Voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative

A 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 Template:Angbr IPA ("c", plus the curl also found in its voiced counterpart Template:IPAalink). Some Americanists may distinguish Template:Angbr IPA as an affricate, typically transcribed in IPA with Template:IPAalink, and instead use the symbol Template:Angbr IPA to represent the fricative that is referenced on this page. There is also a superscript Template:Angbr IPA / Template:Angbr IPA. It is the sibilant equivalent of the voiceless palatal fricative.

Features

File:Alveolopalatal fricative.svg

alveolo-palatal sibilant fricatives

Features of a voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative:

In English

In British Received Pronunciation, after syllable-initial (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 in the sequence: Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler. 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.

The corresponding affricate can be written with Template:Angbr IPA or Template:Angbr IPA in narrow IPA, though Template:Angbr IPA is normally used in both cases. In the case of English, the sequence can be specified as Template:Angbr IPA as is normally apical (although somewhat palatalized in that sequence), whereas alveolo-palatal consonants are laminal by definition.Template:Sfnp

An increasing number of British speakers merge this sequence with the voiceless palato-alveolar affricate : (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 , where the sequence tends to merge with the plain instead: Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler (see yod-dropping), mirroring General American which does not allow to follow alveolar consonants in stressed syllables.Template:Sfnp

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		/	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'three'
Assamese		/		'British'
Asturian				'box'	May be realised as [ʃj], [ɕj], [ɕ] or [ʃ], depending on context and speaker.
Bengali		/		'vulture'	Also transcribed as Template:IPA link. See Bengali phonology.
Burmese		/		'to abrade; to cut superficially'	See Burmese phonology.
Catalan				'chalk'	See Catalan phonology.
Chinese	Some Hokkien dialects	/		'heart'	Allophone of before .
	Mandarin	/	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'Xi'an'	Complementary distribution allophone of in front of high front vowels and palatal glides. See Mandarin phonology.
Chuvash		/		'lightning'	Contrasts with and . Lenis when intervocalic.
Damin		j2iwu		'small'	Varies with a doubled Voiceless alveolo-palatal plosive [t̠ʲ\t̠ʲ]
Danish				'soul'	See Danish phonology.
Dutch	Some speakers			'template'	May be [[[:Template:IPA link]]] or instead. See Dutch phonology.
English	CardiffTemplate:Sfnp	human		'human'	Phonetic realization of . More front and more strongly fricated than RP Template:IPAblink. Broad varieties drop the : .Template:Sfnp See English phonology.
	Conservative Received Pronunciation	tuesday		'Tuesday'	Allophone of after syllable-initial (which is alveolar in this sequence), may be only partially devoiced. is often realized as an affricate Template:IPAblink in British English. Mute in General American: Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler.Template:Sfnp Typically transcribed with Template:Angbr IPA in broad IPA. See English phonology, yod-coalescence and yod-dropping.
	Some Canadian English
	Ghanaian	ship		'ship'	Educated speakers may use Template:IPAblink, to which this phone corresponds in other dialects.
	Some speakers	sure	[ɕɔː]	'sure'
Guarani	Paraguayan			'I'
Hindi		/		'Saturday'	Often transcribed as . See Hindi phonology.
Japanese		/		'salt'	See Japanese phonology.
Kabardian		/	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'hundred'
Karen	Eastern Pwo			'star'
	Western Pwo			'star'
Kazakh		/		'wretch'	Often transcribed as . See Kazakh phonology.
Korean	South	/		'poem'	Allophone of before and . See Korean phonology.
Kyrgyz		/		'Satan'	Often transcribed as . See Kyrgyz phonology.
Lower SorbianTemplate:Sfnp				'friend'
LuxembourgishTemplate:Sfnp				'light'	Allophone of after phonologically front vowels; some speakers merge it with Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp See Luxembourgish phonology.
Marathi		/		'farmer'	Contrasts with . Allophone of . See Marathi phonology.
Malayalam		/		'Cross'	See Malayalam phonology.
Norwegian	Urban EastTemplate:Sfnp			'handsome'	Typically transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA; less often realized as palatal Template:IPAblink. Younger speakers in Bergen, Stavanger and Oslo merge it with Template:IPAslink.Template:Sfnp See Norwegian phonology.
Polish			Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'screw'	Contrasts with and . See Polish phonology.
Romani	Kalderash			'Romani boy; son'	Realized as Template:IPAblink in conservative dialects.
Romanian	Transylvanian dialectsTemplate:Sfnp			'what'	Realized as Template:IPAblink in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology.
Russian		/	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'happiness'	Also represented by Template:Angbr. Contrasts with , , and . See Russian phonology.
Sema				'meat'	Possible allophone of before .
Serbo-Croatian	Croatian			'the mouse will'	Allophone of before . See Serbo-Croatian phonology.
	Some speakers of Montenegrin	/		'tomorrow'	Phonemically or, in some cases, .
Swedish	Finland			'chunk'	Allophone of Template:IPAslink.
	Sweden		Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'skirt'	See Swedish phonology.
Tibetan	Lhasa dialect	/		'four'	Contrasts with .
Tatar		/		'triangle'
Uzbek		/		'satellite'	Typically transcribed as . See Uzbek phonology.
Xumi	LowerTemplate:Sfnp			'one hundred'
	UpperTemplate:Sfnp
Yámana (Yahgan)		šúša		'penguin'
Yi		/		'thread'
Zhuang				'ten'

See also

• Index of phonetics articles
• Voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant

External links

• Template:Phoible
• Template:Phoible