A voiceless palatal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is .
If distinction is necessary, a voiceless alveolo-palatal plosive may be transcribed (retracted and palatalized ) or (advanced ), depending on the linguistic analysis of that sound. There is also a para-IPA letter that is used primarily in Sinological phonetic notation.
It is common for the symbol to be used to transcribe a palatalized voiceless velar plosive or, as often in the Indo-Aryan languages, a postalveolar affricate – especially in phonemic notation. The latter may be appropriate when the place of articulation needs to be specified but the distinction between plosive and affricate is not contrastive, or simply for a cleaner transcription.
Features
Features of a voiceless palatal stop:
The otherwise identical post-palatal variant is articulated slightly behind the hard palate, making it sound closer to the velar . Alveolo-palatal variant is articulated also with the blade of the tongue at or behind the alveolar ridge.
Occurrence
Palatal or alveolo-palatal Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Albanian 'Albanian' Merged with in Gheg Albanian and some speakers of Tosk Albanian. Asturian Western dialects 'woman' Alternate evolution of --, --, -, - and - in the Brañas Vaqueiras area of Western Asturias. May be also realized as or Amuzgo Xochistlahuaca variety 'clumsy; a clumsy person' AssyrianUrmi dialectܟܘܿܡܵܐ[cuma]'black'Azerbaijaniکئچی / keçi'goat'Can realize as in Tabriz accent Basque 'droplet' Blackfoot / 'bear' Mostly it is pronounced as /kʲ/. Breton Gwenedeg 'dandruff' Realization of /k/ before front vowels. Bulgarian Banat dialect ( or ) 'as' See Bulgarian phonology Catalan Mallorcan 'who' Alveolo-palatal or palatal. Corresponds to in other varieties. See Catalan phonology Corsican 'nail' Also present in the Gallurese dialect Croatian Littoral dialect 'already' Czech 'Czech' (language) Alveolo-palatal or alveolar. See Czech phonologyDamin'go' Dawsahak 'small' Dinka 'black' Ega 'understand' French 'bag' Ranges from alveolar to palatal. See French phonology Friulian 'house' Ganda 'tea' Gweno 'to come' HakkaMeixian / fi1 gi1'plane'Allophone of before . Hausa 'gift' HokkienTaiwanese / 'motorcycle' Hungarian 'dog' Alveolo-palatal. See Hungarian phonology Icelandic 'Eldgjá' Alveolo-palatal. See Icelandic phonology Irish 'question' Alveolo-palatal or palatal. See Irish phonology Khasi 'dwarf' Khmer / 'bird' Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms. Kinyarwanda 'thing' KurdishNorthern'tortoise'Allophone of before , , , and . See Kurdish phonologyCentralSouthern Latvian 'pumpkin' See Latvian phonologyLivonianCourlandkuoț[ˈkuoc]'bag'Salacaķez[cez]'hand' Low German Plautdietsch 'church' Corresponds to in all other dialects. Macedonian 'sugar' Prescribed realisation of the phoneme, varies greatly across dialects. See Macedonian phonologyMalayKelantan-Pattanicita'feeling'Palatal, allophone of . See Malay phonologyIndonesiancari'to find'Marathiचिंच / ciṁca[cɪ̃ɲt͡sə]'tamarind'Allophone of /t͡s/, /t͡ʃ/ or /t͡ɕ/ Norwegian Central dialects 'fat' See Norwegian phonology Northern dialects Occitan Limousin 'drawer' Auvergnat Western Gasconchifra[ˈcifrə]'digit'Corresponds to and sometimes in eastern dialects RomanianDEX Online: 'Chișinău' Allophone of before and . See Romanian phonology. Also in some northern dialects Romansh Sursilvan 'night' Sutsilvan 'dog' Surmiran 'cows' Puter 'sugar' Vallader 'moss' Scottish Gaelic 'stick' Alveolo-palatal or alveolar. Affricated in some positions, with affrication stronger in certain dialects. Slovak 'camel' Laminal alveolo-palatal. Often africated. See Slovak phonology Turkish 'village' See Turkish phonology Vietnamese Central and Southern 'Ba Chẽ' May be slightly affricated . See Vietnamese phonology West Frisian 'strainer' See West Frisian phonology Western Desert 'one'
Post-palatal
There is also a voiceless post-palatal or pre-velar plosive in some languages, which is articulated slightly more back compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical palatal consonant, though not as back as the prototypical velar consonant. The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, though it can be transcribed as (retracted ), (advanced ), or (palatalized , though this is more ambiguous than the others; see below).
+ Language Word IPA Meaning NotesBelarusian 'acidic' Typically transcribed in IPA with . See Belarusian phonologyCatalan 'who' Allophone of before front vowels. See Catalan phonologyDanish Standard 'hostage' Allophone of before front vowels. See Danish phonology English keen 'keen' Allophone of before front vowels and . See English phonologybackbackMainstream Irish English realisation of /k/ after front vowels.GermanStandard 'child' Allophone of before and after front vowels. See Standard German phonologyGreek 'Makedon' See Modern Greek phonologyItalian Standard 'who' Allophone of before . See Italian phonologyJapanese / 'nine' Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨kʲ⟩, allophone of /kj/. See Japanese phonologyPolish'when' See Polish phonologyPortuguese 'Chi' Allophone of before front vowels. See Portuguese phonologyRomanian 'eye' Typically transcribed in IPA with . See Romanian phonologyRussian Standard / 'whale' Typically transcribed in IPA with . See Russian phonology Scottish Gaelic 'five (5)' Typically transcribed in IPA with . Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms. Spanish 'kilo(gram)' Allophone of before front vowels. See Spanish phonologyTidoreyaci'to rip'Ukrainian/ 'tip' Can also be transcribed in IPA with , but is an allophone of before front vowels. See Ukrainian phonologyVietnamesecách 'to cut, to harvest' Final allophone of . See Vietnamese phonology
See also Index of phonetics articles
Notes
References
External links