To produce this sound, the tip of the tongue is placed against the roof of the mouth behind the upper front teeth; then, while exhaling, the space between the tongue and the palate is narrowed, creating a friction-like sound similar to the ⟨s⟩ sound (IPA: [ʒ]) in the English word leisure.
There is also the voiced post-palatal fricative[1] in some languages, which is articulated slightly more back compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical voiced palatal fricative but not as back as the prototypical voiced velar fricative. The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, but it can be transcribed as ⟨ʝ̠⟩, ⟨ʝ˗⟩ (both symbols denote a retracted ⟨ʝ⟩), ⟨ɣ̟⟩ or ⟨ɣ˖⟩ (both symbols denote an advanced ⟨ɣ⟩). The equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are j\_- and G_+, respectively.
Especially in broad transcription, the voiced post-palatal fricative may be transcribed as a palatalized voiced velar fricative (⟨ɣʲ⟩ in the IPA, G' or G_j in X-SAMPA).
Features
Features of the voiced palatal fricative:
Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
Its place of articulation is palatal, which means it is articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised to the hard palate. The otherwise identical post-palatal variant is articulated slightly behind the hard palate, making it sound slightly closer to the velar [ɣ].
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.
Most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨j⟩; also described as an approximant [j][7][8] and a sound variable between a fricative and an approximant.[9] See Standard German phonology
^Instead of "post-palatal", it can be called "retracted palatal", "backed palatal", "palato-velar", "pre-velar", "advanced velar", "fronted velar" or "front-velar". For simplicity, this article uses only the term "post-palatal".
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