch orthography|'''j'''a]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[jaː]/ | 'yes' | Frequently realized as a fricative pronounced as /link/, especially in emphatic speech. See Dutch phonology | ||
| you | pronounced as /[juː]/ | 'you' | See English phonology | |||
| Esperanto: [[Esperanto orthography|'''j'''aro]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[jaro]/ | 'year' | See Esperanto phonology | |||
| Estonian: [[Estonian alphabet|'''j'''alg]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈjɑlɡ]/ | 'leg' | See Estonian phonology | |||
| Finnish: [[Finnish alphabet|'''j'''alka]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈjɑlkɑ]/ | 'leg' | See Finnish phonology | |||
| French: [[French orthography|'''y'''eux]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[jø]/ | 'eyes' | See French phonology | |||
| German: [[German orthography|'''J'''acke]] | pronounced as /[ˈjäkə]/ | 'jacket' | Also described as a fricative pronounced as /link/ and a sound variable between a fricative and an approximant. See Standard German phonology | |||
| Greek | Ancient Greek | Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ε'''ἴ'''η/éyē | pronounced as /[ějːɛː]/ | 's/he shall come' | See Ancient Greek phonology | |
| Hebrew: [[Hebrew alphabet|'''י'''לד]]|rtl=yes/yeled | pronounced as /[ˈjeled]/ | 'kid' | See Modern Hebrew phonology | |||
| Hindi: [[Devanagari alphabet|'''या'''न]] / /yán | pronounced as /[jäːn]/ | 'vehicle' | See Hindustani phonology | |||
| Hungarian: [[Hungarian orthography|'''j'''áték]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[jaːteːk]/ | 'game' | See Hungarian phonology | |||
| Irish: [[Irish orthography|'''gh'''earrfadh]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈjɑːɾˠhəx]/ | 'would cut' | See Irish phonology | |||
| Italian: [[Italian alphabet|'''i'''one]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈjoːne]/ | 'ion' | See Italian phonology | |||
| Contrasts voiceless pronounced as /link/, plain voiced pronounced as //j// and glottalized voiced pronounced as //ȷ̃// approximants. | ||||||
| Japanese: [[hiragana|焼く]] / Japanese: [[rōmaji|'''y'''aku]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[jaku͍]/ | 'to bake' | See Japanese phonology | |||
| Kabardian: [[Cyrillic script|'''й'''и]]/yi | pronounced as /[ji]/ | 'game' | ||||
| Kabardian: [[Cyrillic script|'''Я'''ғни]]/yağni | pronounced as /[jaʁni]/ | 'so' | ||||
| Central Khmer: [[Khmer script|យំ]] / | pronounced as /[jom]/ | 'to cry' | See Khmer phonology | |||
| Korean: [[hangul|여섯]] / Korean: [[Revised Romanization of Korean|'''y'''ósót]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[jʌsʌt̚]/ | 'six' | See Korean phonology | |||
| Latin: [[Latin spelling and pronunciation|iacere]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈjakɛrɛ]/ | 'to throw' | See Latin spelling and pronunciation | |||
| Lithuanian: [[Lithuanian orthography|'''j'''i]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[jɪ]/ | 'she' | Also described as a fricative pronounced as /link/. See Lithuanian phonology | |||
| Macedonian: [[Macedonian alphabet|кра'''ј''']]/kraj | pronounced as /[kraj]/ | 'end' | See Macedonian phonology | |||
| Malay: [[Malay alphabet|sa'''y'''ang]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[sajaŋ]/ | 'love' | ||||
| Maltese: [[Maltese alphabet|'''j'''iekol]] | pronounced as /[jɪɛkol]/ | 'he eats' | ||||
| Mapudungun; Mapuche: [[Mapudungun alphabet|ka'''y'''u]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[kɜˈjʊ]/ | 'six' | May be a fricative pronounced as /link/ instead. | |||
| Marathi: [[Devanagari|'''य'''श]]/yaš | pronounced as /[jəʃ]/ | 'success' | ||||
| Nepali | /yam | pronounced as /[jäm]/ | 'season' | See Nepali phonology | ||
| Norwegian: [[Norwegian alphabet|'''g'''i]] | pronounced as /[jiː]/ | 'to give' | May be a fricative pronounced as /link/ instead. See Norwegian phonology | |||
| Oriya: [[Odia script|ସମ'''ୟ''']]/samaya | pronounced as /[sɔmɔjɔ]/ | 'time' | ||||
| یزد/Yäzd | [{{IPA|jæzd}}] | 'Yazd' | See Persian phonology | |||
| Polish: [[Polish orthography|'''j'''utro]]|italic=yes | 'tomorrow' | See Polish phonology | ||||
| Portuguese[10] | Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|bo'''i'''a]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈbɔjɐ]/ | 'buoy', 'float' | Allophone of both pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/,[11] as well as a very common epenthetic sound before coda sibilants in some dialects. See Portuguese phonology | ||
| ਯਾਰ/yár | pronounced as /[jäːɾ]/ | 'friend' | ||||
| Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: [[Romanian alphabet|'''i'''ar]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[jar]/ | 'again' | See Romanian phonology | |||
| Russian: [[Russian alphabet|'''я'''ма]]/jama | pronounced as /[ˈjämə]/ | 'pit' | See Russian phonology | |||
| [[Serbian Cyrillic alphabet|'''ј'''уг]] / [[Gaj's Latin alphabet|'''j'''ug]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[jûɡ]/ | 'South' | See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |||
| Slovak: [[Slovak orthography|'''j'''esť]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[jɛ̝sc]/ | 'to eat' | See Slovak phonology | |||
| Slovene | Slovenian: [[Slovene orthography|'''j'''az]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈjʌ̂s̪]/ | 'I' | |||
| Spanish; Castilian: [[Spanish orthography|a'''y'''er]]|italic=yes | 'yesterday' | Unspecified for rounding approximant consonant; the language also features an unrounded palatal approximant semivowel. See Spanish phonology | ||||
| Swedish: [[Swedish alphabet|'''j'''ag]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈjɑːɡ]/ | 'I' | May be realized as a palatal fricative pronounced as /link/ instead. See Swedish phonology | |||
| Tagalog: [[Filipino orthography|ma'''y'''a]] | pronounced as /[ˈmajɐ]/ | 'sparrow' | ||||
| Tamil | [ˈjaːnaɪ] | 'elephant' | ||||
| Telugu: [[Telugu script|'''యా'''తన/yatana]] | pronounced as /[jaːtana]/ | 'agony' | ||||
| Turkish: [[Turkish alphabet|'''y'''ol]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[jo̞ɫ̪]/ | 'way' | See Turkish phonology | |||
| Turkmen: [[Turkmen alphabet|'''ý'''üpek]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[jypek]/ | 'silk' | ||||
| ајәушқӏa/ajëwšq'a | pronounced as /[ajəwʃqʼa]/ | 'you did it' | See Ubykh phonology | |||
| pronounced as /[jiˈʒɑk]/ | 'hedgehog' | See Ukrainian phonology | ||||
| Southern dialects | Vietnamese: [[Vietnamese alphabet|'''d'''e]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[jɛ]/ | 'cinnamon' | Corresponds to northern pronounced as //z//. See Vietnamese phonology | ||
| Washo: da'''y'''áʔ|italic=yes | pronounced as /[daˈjaʔ]/ | 'leaf' | Contrasts voiceless pronounced as /link/ and voiced pronounced as //j// approximants. | |||
| Welsh | iaith | [jai̯θ] | 'language' | See Welsh phonology | ||
| Western Frisian: '''j'''as|italic=yes | pronounced as /[jɔs]/ | 'coat' | See West Frisian phonology | |||
| yan | pronounced as /[jaŋ]/ | 'neck' | ||||
| Above: | Voiced post-palatal approximant |
| Ipa Symbol: | j˗ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | ɰ˖ |
| Ipa Symbol3: | ȷ̈ |
| Ipa Symbol4: | ɨ̯ |
| X-Sampa: | j- |
| Language | Word | Meaning | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spanish; Castilian: [[Spanish orthography|se'''gu'''ir]]|italic=yes | 'to follow' | Lenited allophone of pronounced as //ɡ// before front vowels; typically transcribed in IPA with (IPA|ɣ). See Spanish phonology | ||||
| Standard prescriptive | Turkish: [[Turkish alphabet|dü'''ğ'''ün]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈd̪y̠ȷ̈y̠n̪]/ | 'wedding' | Either post-palatal or palatal; phonetic realization of pronounced as //ɣ// (also transcribed as pronounced as //ɰ//) before front vowels. See Turkish phonology | ||
pronounced as /navigation/