A voiced palatal fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) that represents this sound is (crossed-tail j). It is the non-sibilant equivalent of the voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant.
In broad transcription, the symbol for the palatal approximant, , may be used for the sake of simplicity.
A voiced palatal fricative is an uncommon sound, occurring in only 7 of the 317 languages surveyed by the original UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database. In Dutch, Kabyle, Margi, Modern Greek, and Scottish Gaelic, the sound occurs phonemically, along with its voiceless counterpart, and in several more, the sound occurs as a result of phonological processes.
To produce this sound, the tip of the tongue is placed against the roof of the mouth behind the upper front teeth; then, while exhaling, the space between the tongue and the palate is narrowed, creating a friction-like sound similar to the sound (IPA: Voiced postalveolar fricative#Voiced palato-alveolar fricative|) in the English word .
Features
Features of a voiced palatal fricative:
Occurrence
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="2" | Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| colspan="2" | Asturian || || || 'to destroy' ||
|-
|colspan="2" | Burmese
|colspan="3" |
| Allophone of , particularly word initially.
|-
| Catalan || Majorcan || || || 'fig tree' || Occurs in complementary distribution with . Corresponds to in other varieties. See Catalan phonology
|-
| Danish || Standard || || || 'tallow' || Possible word-final allophone of when it occurs after . || || || 'yes' || Frequent allophone of , especially in emphatic speech. || || || 'jacket' || Most often transcribed in IPA with ; also described as an approximant and a sound variable between a fricative and an approximant. See Standard German phonology
|-
| rowspan="2" | Greek || Standard || || || 'hi' ||
|-
|Cypriot || || || 'olive' || Allophone of
|-
| colspan="2" | Hungarian || || || 'throw in' || An allophone of . See Hungarian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Irish || || || 'the sun' || See Irish phonology
|-
| Italian || Southern dialects || || || 'son' || Corresponds to in standard Italian. See Italian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Kabyle || || || 'to slip' ||
|-
| colspan="2" | Korean || / || || 'Siberian musk deer' || The sound is sometimes heard by people when /h/ is between voiced and combined with /i/, /t/ and /j/, See Korean phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Lithuanian || || || 'she' || Most often transcribed in IPA with ; also described as an approximant . See Lithuanian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Margi
|colspan="3" |
| Contrasts /ɟ, ᶮɟ, ç, ʝ, j, j̰, ɣ/.
|-
| colspan="2" | Mapudungun || || || 'six' || This phoneme corresponds to the letter Y in Mapudungün. See Mapuche language
|-
| Norwegian || Urban East || || || 'to give' || Allophone of , especially before and after close vowels and in energetic speech. || rowspan="2" | <span style="font-size:125%;">موږ</span> || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | 'we' ||
|-
| Wardak dialect || || || 'pit' || Allophone of in emphatic speech. || || || 'of them' || Weak fricative; merges with in some dialects. See Scottish Gaelic phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Spanish || || || 'smock' || May also be represented by in many dialects. See Spanish phonology and Yeísmo
|-
| colspan="2" | Swedish || || || 'soil' || Allophone of . See Swedish phonology
|-
| Vietnamese || Middle Vietnamese||Gió [𩙋]|| (Tonkinese dialect)|| 'wind' ||See Middle Vietnamese phonology
|}
Post-palatal
There is also a voiced post-palatal or pre-velar fricative in some languages, which is articulated slightly more back compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical voiced palatal fricative but not as back as the prototypical voiced velar fricative. The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, but it can be transcribed as , (a retracted ), , (an advanced ) or (palatalized , though this is more ambiguous than the others; see below).
Features
Occurrence
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="2" | Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| colspan="2" | Belarusian || || || 'geography' || Typically transcribed in IPA with . See Belarusian phonology
|-
| rowspan="2" | Dutch || Standard Belgian || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | 'nine' || rowspan="2" | Often (partially) devoiced. May be velar instead, even near non-front vowels. || || || 'giant' || Allophone of the fricative before and after front vowels. || || || 'grammatical gender' || See Modern Greek phonology
|-
| Limburgish || Weert dialect || || || 'gladly' || Allophone of before and after front vowels. || || || 'Houston' || Very rare; typically transcribed in IPA with . See Lithuanian phonology
|-
| rowspan="2" | Russian || Standard || || || 'yes, indeed' || Allophone of after
|}
Variable
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="2" | Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| colspan="2" | Mapudungun || || || || Allophone of before the front vowels .