Voiced retroflex fricative

The voiced retroflex 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 ʐ , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is z`. Like all the retroflex consonants, the IPA symbol is formed by adding a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of a z (the letter used for the corresponding alveolar consonant).

Voiced retroflex fricative
ʐ
IPA Number137
Audio sample
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ʐ
Unicode (hex)U+0290
X-SAMPAz`
Braille⠲ (braille pattern dots-256)⠵ (braille pattern dots-1356)

Features

Schematic mid-sagittal section

Features of the voiced retroflex sibilant:

Occurrence

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

The commonality of [ʐ] cross-linguistically is 2% in a phonological analysis of 2155 languages[1]

LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
Abkhazабжа/abža[ˈabʐa]'half'See Abkhaz phonology
Adygheжъы / jı / ظہـ'old'Laminal.
Awetí[2][pɨtiˈʐɨk˺]'to pray'Diachronically related to [ɾ] and also to some other alveolar sounds in certain occasions. As word lists created in the 1900s appoint for [ɾ] where there is [ʐ] now, the latter sound is supposed to be the result of a very recent sound change that is analogically happening in Waurá.[2]
ChineseChangshu dialect常熟/dʐan ʐɔʔ/ [tʂʱä̃233 ʐɔʔ23] (without tone sandhi)'Changshu'Pronounced [ʂʱ] when occurring at the first syllable. A native Wu Chinese speaker may reduce it a sound closer to a retroflex approximant [ɻ] (similar to the Standard Mandarin r) when trying to force a unnatural voiced pronunciation on the first syllable.
Faroeserenn[ʐɛn]'run'
Lower Sorbian[3][4]Łužyca[ˈwuʐɨt͡sa]'Lusatia'
Mapudungun[5]rayen[ʐɜˈjën]'flower'May be [ɻ] or [ɭ] instead.[5]
MarrithiyelMarri Tjevin dialect[wiˈɲaʐu]'they are laughing'Voicing is non-contrastive.
Mehináku[6][ɨˈʐũte]'parrot'Resulted from the voicing of /ʂ/ in between vowels.[6]
PashtoSouthern dialectتږى/tâjai[ˈtəʐai]'thirsty'See Pashto phonology
PolishStandard[7]żona'wife'Also represented orthographically by ⟨rz⟩ and, when written so, may be instead pronounced as the raised alveolar non-sonorant trill by few speakers.[8] It is transcribed as /ʒ/ by most Polish scholars. See Polish phonology
Southeastern Cuyavian dialects[9]zapłacił[ʐäˈpwät͡ɕiw]'he paid'Some speakers. It is a result of hypercorrecting the more popular merger of /ʐ/ and /z/ into [z] (see Szadzenie).
Suwałki dialect[10]
Romagnoldi[ˈdiːʐ]'ten'Apical; may be [z̺ʲ] or [ʒ] instead.
Russian[7]жена/žena'wife'See Russian phonology
Scottish GaelicSouth Barra, Vatersay, Tireeair muir[ɛʐ ˈmuʐ]'at sea'Realised as a palatalised /ɾʲ/ in most dialects or as /ð/ in some other Hebridean dialects, particularly Lewis and South Uist.
Serbo-Croatianжут / žut[ʐûːt̪]'yellow'Typically transcribed as /ʒ/. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
ShinaGilgiti[11]ڙَکُݨ / akuṇ[ʐəkuɳ]'donkey'
Kohistani
Slovak[12]žaba[ˈʐäbä]'frog'
SpanishAndeanhacer[a'seʐ]'do'The phoneme [r] changes to [ʐ], when it is at the end of a syllable
marrón, ratón[maˈʐon], [ʐa'ton]'brown', 'mouse'See Spanish phonology
SwedishCentral dialectsfri[fʐi]'free'Allophone of /ɹ/. Also may be pronounced as [r] or [ɾ]. See Swedish phonology
Tilquiapan Zapotec[13]?[ʐan]'bottom'
Torwali[14]ݜوڙ[ʂuʐ]'straight'
Ubykh[ʐa]'firewood'See Ubykh phonology
Ukrainianжaбa/žaba[ˈʐɑbɐ]'frog'See Ukrainian phonology
Upper SorbianSome dialects[15][16][example needed]Used in dialects spoken in villages north of Hoyerswerda; corresponds to [ʒ] in the standard language.[3]
Yi ry[ʐʐ̩˧]'grass'

Voiced retroflex non-sibilant fricative

Voiced retroflex non-sibilant fricative
ɻ̝
ɻ˔
IPA Number152 429
Encoding
X-SAMPAr\`_r

Features

Features of the voiced retroflex non-sibilant fricative:

Occurrence

LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
EnglishEastern Cape[17]red[ɻ˔ed]'red'Apical; typical realization of /r/ in that region.[17] See South African English phonology

See also

Notes

References

External links