Voiced alveolar affricate

Voiced alveolar sibilant affricate

The voiced alveolar sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with ⟨d͡z⟩ or ⟨d͜z⟩ (formerly ⟨ʣ⟩).

Features

Features of the voiced alveolar sibilant affricate:

• Its manner of articulation is sibilant affricate, which means it is produced by first stopping the air flow entirely, then directing it with the tongue to the sharp edge of the teeth, causing high-frequency turbulence.
• The stop component of this affricate is laminal alveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge. For simplicity, this affricate is usually called after the sibilant fricative component.
• There are at least three specific variants of the fricative component:
  • Dentalized laminal alveolar (commonly called "dental"), which means it is articulated with the tongue blade very close to the upper front teeth, with the tongue tip resting behind lower front teeth. The hissing effect in this variety of [z] is very strong.
  • Non-retracted alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
  • Retracted alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue slightly behind the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal. Acoustically, it is close to [ʒ] or laminal [ʐ].
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

The following sections are named after the fricative component.

Dentalized laminal alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Armenian	Eastern	ձուկ	<phonos file="dzuk.ogg">[d̻͡z̪uk]</phonos>	'fish'
Belarusian		дзеканне	[ˈd̻͡z̪ekän̪ʲe]	'dzekanye'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Belarusian phonology
Czech		Afgánec byl	[ˈävɡäːnɛd̻͡z̪ bɪɫ̪]	'an Afghan was'	Allophone of /t͡s/ before voiced consonants. See Czech phonology
Hungarian		bodza	[ˈbod̻͡z̪ːɒ]	'elderberry'	See Hungarian phonology
Kashubian
Latvian		drudzis	[ˈd̪rud̻͡z̪is̪]	'fever'	See Latvian phonology
Macedonian		ѕвезда	[ˈd̻͡z̪ve̞z̪d̪ä]	'star'	See Macedonian phonology
Polish		dzwon	<phonos file="Pl-dzwon-2.ogg">[d̻͡z̪vɔn̪]</phonos>	'bell'	See Polish phonology
Russian		плацдарм	[pɫ̪ɐd̻͡z̪ˈd̪är̠m]	'bridge-head'	Allophone of /t͡s/ before voiced consonants. See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian		отац би / otac bi	[ǒ̞t̪äd̻͡z̪ bi]	'father would'	Allophone of /t͡s/ before voiced consonants. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak		sadzba	[ˈsäd̻͡z̪bä]	'tariff'
Slovene		brivec brije		'barber shaves'	Allophone of /t͡s/ before voiced consonants.
Ukrainian		дзвін	[d̻͡z̪vin̪]	'bell'	See Ukrainian phonology
Upper Sorbian					Allophone of /t͡s/ before voiced consonants.

Non-retracted alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		аӡы	[ɑˈd͡zɨ]	'water'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe		дзэлӀы	<phonos file="Dzalhaa.ogg">[d͡zaɬʼə]</phonos>	'soldier'
Albanian		xehe	[d͡zɛhɛ]	'mineral'
Arabic	Najdi	قـليب	[d͡zɛ̝lib]	'well'	Corresponds to /q/, /ɡ/, or /dʒ/ in other dialects.
Armenian	Western	ծակ	[d͡zɑɡ]	'hole'
Azerbaijani	some Western dialects	Cəbrayıl	[d͡zæbɾɑˈjɯɫ]	'Jibra'il'	Corresponds to /d͡ʒ/ or /ɟ/ in other dialects.
Berber	Kabyle	Lz̗ayer	[ld͡zajər]	'Algeria'
Catalan		dotze	[ˈd̪odd̻͡z̺ə]	'twelve'	The fricative component is apical. See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Wu	齐	[dzi]	'neat'
	Xiang	坐	[dzo]	'sit'
Dutch	Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect	zèèg	[d͡zɛːx]	'saw'	Occasional allophone of /z/; distribution unclear. See Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect phonology
English	Broad Cockney	day	[ˈd͡zæˑɪ̯]	'day'	Possible word-initial, intervocalic and word-final allophone of /d/. See English phonology
	Received Pronunciation		[ˈd͡zeˑɪ̯]
	New York				Possible syllable-initial and sometimes also utterance-final allophone of /d/. See English phonology
	Scouse				Possible syllable-initial and word-final allophone of /d/. See English phonology
French	Quebec	samedi	[samd͡zi]	'Saturday'	Allophone of /d/ before /i/ and /y/. See Quebec French phonology
Georgian		ძვალი	[d͡zvɑli]	'bone'
Greek		τζάμι	[ˈd͡zami]	'window pane'
Hebrew		תזונה	[d͡zuna]	'nutrition'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Iu Mien		nzoc	[d͡zò]	'drum'
Japanese		続く/tsudzuku	[t͡sɯᵝd͡zɯᵝkɯᵝ]	'continue'	See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		дзын	[d͡zən]	'to throw'
Luxembourgish		spadséieren	[ʃpɑˈd͡zəi̯ɵ̞ʀɵ̞n]	'to go for a walk'	Marginal phoneme that occurs only in a few words. See Luxembourgish phonology
Ngwe	Nwametaw dialect	[mə̀d͡zə̀]		'path'
Occitan	Rhodanien Provençal	joine	[ˈd͡zujne]	'young'	See Occitan phonology
Pashto		پنځه	[pind͡zə]	'five'
Portuguese	European	desafio	[d͡zəˈfi.u]	'challenge'	Allophone of /d/ before /i, ĩ/, or assimilation due to the deletion of /i ~ ɨ ~ e/. Increasingly used in Brazil.
	Brazilian	aprendizado	[əpɾẽ̞ˈd͡zadu]	'learning'
	Many speakers	mezzosoprano	[me̞d͡zo̞so̞ˈpɾɐ̃nu]	'mezzo-soprano'	Marginal sound. Some might instead use spelling pronunciations. See Portuguese phonology
Northern Qiang		?	[ɣd͡zə]	'rabbit'
Romanian	Moldavian dialects	zic	[d͡zɨk]	'say'	Corresponds to [z] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Ubykh		[məˈdza]		'light'	See Ubykh phonology
West Frisian		widze	[ˈʋɪd͡zǝ]	'cradle'
Yi		ꋩ/zzy	[d͡zɪ˧]	'ride'

Variable

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Italian		zero	[ˈd͡zɛːɾo]	'zero'	The fricative component varies between dentalized laminal and non-retracted apical. In the latter case, the stop component is laminal denti-alveolar. See Italian phonology

Voiced alveolar non-sibilant affricate

Features

• Its manner of articulation is affricate, which means it is produced by first stopping the airflow entirely, then allowing air flow through a constricted channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
• Its place of articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
English	General American	dream	[d͡ɹ̝ʷiːm]	'dream'	Phonetic realization of the sequence /dr/; more commonly postalveolar [d̠͡ɹ̠˔]. See English phonology
	Received Pronunciation
Italian	Sicily	Adriatico	[äd͡ð̠iˈäːt̪iko]	'The Adriatic Sea'	Apical. It is a regional realization of the sequence /dr/, and can be a realized sequence [dð̠] instead. See Italian phonology

See also

• Voiced dental affricate
• List of phonetics topics