A 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 . It is the non-sibilant equivalent of the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative. Palatal fricatives are relatively rare phonemes, and only 5% of the world's languages have as a phoneme. The sound further occurs as an allophone of (e.g. in German or Greek), or, in other languages, of in the vicinity of front vowels.

Features

Features of a voiceless palatal fricative:

Occurrence Palatal Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Blackfoot / '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 Standard 'splash' May be alveolo-palatal instead. Before , aspiration of is realized as devoicing and fortition of . Note, however, that the sequence is normally realized as an affricate . See Danish phonology Dutch Standard Northern 'crib' Allophone of before for some speakers. See Dutch phonology English Australian hue 'hue' Phonetic realization of the sequence . See Australian English phonology and English phonology British Scouse like 'like' Allophone of ; ranges from palatal to uvular, depending on the preceding vowel. See English phonologyEstonian 'rain' Allophone of . See Estonian phonologyFinnish 'notebook' Allophone of . See Finnish phonologyFrench Parisian 'thank you' The close vowels and the mid front at the end of utterances are often devoiced. See French phonology German 'not' Traditionally allophone of , or vice versa, but phonemic for some speakers who have both and (< ). See . Haida 'leaf' Hmong White (Dawb) / 'seven' Corresponds to alveolo-palatal /ɕ/ in Dananshan dialectGreen (Njua) Hungarian 'get' (imperative) Allophone of between a voiceless obstruent and a word boundary. See Hungarian phonology Icelandic 'here' Allophone of near and . See Icelandic phonology Irish 'John' (voc.) See Irish phonology Japanese / 'day' Allophone of before and . See Japanese phonology Kabyle 'to measure' Korean / 'strength' Allophone of word-initially before and . See Korean phonology Minangkabau Mukomuko loyh 'loose' Allophone of /h/ after /i/, /oj/, and /uj/ in coda.Mochica18th and 19th centuries Shifted from in the 18th and 19th centuries. Moksha 'nose' Muniche'plant stalk' Norwegian Urban East 'core' Often alveolo-palatal instead; younger speakers in Bergen, Stavanger and Oslo merge it with . See Norwegian phonology Nuxalk 'to squeeze water out of string' Cognate with // in other Salishan languages. Pashto Ghilji dialect 'foot' See Pashto phonology Wardak dialect Romanian Standard 'Rohia' Allophone of before . Typically transcribed with [hʲ]. See Romanian phonology Russian Standard / 'hard' Possible emphatic realization of . See Russian phonology Scottish Gaelic 'horses' Slender allophone of . See Scottish Gaelic phonology and orthography Sicilian 'river' Evolved from the Latin nexus. Realized as when preceded by a consonant. See Sicilian phonology Spanish ChileanPalatal phenomena in Spanish phonology Page 113 'woman' Allophone of before front vowels. See Spanish phonology Turkish 'intellect' Allophone of . See Turkish phonologyUzbek 'school' Occurs when comes before and 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. becomes , resulting in → . See Welsh phonology

Post-palatal

There is also a voiceless post-palatal or pre-velar 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 , (both symbols denote a retracted ) or (advanced ).

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Belarusian / 'deaf' Typically transcribed in IPA with . See Belarusian phonology Dutch Standard Belgian 'eight' May be velar instead. See Dutch phonology Southern accents Greek / 'soul' See Modern Greek phonology Limburgish Weert dialect 'I' Allophone of before and after front vowels. See Weert dialect phonology Lithuanian 'chemistry' Very rare; typically transcribed in IPA with . See Lithuanian phonology Russian Standard / 'Hindi' Typically transcribed in IPA with . See Russian phonology Spanish 'woman' Allophone of before front vowels. See Spanish phonology Ukrainian / 'alchemy' Typically transcribed in IPA with . See Ukrainian phonology Uzbek 'date palm' Weakly fricated; occurs word-initially and pre-consonantally, otherwise it is post-velar .

Voiceless palatal approximant

A voiceless palatal approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a j with a ring, indicating the voiceless homologue of the voiced palatal approximant. The IPA also had a dedicated symbol , an h with palatal hook, for the similar palatalized hʲ sound, but that is now obsolete. In the Finno-Ugric transcription, it is transcribed , a small capital j.

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 (as in year) pronounced strictly without vibration of the vocal cords.

It is found as a phoneme in Jalapa Mazatec, Washo, and Kildin Sami. LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotesBretonBothoa dialectContrasts voiceless , plain voiced and nasal voiced approximants.ChineseStandard / 'ticket'Common allophony of after aspirated consonants. Normally transcribed as . See Standard Chinese phonologyEnglishAustralianhuge'huge'H-dropping, also allophone of . See Australian English phonologyNew ZealandH-dropping, also allophone of , also can be [] instead. See New Zealand English phonologyFrench'stone' Devoiced allophone of . See French phonologyIcelandic'here'Dialectal, or in free variation with [ç]Jalapa MazatecContrasts voiceless , plain voiced and glottalized voiced approximants.Japanese / hi'day'Colloquial, Allophone of Scottish Gaelic'outside' (directional)Allophone of and . See Scottish Gaelic phonologyThaiAllophone of .Abramson 1962; Kruatrachue 1960; Noss 1954; Noss 1964TibetanKhamsPhonemicChirkova 2014Washo'he's hunting'Contrasts voiceless and voiced approximants.Koyukon (Denaakk'e)Contrasts voiceless and voiced approximants.

See also Index of phonetics articles

Notes

References

External links