Voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative

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IPA – number	182
IPA – text	ɕ
IPA – image	Image:Xsampa-sslash.png
Entity	ɕ
X-SAMPA	`s\`
Kirshenbaum	`S;`
Sound sample (help·info)

The voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative or laminal postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɕ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is s\.

[edit] Features

Features of the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative:

Its manner of articulation is sibilant fricative, which means it is produced by directing air flow through a groove in the tongue at the place of articulation and directing it over the sharp edge of the teeth, causing high-frequency turbulence.
Its place of articulation is alveolo-palatal, that is, palatalized laminal postalveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue raised toward the palate.
Its phonation type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

[edit] Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Japanese		塩/shio	[ɕio]	'salt'	See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		щэ	[ɕɛ]	'hundred'
Korean		시장/sijang	[ɕiˈʥaŋ]	'market'	See Korean phonology
Mandarin		西安/Xī'ān	?	'Xi'an'	See Standard Mandarin
Polish		śruba	[ɕruba] (help·info)	'screw'	See Polish phonology
Russian		с частью	[ˈɕːasʲtʲju]	'with a part'	See Russian phonology
Swedish		kjol	[ɕuːl] (help·info)	'skirt'	See Swedish phonology
Tibetan	Lhasa dialect	བཞི་	[ɕi˨˧]	'four'	See Swedish phonology