Voiced alveolar non-sibilant 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 letter ⟨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⟩.

**Voiced coronal fricatives**
	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar
	Dental	Alveolar	retracted	retroflex	palato- alveolar	alveolo- palatal
sibilant	z̪	z͇	z̠
non-sibilant		ð̠/ð͇/ɹ̝		ɻ̝

1 Voiced alveolar sibilant
- 1.1 Features
- 1.2 Occurrence
2 Voiced alveolar fronted sibilant
- 2.1 Features
- 2.2 Occurrence
3 Voiced alveolar retracted sibilant
- 3.1 Features
- 3.2 Occurrence
4 Voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative
- 4.1 Features
- 4.2 Occurrence
5 See also
6 References
7 Bibliography

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].

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 passive articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with the tongue at the alveolar ridge just behind the gums.
Its place of active articulation is usually laminal, meaning that the tongue blade (the part just behind the top) contacts the alveolar ridge, with the tongue tip resting behind the lower front teeth roots.
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
Adyghe		зы	)	'one'
Albanian		zjarr	[zjar]	'fire'
Arabic	Standard^[1]	زائِر	[ˈzaːʔir]	'visitor'	See Arabic phonology
Breton		iliz	[iliz]	'church'
Chechen		зурма / zurma	[zuɾma]	'music'
Czech		zima	[ˈzɪma]	'winter'	See Czech phonology
Dutch	Standard^[2]	zee	[zeː]	'sea'	See Dutch phonology
Dutch	Friesland	ezel	[ˈeɪ̯zəɫ]	'donkey'	It is always devoiced if word initially. See Dutch phonology
English		size	[saɪ̯z]	'size'	Absent from some Scottish and Asian dialects. See English phonology
Georgian^[3]		ზარი	[ˈzɑɾi]	'bell'
German	Standard^[4]	sauber	[ˈzäʊ̯bɐ]	'clean'	Voiceless in southern varieties; may be post-dental instead. See German phonology
Greek	Athens dialect^[5]	ζάλη záli	[ˈz̻ali]	'dizziness'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew		זאב	[zeʔˈev]	'wolf'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindi		ज़मीन	[zəmiːn]	'land'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Hungarian		zálog	[ˈzaːloɡ]	'pledge'	See Hungarian phonology
Japanese^[6]		全部 zenbu	[zembɯ]	'everything'	See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		зы	)	'one'
Kala Lagaw Ya		zilamiz	[zilʌmiz]	'go'
Kashmiri		ज़ानुन, زانُن	[zaːnun]	'to know'
Malay		zaman	[zaman]	'age, period'
Maltese		zelu	[zelu]	'zeal'
Marathi		जर	[zər]	'if'	See Marathi phonology.
Mirandese		daprendizaige	[dɐpɾẽdiˈz̻ajʒ(ɯ̟)]	'learning'	Mirandese and neighboring Portuguese dialects were the only surviving oral tradition to preserve all seven mediaeval Ibero-Romance sibilants: ⟨ch⟩ //, ⟨x⟩ //, ⟨g/j⟩ //, ⟨c/ç⟩ //, ⟨z⟩ /z̻/, ⟨s/-ss-⟩ //, ⟨-s-⟩ /z̺/
Occitan	Limousin	jòune	[ˈzɒwne]	'young'	See Occitan phonology
Portuguese^[7]		casa	[ˈkazɐ]	'house'	See Portuguese phonology
Spanish	Andalusian	comunismo	[ko̞muˈnizmo̞]	'Communism'	Allophone of /s/ before voiced consonants, when it is not debuccalized to ~ ]. Present in dialects which realize /s/ as a non-retracted alveolar fricative. Before /d/ it's always dental [z̪].
	Latin American	comunismo	[ko̞muˈnizmo̞]	'Communism'
	Mexican	zapato	[zäˈpät̪o̞]	'shoe'	Some northern dialects. Corresponds to /s/ in other Mexican dialects, and to /θ/ in Peninsular Spanish. See Spanish phonology
Slovak		zima	[ˈzɪma]	'winter'
Swahili		lazima	[lɑzimɑ]	'must'
Turkish		göz	[ɡœz]	'eye'	See Turkish phonology
Urdu		زمین	[zəmiːn]	'land'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
West Frisian		sizze	[ˈsɪzə]	'to say'	Never occurs in word-initial positions
Yi		ꍂ ssy	[zɿ˧]	'generation'
Yiddish		zien	[zin]	'son'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan^[8]	guanaz	[ɡʷanaz]

Voiced alveolar fronted sibilant

The voiced alveolar fronted sibilant (commonly termed the voiced dental sibilant) is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. In the International Phonetic Alphabet it's commonly represented as ⟨z̪⟩, a combination of the letter for the voiced alveolar sibilant and a diacritic indicating dental articulation. However, since this consonant is articulated behind the teeth, not against them, a notation ⟨z̟⟩ (a combination of the letter for the voiced alveolar sibilant and a diacritic indicating fronted articulation) would be more appropriate. This article uses ⟨z̪⟩ for simplicity.

Features

Features of the voiced alveolar fronted sibilant:

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 fronted (post-dental), which means it's articulated with the tongue blade against the alveolar ridge, but more front than usual: just behind the upper teeth.
Its place of active articulation is laminal, meaning that the tongue blade (the part just behind the top) contacts the alveolar ridge, with the tongue tip resting behind the lower front teeth.
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.
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.
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
Armenian	Eastern^[9]	զարդ	)	'decoration'
Belarussian^[10]		база	[ˈbäz̪ä]	'base'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Belarusian phonology
Bulgarian^[11]		езеро	[ˈɛz̪ɛro]	'lake'	Contrasts with palatalized form.
Chinese	Suzhou dialect^[12]	^{[example needed]}
French^[13]		zèbre	[z̪ɛbʁ]	'zebra'	See French phonology
German	Standard^[4]	sauber	[ˈz̪äʊ̯bɐ]	'clean'	Voiceless in southern varieties; may be alveolar non-fronted instead. See German phonology
Italian^[14]		caso	[ˈkäz̪o]	'case'	See Italian phonology
Kyrgyz^[15]		заң	[z̪äŋ]	'law'
Latvian^[16]		zars	[z̪ärs̪]	'branch'	See Latvian phonology
Macedonian^[17]		зошто	[ˈz̪o̞ʃt̪o̞]	'why'	See Macedonian phonology
Polish^[18]		zero	)	'zero'	See Polish phonology
Romanian^[19]		zar	[z̪är]	'dice'	See Romanian phonology
Russian^[20]		заезжать zaezžat'	)	'to pick up'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian^[21]		зима / zima	[z̪ǐːmä]	'winter'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Ukrainian^[22]		зуб	[z̪ub]	'tooth'	See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamese	Hanoi^[23]	da	[z̪äː]	'skin'	See Vietnamese phonology

Voiced alveolar retracted sibilant

The voiced alveolar retracted sibilant, [z̺], is a fricative which is articulated with the tip of the tongue (apex) against the alveolar ridge. It is the sibilant found in dialects of central and northern Portuguese, several dialects of European Spanish, Antioqueño Spanish, Catalan, Gascon, Languedocien Occitan, and Modern Greek. Often to speakers of languages or dialects which do not have an alveolar retracted sibilant, they are said to have a "whistling" quality.

Features

Features of the voiced alveolar retracted sibilant:

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 passive articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with the tongue at the alveolar ridge just behind the gums.
Its place of active articulation is normally apical, which means it is pronounced with the very tip of the tongue.
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
Catalan^[24]^[25]		zel	[ˈz̺ɛɫ]	'zeal'	See Catalan phonology
Dutch	Some speakers	zee	[z̠eː]	'sea'	Not retracted for other speakers.
Galician		mesmo	[ˈme̞z̺mo̞]	'same'	Allophone of /s/ before voiced consonants. Before /d/ it's pronounced dentally [z̺].
Greek^[26]		μάζα máza	[ˈmɐz̠ɐ]	'mass'	See Modern Greek phonology
Maldivian		zaraafaa	[z̺aˈraːfaː]	'giraffe'
Mirandese		eisistir	[e̞jz̺is̺ˈtiɾ]	'to exist'	Mirandese and neighboring Portuguese dialects were the only surviving oral tradition to preserve all seven mediaeval Ibero-Romance sibilants: ⟨ch⟩ //, ⟨x⟩ //, ⟨g/j⟩ //, ⟨c/ç⟩ //, ⟨z⟩ /z̻/, ⟨s/-ss-⟩ //, ⟨-s-⟩ /z̺/
Occitan	Gascon	casèrna	[kaz̺ɛrno]	'barracks'	See Occitan phonology
Occitan	Languedocien	véser	[bez̺e]	'to see'	See Occitan phonology
Portuguese	European, inland northern	^{[example needed]}			Contrasts with non-retracted /z/. See Portuguese phonology
Portuguese	European, coastal northern	^{[example needed]}			Merges with non-retracted /z/. See Portuguese phonology
Spanish	Castilian	mismo	[ˈmiz̺mo̞]	'same'	Allophone of /s/ before voiced consonants. Before /d/ it's pronounced dentally [z̺]. See Spanish phonology
Spanish	Paisa Region	mismo	[ˈmiz̺mo̞]	'same'

Voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative

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⟩ or ⟨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
English	Scouse	maid	[ˈmeɪð̠]	'maid'	Allophone of /d/ See English phonology

References

Bibliography

International Phonetic Alphabet

IPA topics

IPA	International Phonetic Association History of the IPA Extensions to the IPA Kiel convention (1989) Journal of the IPA (JIPA) Naming conventions

Phonetics	Diacritics Segments Tone letter Place of articulation Manner of articulation

Special topics	Case variants of IPA letters Handwritten IPA Obsolete and nonstandard symbols IPA chart for English dialects

Encodings	SAMPA X-SAMPA Kirshenbaum TIPA Phonetic symbols in Unicode WorldBet IPA Braille

Consonants


audio
Place →	Labial		Coronal						Dorsal				Radical			Glottal
↓ Manner	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Retroflex		Alveolo-palatal		Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Epiglottal		Glottal
Nasal
Stop
Sibilant fricative
Non-sibilant fricative
Approximant
Flap or tap
Trill															*
Lateral fricative						*
Lateral approximant
Lateral flap							*

Non-pulmonic consonants
Clicks	ʘ	ǀ		ǃ	ǂ	ǁ
Clicks	ʘ̃	ʘ̃ˀ		ʘ͡q	ʘ͡qʼ	‼
Implosives	ɓ̥		ɗ̥		ʄ̊
Ejectives

Affricates

Co-articulated consonants
Continuants
Occlusives

— These tables contain phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help]

— Where symbols appear in pairs, left–right represent the voiceless–voiced consonants.

— Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible.

— Symbols marked with an asterisk (*) are not defined in the IPA.

Chart image

Pulmonics
Non-pulmonics
Affricates
Co-articulated

Vowels

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Voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative

Voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative

Contents

Voiced alveolar sibilant

Features

Occurrence

Voiced alveolar fronted sibilant

Features

Occurrence

Voiced alveolar retracted sibilant

Features

Occurrence

Voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative

Features

Occurrence

See also

References

Bibliography

Suggestions

Voiced dental fricative

Encyclopedia Article