Voiceless palatal fricative

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 Template:Angbr IPA, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is C. It is the non-sibilant equivalent of the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative.

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 , the voiceless velar plosive, when Template:Angbr IPA is employed before Template:Angbr IPA or Template:Angbr IPA, to , the voiceless alveolar fricative.

Palatal fricatives are relatively rare phonemes, and only 5% of the world's languages have as a phoneme.Template:Sfnp The sound further occurs as an allophone of Template:IPAslink (e.g. in German or Greek), or, in other languages, of Template:IPAslink in the vicinity of front vowels.

There is also the voiceless post-palatal fricative 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 Template:Angbr IPA, Template:Angbr IPA (both symbols denote a retracted Template:Angbr IPA) or Template:Angbr IPA (advanced Template:Angbr IPA). 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 (Template:Angbr IPA in the IPA, x' or x_j in X-SAMPA).

Features

File:Voiceless palatal fricative articulation.svg

Voiceless palatal fricative (ç)

Features of the voiceless palatal fricative:

Template:Fricative Template:Palatal The otherwise identical post-palatal variant is articulated slightly behind the hard palate, making it sound slightly closer to the velar Template:IPAblink. Template:Voiceless Template:Oral Template:Central articulation Template:Pulmonic

Occurrence

Palatal

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Assamese		/ Template:Transliteration		'limit/border'	Pre Palatal
AzerbaijaniTemplate:Sfnp	Some dialects			'bread'	Allophone of .
Blackfoot		/ Template:Transliteration		'Seven'	Allophone of .
Chinese	Taizhou dialect			'to play'	Corresponds to alveolo-palatal in other Wu dialects.
	Meixian dialect			'fragrant'	Corresponds to palatalized fricative in romanised as "hi-" or "hy-" Hakka dialect writing.
Danish	StandardTemplate:Sfnp			'splash'	May be alveolo-palatal Template:IPAblink instead.Template:Sfnp Before , aspiration of is realized as devoicing and fortition of .Template:Sfnp Note, however, that the sequence is normally realized as an affricate Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp See Danish phonology
Dutch	Standard NorthernTemplate:Sfnp			'crib'	Allophone of before for some speakers.Template:Sfnp See Dutch phonology
English	AustralianTemplate:Sfnp	hue		'hue'	Phonetic realization of the sequence .Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp See Australian English phonology and English phonology
	BritishTemplate:Sfnp
	ScouseTemplate:Sfnp	like		'like'	Allophone of ; ranges from palatal to uvular, depending on the preceding vowel.Template:Sfnp See English phonology
Estonian				'rain'	Allophone of . See Estonian phonology
Finnish				'notebook'	Allophone of . See Finnish phonology
French	ParisianTemplate:Sfnp		{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "LL-Q150 (fra)-Marie-Sarah (Opsylac)-merci.wav" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'thank you'	The close vowels and the mid front at the end of utterances can be devoiced.Template:Sfnp See French phonology
German			{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "De-nicht.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'not'	Traditionally allophone of , or vice versa, but phonemic for some speakers who have both and (< ). See Standard German phonology.
Haida				'leaf'
Hmong	White (Dawb)	Template:Script /		'seven'	Corresponds to alveolo-palatal /ɕ/ in Dananshan dialect
	Green (Njua)
HungarianTemplate:Sfnp				'get' (imperative)	Allophone of between a voiceless obstruent and a word boundary. See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic				'here'	See Icelandic phonology
Irish				'John' (voc.)	See Irish phonology
Jalapa MazatecTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Example needed			Described as an approximant. Contrasts with plain voiced and glottalized voiced .Template:Sfnp
JapaneseTemplate:Sfnp		/ Template:Transliteration		'person'	Allophone of before and . See Japanese phonology
Kabyle				'to measure'
Korean		/ Template:Transliteration		'strength'	Allophone of word-initially before and . See Korean phonology
Minangkabau	Mukomuko	tangih		'cry'	Allophone of /h/ after /i/ and /j/ in coda.
Moksha				'nose'
Norwegian	Urban EastTemplate:Sfnp			'handsome'	Often alveolo-palatal Template:IPAblink instead; younger speakers in Bergen, Stavanger and Oslo merge it with Template:IPAslink.Template:Sfnp See Norwegian phonology
Pashto	Ghilji dialectTemplate:Sfnp			'foot'	See Pashto phonology
	Wardak dialect
Romanian	Standard			'valahians'	Allophone of before . Typically transcribed with [hʲ]. See Romanian phonology
Russian	StandardTemplate:Sfnp	/ Template:Transliteration	{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Ru-твёрдый.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'hard'	Possible realization of .Template:Sfnp See Russian phonology
Scottish GaelicTemplate:Sfnp				'horses'	Slender allophone of Template:IPAslink. See Scottish Gaelic phonology and orthography
Sicilian				'river'	Evolved from the Latin nexus. Realized as Template:IPAblink when preceded by a consonant. See Sicilian phonology
Spanish	Chilean			'woman'	Allophone of Template:IPAslink before front vowels. See Spanish phonology
Turkish				'trick'	Allophone of . See Turkish phonology
Uzbek			|| 'school' || Occurs when Template:IPAslink comes before Template:IPAslink and Template:IPAslink sounds.
Walloon				'to knit'	⟨xh⟩ spelling proper in Common Walloon, in the Feller system it would be written ⟨hy⟩
Welsh				'language'	Occurs in words where comes before due to h-prothesis of the original word, i.e. Template:Gloss becomes Template:Gloss, resulting in → .Template:Sfnp See Welsh phonology

Post-palatal

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Belarusian		/ Template:Transliteration	[ɣɫuˈxʲi]	'deaf'	Typically transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA. See Belarusian phonology
Dutch	Standard BelgianTemplate:Sfnp		{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Nl-acht (South).ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'eight'	May be velar Template:IPAblink instead.Template:Sfnp See Dutch phonology
	Southern accentsTemplate:Sfnp
GreekTemplate:Sfnp		/ Template:Transliteration	{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Ell-Psychi.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'soul'	See Modern Greek phonology
Limburgish	Weert dialectTemplate:Sfnp			'I'	Allophone of before and after front vowels.Template:Sfnp See Weert dialect phonology
LithuanianTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp					Very rare;Template:Sfnp typically transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA. See Lithuanian phonology
Russian	StandardTemplate:Sfnp	/ Template:Transliteration	{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "LL-Q7737 (rus)-DomesticFrog-хинди.wav" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'Hindi'	Typically transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA. See Russian phonology
Spanish				'woman'	Allophone of before front vowels.Template:Sfnp See Spanish phonology
Ukrainian		/ Template:Transliteration		'course'	Typically transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA. See Ukrainian phonology
UzbekTemplate:Sfnp				'date palm'	Weakly fricated; occurs word-initially and pre-consonantally, otherwise it is post-velar Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp

Voiceless approximant

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 Template:Angbr IPA, 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 . The sound is essentially an Australian English Template:Angbr (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.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Breton	Bothoa dialect	Template:Example needed			Contrasts voiceless , plain voiced Template:IPAslink and nasal voiced approximants.
Chinese	Standard	/ Template:Transliteration		'ticket'	Common allophony of after aspirated consonants. Normally transcribed as . See Standard Chinese phonology
English	Australian	Template:Example needed			Allophone of . See Australian English phonology
	New Zealand	Template:Example needed			Allophone of , also can be [] instead. See New Zealand English phonology
French		Template:Example needed			Allophone of . See French phonology
Jalapa MazatecTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Example needed			Contrasts voiceless , plain voiced Template:IPAslink and glottalized voiced approximants.Template:Sfnp
Japanese		Template:Example needed			Colloquial, Allophone of Template:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp
Scottish Gaelic				'outside' (directional)	Allophone of and . See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Washo				'he's hunting'	Contrasts voiceless and voiced Template:IPAslink approximants.
Koyukon (Denaakk'e)		Template:Example needed			Contrasts voiceless and voiced Template:IPAslink approximants.

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

External links

• Template:Phoible
• Template:Phoible
• Template:Phoible
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