Voiceless retroflex fricative

The voiceless retroflex fricative is a type of consonant

Consonant

In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract, the upper vocal tract being defined as that part of the vocal tract that lies above the larynx...

al sound, used in some spoken language

Language

A language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...

s. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet

International Phonetic Alphabet

The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...

 that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA

X-SAMPA

The Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet is a variant of SAMPA developed in 1995 by John C. Wells, professor of phonetics at the University of London. It was designed to unify the individual language SAMPA alphabets, and extend SAMPA to cover the entire range of characters in the...

 symbol is s`. Like all the retroflex consonant

Retroflex consonant

In phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. The tongue articulates with the roof of the oral cavity behind the alveolar ridge, and may even be curled back to touch the palate: that is, they are articulated in the postalveolar to palatal region of the...

s, the IPA symbol is formed by adding a rightward pointing hook extending from the bottom of the symbol used for the equivalent alveolar consonant

Alveolar consonant

Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...

, in this case the voiceless alveolar fricative

Voiceless alveolar fricative

The voiceless 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....

 which has the symbol s. The IPA symbol is thus a lowercase letter s with a rightward tail protruding from the lower left of the letter. Compare s and . Although a distinction can be made between laminal, apical, and sub-apical articulations, no language makes such a contrast.

Features

Features of the voiceless retroflex fricative:

• Its manner of articulation
  Manner of articulation
  In linguistics , manner of articulation describes how the tongue, lips, jaw, and other speech organs are involved in making a sound make contact. Often the concept is only used for the production of consonants...
  
   is sibilant
  Sibilant consonant
  A sibilant is a type of fricative or affricate consonant, made by directing a jet of air through a narrow channel in the vocal tract towards the sharp edge of the teeth.-The term:...
  
   fricative
  Fricative consonant
  Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or...
  
  , 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
  Turbulence
  In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is a fluid regime characterized by chaotic, stochastic property changes. This includes low momentum diffusion, high momentum convection, and rapid variation of pressure and velocity in space and time. Flow that is not turbulent is called laminar flow...
  
  .
• Its place of articulation
  Place of articulation
  In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation of a consonant is the point of contact, where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an active articulator and a passive articulator...
  
   is retroflex
  Retroflex consonant
  In phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. The tongue articulates with the roof of the oral cavity behind the alveolar ridge, and may even be curled back to touch the palate: that is, they are articulated in the postalveolar to palatal region of the...
  
  , which prototypically means it is articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up, but more generally means that it is postalveolar
  Postalveolar consonant
  Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate .Among the fricatives and affricates, a subtype called...
  
   without being palatalized
  Palatalization
  Palatalization or palatalisation generally refers to two phenomena:*As a process or the result of a process, the effect that front vowels and the palatal approximant frequently have on consonants;...
  
  . That is, besides the prototypical sub-apical (curled) articulation, the tongue contact can be apical
  Apical consonant
  An apical consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the apex of the tongue . This contrasts with laminal consonants, which are produced by creating an obstruction with the blade of the tongue .This is not a very common distinction, and typically applied only to fricatives...
  
   (pointed) or laminal
  Laminal consonant
  A laminal consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, which is the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue on the top. This contrasts with apical consonants, which are produced by creating an obstruction with the tongue apex only...
  
   (flat).
• Its phonation
  Phonation
  Phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, phonation is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the definition used among those who study laryngeal anatomy and physiology...
  
   type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
• It is an oral consonant
  Oral consonant
  An oral consonant is a consonant sound in speech that is made by allowing air to escape from the mouth, as opposed to the nose. To create an intended oral consonant sound, the entire mouth plays a role in modifying the air's passageway. This rapid modification of the air passageway using the tongue...
  
  , which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
• It is a central consonant
  Central consonant
  A central or medial consonant is a consonant sound that is produced when air flows across the center of the mouth over the tongue.Examples of central consonants are the voiceless velar plosive , the voiced alveolar fricative and the alveolar nasal .A consonant in which air...
  
  , which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
• The airstream mechanism
  Airstream mechanism
  In phonetics, the airstream mechanism is the method by which airflow is created in the vocal tract. Along with phonation, it is one of two mandatory aspects of sound production; without these, there can be no speech sound....
  
   is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lung
  Lung
  The lung or pulmonary system is the essential respiration organ in air-breathing animals, including most tetrapods, a few fish and a few snails. In mammals and the more complex life forms, the two lungs are located in the chest on either side of the heart...
  
  s and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis
  Glottis
  The glottis is defined as the combination of the vocal folds and the space in between the folds .-Function:As the vocal folds vibrate, the resulting vibration produces a "buzzing" quality to the speech, called voice or voicing or pronunciation.Sound production involving only the glottis is called...
  
   or the mouth.

Occurrence

In the following transcriptions, diacritics may be used to distinguish between apical

Apical consonant

An apical consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the apex of the tongue . This contrasts with laminal consonants, which are produced by creating an obstruction with the blade of the tongue .This is not a very common distinction, and typically applied only to fricatives...

  and laminal

Laminal consonant

A laminal consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, which is the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue on the top. This contrasts with apical consonants, which are produced by creating an obstruction with the tongue apex only...

 .

Language		Word	IPA International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz Abkhaz language Abkhaz is a Northwest Caucasian language spoken mainly by the Abkhaz people. It is the official language of Abkhazia, where around 100,000 people speak it. Furthermore, it is spoken by thousands of members of the Abkhazian diaspora in Turkey, Georgia's autonomous republic of Adjara, Syria, Jordan...				'day'	See Abkhaz phonology Abkhaz phonology Abkhaz is a language of the Northwest Caucasian family which, like the other Northwest Caucasian languages, is very rich in consonants. Abkhaz has a large consonantal inventory that contrasts over 50 consonants in the literary Abzhywa dialect, coupled with just two phonemic vowels.Abkhaz has three...
Chinese Chinese language Chinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...	Mandarin Mandarin (linguistics) Mandarin , is a category of related Chinese dialects spoken across most of northern and south-western China. When taken as a separate language, as is often done in academic literature, the Mandarin language has more native speakers than any other language...	/		'stone'	See Standard Mandarin Standard Mandarin Standard Mandarin, or Standard Chinese, known by various names to native speakers, is the official modern Chinese spoken language used in mainland China and Taiwan, and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
Faroese Faroese language Faroese , often also spelled Faeroese , is a West Nordic or West Scandinavian language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese in Denmark and elsewhere...				'eighty'
Malayalam Malayalam language Malayalam is one of the four major Dravidian languages of South India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Mahé. It is spoken by around 37 million people...				'scarce'
Norwegian Norwegian language Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants ...				'meeting/gathering'	See Norwegian phonology Norwegian phonology The sound system of Norwegian is similar to that of Swedish. There is considerable variation among the dialects, but the variant generally taught to foreign students is Standard Østnorsk , which is the one this article describes....
Pashto Pashto language Pashto , also known as Afghani, is an Indo-European language spoken primarily in Afghanistan and western Pakistan. Pashto belongs to the Eastern Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family...	southern dialect	The voiceless retroflex fricative is a type of consonant Consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract, the upper vocal tract being defined as that part of the vocal tract that lies above the larynx... al sound, used in some spoken language Language A language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using... s. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...  that represents this sound is {{IPA|ʂ}}, and the equivalent X-SAMPA X-SAMPA The Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet is a variant of SAMPA developed in 1995 by John C. Wells, professor of phonetics at the University of London. It was designed to unify the individual language SAMPA alphabets, and extend SAMPA to cover the entire range of characters in the...  symbol is s`. Like all the retroflex consonant Retroflex consonant In phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. The tongue articulates with the roof of the oral cavity behind the alveolar ridge, and may even be curled back to touch the palate: that is, they are articulated in the postalveolar to palatal region of the... s, the IPA symbol is formed by adding a rightward pointing hook extending from the bottom of the symbol used for the equivalent alveolar consonant Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... , in this case the voiceless alveolar fricative Voiceless alveolar fricative The voiceless 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....  which has the symbol s. The IPA symbol is thus a lowercase letter s with a rightward tail protruding from the lower left of the letter. Compare s and {{IPA|ʂ}}. Although a distinction can be made between laminal, apical, and sub-apical articulations, no language makes such a contrast. Features Features of the voiceless retroflex fricative: Its manner of articulation Manner of articulation In linguistics , manner of articulation describes how the tongue, lips, jaw, and other speech organs are involved in making a sound make contact. Often the concept is only used for the production of consonants...  is sibilant Sibilant consonant A sibilant is a type of fricative or affricate consonant, made by directing a jet of air through a narrow channel in the vocal tract towards the sharp edge of the teeth.-The term:...  fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... , 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 Turbulence In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is a fluid regime characterized by chaotic, stochastic property changes. This includes low momentum diffusion, high momentum convection, and rapid variation of pressure and velocity in space and time. Flow that is not turbulent is called laminar flow... . Its place of articulation Place of articulation In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation of a consonant is the point of contact, where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an active articulator and a passive articulator...  is retroflex Retroflex consonant In phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. The tongue articulates with the roof of the oral cavity behind the alveolar ridge, and may even be curled back to touch the palate: that is, they are articulated in the postalveolar to palatal region of the... , which prototypically means it is articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up, but more generally means that it is postalveolar Postalveolar consonant Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate .Among the fricatives and affricates, a subtype called...  without being palatalized Palatalization Palatalization or palatalisation generally refers to two phenomena:*As a process or the result of a process, the effect that front vowels and the palatal approximant frequently have on consonants;... . That is, besides the prototypical sub-apical (curled) articulation, the tongue contact can be apical Apical consonant An apical consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the apex of the tongue . This contrasts with laminal consonants, which are produced by creating an obstruction with the blade of the tongue .This is not a very common distinction, and typically applied only to fricatives...  (pointed) or laminal Laminal consonant A laminal consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, which is the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue on the top. This contrasts with apical consonants, which are produced by creating an obstruction with the tongue apex only...  (flat). Its phonation Phonation Phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, phonation is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the definition used among those who study laryngeal anatomy and physiology...  type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. It is an oral consonant Oral consonant An oral consonant is a consonant sound in speech that is made by allowing air to escape from the mouth, as opposed to the nose. To create an intended oral consonant sound, the entire mouth plays a role in modifying the air's passageway. This rapid modification of the air passageway using the tongue... , which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth. It is a central consonant Central consonant A central or medial consonant is a consonant sound that is produced when air flows across the center of the mouth over the tongue.Examples of central consonants are the voiceless velar plosive , the voiced alveolar fricative and the alveolar nasal .A consonant in which air... , which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides. The airstream mechanism Airstream mechanism In phonetics, the airstream mechanism is the method by which airflow is created in the vocal tract. Along with phonation, it is one of two mandatory aspects of sound production; without these, there can be no speech sound....  is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lung Lung The lung or pulmonary system is the essential respiration organ in air-breathing animals, including most tetrapods, a few fish and a few snails. In mammals and the more complex life forms, the two lungs are located in the chest on either side of the heart... s and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis Glottis The glottis is defined as the combination of the vocal folds and the space in between the folds .-Function:As the vocal folds vibrate, the resulting vibration produces a "buzzing" quality to the speech, called voice or voicing or pronunciation.Sound production involving only the glottis is called...  or the mouth. Occurrence In the following transcriptions, diacritics may be used to distinguish between apical Apical consonant An apical consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the apex of the tongue . This contrasts with laminal consonants, which are produced by creating an obstruction with the blade of the tongue .This is not a very common distinction, and typically applied only to fricatives...  {{IPA|[ʂ̺]}} and laminal Laminal consonant A laminal consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, which is the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue on the top. This contrasts with apical consonants, which are produced by creating an obstruction with the tongue apex only...  {{IPA|[ʂ̻]}}. Language Word IPA International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic... Meaning Notes Abkhaz Abkhaz language Abkhaz is a Northwest Caucasian language spoken mainly by the Abkhaz people. It is the official language of Abkhazia, where around 100,000 people speak it. Furthermore, it is spoken by thousands of members of the Abkhazian diaspora in Turkey, Georgia's autonomous republic of Adjara, Syria, Jordan...   {{lang|ab|амш Abkhaz alphabet The Abkhaz alphabet is an alphabet for the Abkhaz language which consists of 62 letters.Abkhaz did not become a written language until the 19th century. Hitherto, Abkhazians, especially princes, had been using the Georgian language and alphabet for issuing official documents... }} {{IPA|[amʂ]}} 'day' See Abkhaz phonology Abkhaz phonology Abkhaz is a language of the Northwest Caucasian family which, like the other Northwest Caucasian languages, is very rich in consonants. Abkhaz has a large consonantal inventory that contrasts over 50 consonants in the literary Abzhywa dialect, coupled with just two phonemic vowels.Abkhaz has three... Chinese Chinese language Chinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages... Mandarin Mandarin (linguistics) Mandarin , is a category of related Chinese dialects spoken across most of northern and south-western China. When taken as a separate language, as is often done in academic literature, the Mandarin language has more native speakers than any other language...   {{lang|zh-cmn-Hani|石}}/{{lang|zh-cmn-Latn|shí}} {{IPA|[ʂ̺ɻ̩˧˥]}} 'stone' See Standard Mandarin Standard Mandarin Standard Mandarin, or Standard Chinese, known by various names to native speakers, is the official modern Chinese spoken language used in mainland China and Taiwan, and is one of the four official languages of Singapore.... Faroese Faroese language Faroese , often also spelled Faeroese , is a West Nordic or West Scandinavian language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese in Denmark and elsewhere...   {{lang|fo-Latn|fýrs Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, and was initially developed by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language.During the... }} {{IPA|[fʊʂ] }} 'eighty' Malayalam Malayalam language Malayalam is one of the four major Dravidian languages of South India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Mahé. It is spoken by around 37 million people... {{lang|ml-Mlym|കഷ്ടി Malayalam script The Malayalam script is an abugida of the Brahmic family, mainly used in the Indian state of Kerala to write the Malayalam language as well as other minority languages such as Paniya, Betta Kurumba, and Ravula... }} {{IPA|[käʂʈi]}} 'scarce' Norwegian Norwegian language Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants ...   {{lang|no|forsamling}} {{IPA|[fɔʂɑmːlɪŋ] }} 'meeting/gathering' See Norwegian phonology Norwegian phonology The sound system of Norwegian is similar to that of Swedish. There is considerable variation among the dialects, but the variant generally taught to foreign students is Standard Østnorsk , which is the one this article describes.... Pashto Pashto language Pashto , also known as Afghani, is an Indo-European language spoken primarily in Afghanistan and western Pakistan. Pashto belongs to the Eastern Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family...   southern dialect The voiceless retroflex fricative is a type of consonant Consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract, the upper vocal tract being defined as that part of the vocal tract that lies above the larynx... al sound, used in some spoken language Language A language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using... s. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...  that represents this sound is {{IPA|ʂ}}, and the equivalent X-SAMPA X-SAMPA The Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet is a variant of SAMPA developed in 1995 by John C. Wells, professor of phonetics at the University of London. It was designed to unify the individual language SAMPA alphabets, and extend SAMPA to cover the entire range of characters in the...  symbol is s`. Like all the retroflex consonant Retroflex consonant In phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. The tongue articulates with the roof of the oral cavity behind the alveolar ridge, and may even be curled back to touch the palate: that is, they are articulated in the postalveolar to palatal region of the... s, the IPA symbol is formed by adding a rightward pointing hook extending from the bottom of the symbol used for the equivalent alveolar consonant Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... , in this case the voiceless alveolar fricative Voiceless alveolar fricative The voiceless 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....  which has the symbol s. The IPA symbol is thus a lowercase letter s with a rightward tail protruding from the lower left of the letter. Compare s and {{IPA|ʂ}}. Although a distinction can be made between laminal, apical, and sub-apical articulations, no language makes such a contrast. Features Features of the voiceless retroflex fricative: Its manner of articulation Manner of articulation In linguistics , manner of articulation describes how the tongue, lips, jaw, and other speech organs are involved in making a sound make contact. Often the concept is only used for the production of consonants...  is sibilant Sibilant consonant A sibilant is a type of fricative or affricate consonant, made by directing a jet of air through a narrow channel in the vocal tract towards the sharp edge of the teeth.-The term:...  fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... , 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 Turbulence In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is a fluid regime characterized by chaotic, stochastic property changes. This includes low momentum diffusion, high momentum convection, and rapid variation of pressure and velocity in space and time. Flow that is not turbulent is called laminar flow... . Its place of articulation Place of articulation In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation of a consonant is the point of contact, where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an active articulator and a passive articulator...  is retroflex Retroflex consonant In phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. The tongue articulates with the roof of the oral cavity behind the alveolar ridge, and may even be curled back to touch the palate: that is, they are articulated in the postalveolar to palatal region of the... , which prototypically means it is articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up, but more generally means that it is postalveolar Postalveolar consonant Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate .Among the fricatives and affricates, a subtype called...  without being palatalized Palatalization Palatalization or palatalisation generally refers to two phenomena:*As a process or the result of a process, the effect that front vowels and the palatal approximant frequently have on consonants;... . That is, besides the prototypical sub-apical (curled) articulation, the tongue contact can be apical Apical consonant An apical consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the apex of the tongue . This contrasts with laminal consonants, which are produced by creating an obstruction with the blade of the tongue .This is not a very common distinction, and typically applied only to fricatives...  (pointed) or laminal Laminal consonant A laminal consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, which is the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue on the top. This contrasts with apical consonants, which are produced by creating an obstruction with the tongue apex only...  (flat). Its phonation Phonation Phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, phonation is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the definition used among those who study laryngeal anatomy and physiology...  type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. It is an oral consonant Oral consonant An oral consonant is a consonant sound in speech that is made by allowing air to escape from the mouth, as opposed to the nose. To create an intended oral consonant sound, the entire mouth plays a role in modifying the air's passageway. This rapid modification of the air passageway using the tongue... , which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth. It is a central consonant Central consonant A central or medial consonant is a consonant sound that is produced when air flows across the center of the mouth over the tongue.Examples of central consonants are the voiceless velar plosive , the voiced alveolar fricative and the alveolar nasal .A consonant in which air... , which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides. The airstream mechanism Airstream mechanism In phonetics, the airstream mechanism is the method by which airflow is created in the vocal tract. Along with phonation, it is one of two mandatory aspects of sound production; without these, there can be no speech sound....  is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lung Lung The lung or pulmonary system is the essential respiration organ in air-breathing animals, including most tetrapods, a few fish and a few snails. In mammals and the more complex life forms, the two lungs are located in the chest on either side of the heart... s and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis Glottis The glottis is defined as the combination of the vocal folds and the space in between the folds .-Function:As the vocal folds vibrate, the resulting vibration produces a "buzzing" quality to the speech, called voice or voicing or pronunciation.Sound production involving only the glottis is called...  or the mouth. Occurrence In the following transcriptions, diacritics may be used to distinguish between apical Apical consonant An apical consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the apex of the tongue . This contrasts with laminal consonants, which are produced by creating an obstruction with the blade of the tongue .This is not a very common distinction, and typically applied only to fricatives...  {{IPA|[ʂ̺]}} and laminal Laminal consonant A laminal consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, which is the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue on the top. This contrasts with apical consonants, which are produced by creating an obstruction with the tongue apex only...  {{IPA|[ʂ̻]}}. Language Word IPA International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic... Meaning Notes Abkhaz Abkhaz language Abkhaz is a Northwest Caucasian language spoken mainly by the Abkhaz people. It is the official language of Abkhazia, where around 100,000 people speak it. Furthermore, it is spoken by thousands of members of the Abkhazian diaspora in Turkey, Georgia's autonomous republic of Adjara, Syria, Jordan...   {{lang|ab|амш Abkhaz alphabet The Abkhaz alphabet is an alphabet for the Abkhaz language which consists of 62 letters.Abkhaz did not become a written language until the 19th century. Hitherto, Abkhazians, especially princes, had been using the Georgian language and alphabet for issuing official documents... }} {{IPA|[amʂ]}} 'day' See Abkhaz phonology Abkhaz phonology Abkhaz is a language of the Northwest Caucasian family which, like the other Northwest Caucasian languages, is very rich in consonants. Abkhaz has a large consonantal inventory that contrasts over 50 consonants in the literary Abzhywa dialect, coupled with just two phonemic vowels.Abkhaz has three... Chinese Chinese language Chinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages... Mandarin Mandarin (linguistics) Mandarin , is a category of related Chinese dialects spoken across most of northern and south-western China. When taken as a separate language, as is often done in academic literature, the Mandarin language has more native speakers than any other language...   {{lang|zh-cmn-Hani|石}}/{{lang|zh-cmn-Latn|shí}} {{IPA|[ʂ̺ɻ̩˧˥]}} 'stone' See Standard Mandarin Standard Mandarin Standard Mandarin, or Standard Chinese, known by various names to native speakers, is the official modern Chinese spoken language used in mainland China and Taiwan, and is one of the four official languages of Singapore.... Faroese Faroese language Faroese , often also spelled Faeroese , is a West Nordic or West Scandinavian language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese in Denmark and elsewhere...   {{lang|fo-Latn|fýrs Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, and was initially developed by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language.During the... }} {{IPA|[fʊʂ] }} 'eighty' Malayalam Malayalam language Malayalam is one of the four major Dravidian languages of South India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Mahé. It is spoken by around 37 million people... {{lang|ml-Mlym|കഷ്ടി Malayalam script The Malayalam script is an abugida of the Brahmic family, mainly used in the Indian state of Kerala to write the Malayalam language as well as other minority languages such as Paniya, Betta Kurumba, and Ravula... }} {{IPA|[käʂʈi]}} 'scarce' Norwegian Norwegian language Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants ...   {{lang|no|forsamling}} {{IPA|[fɔʂɑmːlɪŋ] }} 'meeting/gathering' See Norwegian phonology Norwegian phonology The sound system of Norwegian is similar to that of Swedish. There is considerable variation among the dialects, but the variant generally taught to foreign students is Standard Østnorsk , which is the one this article describes.... Pashto Pashto language Pashto , also known as Afghani, is an Indo-European language spoken primarily in Afghanistan and western Pakistan. Pashto belongs to the Eastern Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family...   southern dialect {{Unicode Pashto alphabet The Pashto alphabet, like that of the neighboring Persian and Urdu languages, is a modified form of the Arabic alphabet with letters added to accommodate phonemes used in Pashto which are not found in Arabic.-History:...   {{IPA|[ʂ̺odəl]}} 'to show' Polish Polish language Polish is a West Slavic language and the official language of Poland. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet which corresponds basically to the Latin alphabet with a few additions...   {{lang|pl|szum Polish orthography Note that Polish , , , are laminal postalveolar and may perhaps be most accurately transcribed using the IPA retracted diacritic as , , , respectively. Also note that Polish ń is not palatal, having the same place of articulation as and... }} {{Audio-IPA|Pl-szum.ogg|[ˈʂ̻um]}} 'rustle' See Polish phonology Polish phonology - Vowels :The Polish vowel system is relatively simple with only six oral and two nasal vowels. All Polish oral vowels are monophthongs, which are shown to the right.The and have largely complementary distributions... Russian Russian language Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...   {{lang|ru|шут Russian orthography Russian orthography is formally considered to encompass spelling and punctuation . Russian spelling, which is quite phonemic in practice, is a mix of the morphological and phonetic principles, with a few etymological or historic forms, and occasional grammatical differentiation... }} {{IPA|[ʂut̪]}} 'fool' See Russian phonology Russian phonology For assistance in making phonetic transcriptions of Russian for Wikipedia articles, see WP:IPA for RussianThis article discusses the phonological system of standard Russian based on the Moscow dialect . For discussion of other dialects, see Russian dialects... Swedish Swedish language Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the Åland islands. It is to a considerable extent mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to a lesser extent with Danish...   {{lang|sv|fors Swedish alphabet The modern Swedish alphabet is a Latin-based alphabet consisting of 29 letters – the same letters that are found in the Basic modern Latin alphabet, plus three using diacritics:... }} {{IPA|[fɔʂ]}} 'rapids' See Swedish phonology Swedish phonology The phonology of Swedish is notable for having a large vowel inventory, with 9 vowels that are distinguished in quality and to some degree quantity, making up 17 vowel phonemes in most dialects . In some areas these vowels are still distinguished and a full 18-vowel system is upheld... Telugu Telugu language Telugu is a Dravidian language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is the official language of Andhra Pradesh, one of the largest states of India. It is also one of the twenty-two scheduled languages of the Republic of India and was conferred the status of a Classical language by the Government... {{lang|te-Telu|అభిలాషి Telugu script Telugu script, an abugida from the Brahmic family of scripts, is used to write Telugu language, a South Central Dravidian Language found in the Southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh as well as several other neighboring states... }} {{IPA|[ʌbʱilaːʂi]}} 'person who wishes' Toda Toda language Toda is a Dravidian language well known for its many fricatives and trills. It is spoken by the Toda people, a population of about one thousand who live in the Nilgiri Hills of southern India.-Vowels:... {{IPA|pɔʂ}} 'name of a clan' Ubykh Ubykh language Ubykh or Ubyx is a language of the Northwestern Caucasian group, spoken by the Ubykh people up until the early 1990s.The word is derived from , its name in the Abdzakh Adyghe language...   {{IPA|[ʂ̺a]}} 'head' See Ubykh phonology Ubykh phonology Ubykh, a North-West Caucasian language, has the largest consonant inventory of all documented languages which do not use clicks, and also has the most disproportional ratio of phonemic consonants to vowels. It also possesses consonants at at least eight, perhaps nine, basic places of articulation... Ukrainian Ukrainian language Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses the Cyrillic alphabet....   {{lang|ru|тиша}} {{IPA|[tɪʂɑ]}} 'silence' See Ukrainian phonology Ukrainian phonology This article deals with the phonology of the Ukrainian language.-Vowels:Stressed /ɪ/ is near-front vowel with height somewhere between near-close and close-mid. Stressed /ɔ/ is middle vowel [ɔ̝] /ɑ/ is near-back.... Vietnamese Vietnamese language Vietnamese , formerly known under French colonization as Annamese , is the national and official language of Vietnam... Saigon dialect {{lang|vi|số Vietnamese alphabet The Vietnamese alphabet has the following 29 letters, in collating order:Vietnamese also uses the ten digraphs and one trigraph below.These groups were formerly considered single letters and are treated as such in older dictionaries... }} {{IPA|[ʂ̺o˧˥]}} 'number' See Vietnamese phonology Vietnamese phonology This article is a technical description the sound system of the Vietnamese language, including phonetics and phonology.-Consonants:Two main varieties of Vietnamese, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, are described below.-Hanoi:The 21 consonants of the Hanoi variety:... Zapotec Zapotec language The Zapotec language are a group of closely related indigenous Mesoamerican languages spoken by the Zapotec people from Mexico's southwestern-central highlands region. Present-day numbers of native speakers are estimated at over half a million, with the majority inhabiting the state of Oaxaca... Tilquiapan example needed Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, and was initially developed by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language.During the... /ʃ/}} before {{IPA|[a]}} and {{IPA|[u]}}