Voiced alveolar fricative

Voiced alveolar sibilant
z
Image
IPA number	133
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	z
Unicode (hex)	U+007A
X-SAMPA	z
Kirshenbaum	z
Sound

See also: voiceless alveolar fricative

The voiced alveolar fricatives are consonantal sounds. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents these sounds depends on whether a sibilant or non-sibilant fricative is being described.

• The symbol for the alveolar sibilant is z, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is z. The IPA symbol [z] is not normally used for dental or postalveolar sibilants unless modified by a diacritic ([z̪] and [z̠] respectively).
• The IPA symbol for the alveolar non-sibilant fricative is derived by means of diacritics; it can be ð̠ or ɹ̝.

Coronal fricatives

	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar
				retroflex	palato- alveolar	alveolo- palatal
sibilant	z̪	z͇	z̠	ʐ	ʒ	ʑ
non-sibilant	ð	ð̠/ð͇/ɹ̝		ɻ̝

Voiced alveolar sibilant

The voiced alveolar sibilant is common across European languages but is relatively uncommon cross-linguistically compared to the voiceless variant. Only about 28% of the world's languages contain a voiced dental or alveolar sibilant. Moreover, 85% of the languages with some form of [z] are languages of Europe, Africa or Western Asia.

In the eastern half of Asia, the Pacific and the Americas, [z] is very rare as a phoneme. The presence of [z] in a given language always implies the presence of a voiceless [s].^{[citation needed]}

Features

Features of the voiced alveolar fricative:

• Its manner of articulation is sibilant fricative, which means it is generally produced by channeling air flow along a groove in the back of the tongue up to the place of articulation, at which point it is focused against the sharp edge of the nearly clenched teeth, causing high-frequency turbulence.
• Its place of articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

In the following transcriptions, diacritics may be used to distinguish between apical [z̺] and laminal [z̻].

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Albanian		zjarr	[zjar]	'fire'
Arabic	Standard	زائِر	[ˈzaːʔir]	'visitor'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian		զարդ	[zɑɾtʰ]	'decoration'
Breton		iliz	[iliz]	'church'
Catalan		zel	[ˈz̺ɛɫ]	'zeal'	See Catalan phonology
Chechen		зурма/zurma	[zuɾma]	'music'
Czech		zima	[zɪma]	'winter'	See Czech phonology
Dutch		zee	[zeː]	'sea'	See Dutch phonology
English		size	[saɪz]	'size'	See English phonology
French		zèbre	[zɛbʀ]	'zebra'	See French phonology
Georgian		ზარი	[ˈzɑɾi]	'bell'
German		süß	[zyːs]	'sweet'	See German phonology
Greek	Athens dialect	ζάλη/záli	[ˈz̻ali]	'dizziness'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew		זאב	[zeʔev]	'wolf'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindi		ज़मीन	[zəmiːn]	'land'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Hungarian		zálog	[zaːloɡ]	'pledge'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian		caso	[ˈkazo]	'case'	See Italian phonology
Japanese		全部/zenbu	[zembɯ]	'everything'	See Japanese phonology
Kala Lagaw Ya		zilamiz	[zilʌmiz]	'go'
Kashmiri		ज़ानुन, زانُن	[zaːnun]	'to know'
Occitan	Gascon	casèrna	[kazɛrno]	'barracks'
	Languedocien	véser	[beze]	'to see'
	Limousin	jòune	[ˈzɒwne]	'young'
Malay		zaman	[zaman]	'age, period'
Maltese		zelu	[zelu]	'zeal'
Polish		zero	[ˈzɛrɔ]	'zero'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese		casa	[ˈkazɐ]	'house'	See Portuguese phonology
Romanian		zar	[z̪ar]	'dice'	See Romanian phonology.
Russian		заезжать	[zəɪˈʑʑætʲ]	'to pick up'	Contrasts with palatalized version. See Russian phonology
Slovak		zima	[zɪma]	'winter'
Swahili		lazima	[lɑzimɑ]	'must'
Turkish		göz	[ɡœz]	'eye'	See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian		зуб	[zub]	'tooth'	See Ukrainian phonology
Urdu		زمین	[zəmiːn]	'land'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Vietnamese	Northern dialects	da	[zaː]	'skin'	See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian		sizze	[sɪzə]	'to say'	Never occurs in word-initial positions.
Yi		ꍂ/ssy	[zɿ˧]	'generation'
Yiddish		zien	[zin]	'son'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan	guanaz	[ɡʷanaz]

Voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative

Voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative
ð̠
ɹ̝

The voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative is a consonantal sound. As the International Phonetic Alphabet does not have separate symbols for the alveolar consonants (the same symbol is used for all coronal places of articulation that aren't palatalized), it can represent this sound as in a number of ways including < ð̠ >, <ð͇> (retracted or alveolarized ð, respectively), or < ɹ̝ > (constricted ɹ).

Features

• Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence. However, it does not have the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.
• Its place of articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Icelandic		þakið	[θ̠akið̠]	'the roof'	See Icelandic phonology
English	Scouse	maid	[meɪð̠]	'maid'	Allophone of /d/ See English phonology
	South Africa	round	[ɹ̝ɑənd]	'round'

See also

• List of phonetics topics

Bibliography

• Adams, Douglas Q. (1975), "The Distribution of Retracted Sibilants in Medieval Europe", Language (Linguistic Society of America) 51 (2): 282–292, doi:10.2307/412855, JSTOR 412855 
• Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1-2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618 
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223 
• Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874 
• Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (2): 45–47, doi:10.1017/S002510030000459X 
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191 
• Honeybone, P (2001), "Lenition inhibition in Liverpool English", English Language and Linguistics 5 (2): 213–249 
• Jones, Daniel; Dennis, Ward (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press 
• Maddieson, Ian (1984), Patterns of Sound, Camebridge University Press 
• Marotta, Giovanna; Barth, Marlen (2005), "Acoustic and sociolingustic aspects of lenition in Liverpool English", Studi Linguistici e Filologici Online 3 (2): 377–413, http://www.humnet.unipi.it/slifo/2005vol2/Marotta-Barth3.2.pdf 
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373 
• Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 38 (1): 107–114 
• Okada, Hideo (1991), "Phonetic Representation:Japanese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 21 (2): 94–97 
• Pandeli, H; Eska, J; Ball, Martin; Rahilly, J (1997), "Problems of phonetic transcription: the case of the Hiberno-English slit-t", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 27: 65–75, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005430 
• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628 
• Shosted, Ryan K.; Vakhtang, Chikovani (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255–264, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659 
• Torreblanca, Máximo (1988), "Latín Basium, Castellano Beso, Catalán Bes, Portugués Beijo", Hispanic Review (University of Pennsylvania Press) 56 (3): 343–348, doi:10.2307/474023, JSTOR 474023 
• Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20 (2): 37–41 
• Wheeler, Max W (2005), The Phonology Of Catalan, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0199258147