A voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is (, plus the curl also found in its voiced counterpart ). Some Americanists may distinguish as an affricate, typically transcribed in IPA with , and instead use the symbol to represent the fricative that is referenced on this page. There is also a superscript / . It is the sibilant equivalent of the voiceless palatal fricative.
Features
thumb|upright=0.6|class=skin-invert-image|[[Sagittal section of a voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative]]
Features of a voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative:
In English
In British Received Pronunciation, after syllable-initial (as in Tuesday) is realized as a devoiced palatal fricative. The amount of devoicing is variable, but the fully voiceless variant tends to be alveolo-palatal in the sequence: . It is a fricative, rather than a fricative element of an affricate because the preceding plosive remains alveolar, rather than becoming alveolo-palatal, as in Dutch.
The corresponding affricate can be written with or in narrow IPA, though is normally used in both cases. In the case of English, the sequence can be specified as as is normally apical (although somewhat palatalized in that sequence), whereas alveolo-palatal consonants are laminal by definition.
An increasing number of British speakers merge this sequence with the voiceless palato-alveolar affricate : (see yod-coalescence), mirroring Cockney, Australian English and New Zealand English. On the other hand, there is an opposite tendency in Canadian accents that have preserved , where the sequence tends to merge with the plain instead: (see yod-dropping), mirroring General American which does not allow to follow alveolar consonants in stressed syllables.
Occurrence
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="2" | Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| colspan="2" | Adyghe || / / || || 'three'||
|-
| colspan="2"| Assamese || / || || 'British' ||
|-
| colspan="2"| Asturian || || || 'mackerel' || May be realised as [ʃj], [ɕj], [ɕ] or [ʃ], depending on context and speaker.
|-
| colspan="2"| Burmese || / || || 'to abrade; to cut superficially' || See Burmese phonology.
|-
| colspan="2" | Catalan || || || 'grille' || See Catalan phonology.
|-
| rowspan="2" | Chinese || | Some Hokkien dialects || / || || 'heart' || Allophone of before .
|-
|Mandarin || / || || 'Xi'an' || Complementary distribution allophone of in front of high front vowels and palatal glides. See Mandarin phonology.
|-
| colspan="2" | Chuvash || / || ||'lightning'|| Contrasts with and . Lenis when intervocalic.
|-
| colspan="2" | Danish || || || 'soul'|| See Danish phonology.
|-
| Dutch || Some speakers || || || 'template'|| May be [] or instead. See Dutch phonology.
|-
| rowspan="5" | English || Cardiff || human || || 'human' || Phonetic realization of . More front and more strongly fricated than RP . Broad varieties drop the : . See English phonology.
|-
| Conservative Received Pronunciation || ship || || 'ship' || Educated speakers may use , to which this phone corresponds in other dialects. || / || || 'salt' || See Japanese phonology.
|-
| colspan="2" | Kabardian || / / || || 'hundred'||
|-
| rowspan="2" | Karen || Eastern Pwo || || || 'star' ||
|-
| Western Pwo || || || 'star' ||
|-
| colspan ="2"| Kazakh || / / || || 'wretch' || Often transcribed as . See Kazakh phonology.
|-
| Korean || South
| /
|
|'poem'
|Allophone of before and . See Korean phonology.
|-
| colspan ="2"| Kyrgyz || / / || || 'Satan' || Often transcribed as . See Kyrgyz phonology.
|-
| colspan="2" | Lower Sorbian || || || 'friend' ||
|-
| colspan="2" | Luxembourgish || || || 'light' || Allophone of after phonologically front vowels; some speakers merge it with . See Luxembourgish phonology.
|-
| colspan="2" |Marathi || / || || 'farmer' || Contrasts with . Allophone of . See Marathi phonology.
|-
|colspan="2" | Malayalam || / || <!--Feels more like [xʷʉ̞rɪ̹ɕɪ̹] with microphone having swallowed the first fricative. Sm. o. in the know should fix this.--> || 'Cross' || See Malayalam phonology.
|-
| Norwegian || Urban East || || || 'handsome' || Typically transcribed in IPA with ; less often realized as palatal . Younger speakers in Bergen, Stavanger and Oslo merge it with . See Norwegian phonology.
|-
| colspan="2" | Polish || || || 'screw'|| Contrasts with and . See Polish phonology.
|-
| Romani || Kalderash || || ||'Romani boy; son' || Realized as in conservative dialects.
|-
| Romanian || Transylvanian dialects || || || 'what' || Realized as in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology.
|-
| colspan="2" | Russian || / || ||'happiness' || Also represented by . Contrasts with , , and . See Russian phonology.
|-
| colspan="2" | Sema || || || 'meat' || Possible allophone of before . || || || 'the mouse will' || Allophone of before . || / / || || 'satellite' || Typically transcribed as . See Uzbek phonology.
|-
| rowspan=2 | Xumi || Lower || rowspan=2 colspan=2 align=center | || rowspan=2 | 'one hundred' ||
|-
| Upper ||
|-
| colspan="2" | Yámana (Yahgan) ||šúša|| || 'penguin'||
|-
| colspan="2" | Yi || / || || 'thread'||
|-
|colspan=2| Zhuang
|
|
| 'ten'
|
|}
See also
- Index of phonetics articles
- Voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant