Postalveolar consonant

It has been suggested that this article be split into a new article titled Palato-alveolar consonant, accessible from a disambiguation page. (Discuss)

Places of articulation
• Labial
Bilabial
Labial-velar
Labial-alveolar
Labiodental
Dentolabial
• Bidental
• Coronal
Linguolabial
Interdental
Dental
Denti-alveolar
Alveolar
Apical
Laminal
Subapical
Postalveolar
Alveolo-palatal
Retroflex
• Dorsal
Palatal
Labial-palatal
Velar
Uvular
Uvular-epiglottal
• Radical
Pharyngeal
Epiglotto-pharyngeal
Epiglottal
• Glottal
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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 (the place of articulation for palatal consonants).

Among the fricative and affricate postalveolars, which are sometimes called "hush consonants" because they include the sound of English Shhh!, there are three subtypes, depending on the shape of the tongue. The prototypical postalveolars, sometimes distinguished as palato-alveolars, such as [ʃ ʒ], are the principal topic of this article. The other two, the alveolo-palatal and retroflex consonants, such as [ɕ ʑ] and [ʂ ʐ], are more fully illustrated in their own articles.

The palato-alveolar and alveolo-palatal subtypes are commonly counted as "palatals" in phonology, since they rarely contrast with true palatal consonants.

Contents 1 Postalveolar consonants in the IPA 2 Types of postalveolar fricatives and affricates 3 Other postalveolars 4 See also 5 References

[edit] Postalveolar consonants in the IPA

The palato-alveolar sibilants and postalveolar clicks identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

IPA	Description	Example
		Language	Orthography	IPA	Meaning
	Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative	English	ship	[ʃɪp]	ship
	Voiced palato-alveolar fricative	English	vision	[vɪʒən]	vision
	Voiceless palato-alveolar affricate	English	chip	[tʃɪp]	chip
	Voiced palato-alveolar affricate	English	jug	[dʒʌɡ]	jug
	Apical (post)alveolar click release	Nama	!oas	[k͡ǃoas]	hollow
	Laminal postalveolar click release	!Kung	ǂua	[k͡ǂwa]	to imitate

[edit] Types of postalveolar fricatives and affricates

The difference between palato-alveolar, alveolo-palatal, retroflex, and several other articulations is in the shape of the tongue rather than the location of the contact with the roof of the mouth, which is postalveolar for all of these.

One variable in tongue shape is whether the contact occurs with the very tip of the tongue (an "apical" articulation [ʃ̺]); with the surface just above the tip, called the blade of the tongue (a "laminal" articulation [ʃ̻]); or with the underside of the tip (a "subapical" articulation). Laminal articulations may be made at palatal as well as postalveolar positions, and both may occur in some languages as allophones.

A second variable is the amount of raising of the 'front' of the tongue behind the point of contact, which amounts to a degree of palatalization. From least to most palatalized, the attested possibilities are flat (unpalatalized) [s̠], bunched-up or domed (weakly palatalized) palato-alveolar [ʃ], and (strongly palatalized) alveolo-palatal [ɕ]. These voiceless possibilities all have their voiced equivalents as well: [z̠, ʒ, ʑ]. Note that upward curvature of the tongue tip to make apical or subapical contact renders palatalization more difficult, so domed consonants are not attested with subapical articulation, and fully palatalized ones only with laminal articulation.

There is an additional type of postalveolar articulation found in Northwest Caucasian languages such as Ubykh: the tip of the tongue rests against the lower teeth so that there is no sublingual cavity. Ladefoged has called this a "closed laminal postalveolar" articulation; Catford describes the fricatives as "hissing-hushing" sounds, and transcribes them as [ŝ, ẑ] (note: this is not IPA notation). This "closed" articulation appears to be an additional alternative to the subapical-apical-laminal spectrum, but can presumably be combined with various degrees of palatalisation, although this is not attested.

The attested possibilities, with exemplar languages, are as follows. Note that the IPA diacritics are simplified; some articulations would require two diacritics to be fully specified, but only one is used in order to keep the results legible without the need for OpenType IPA fonts. Also, Ladefoged has resurrected an obsolete IPA symbol, the under dot, to indicate apical postalveolar (normally included in the category of retroflex consonants), and that notation is used here. (Note that the notation s̠, ṣ is sometimes reversed; either may also be called 'retroflex' and written ʂ.)

IPA	Place of articulation	Exemplifying languages
[s̠ z̠]	laminal flat postalveolar (laminal retroflex)	Polish sz, rz, cz, dż
[ṣ ẓ]	apical postalveolar (apical retroflex)	Mandarin sh, zh, ch, Ubykh, Toda
[ʃ ʒ]	domed postalveolar (palato-alveolar)	English sh, zh (may be either laminal or apical)
[ʃ̻ ʒ̻]	laminal domed postalveolar	Toda
[ɕ ʑ]	laminal palatalized postalveolar (alveolo-palatal)	Mandarin q, j, x, Polish ć, ś, ź, dź, Ubykh
[ŝ ẑ]	laminal closed postalveolar	Ubykh
[ʂ ʐ]	subapical postalveolar or palatal (subapical retroflex)	Toda

[edit] Other postalveolars

Some languages that distinguish "dental" vs. "alveolar" stops actually articulate these closer to prealveolar and postalveolar respectively. Such is the case for Malayalam speakers who trill both of that language's rhotics: [r̟] vs. [r̠]. These are trills and therefore both apical; because of the unpalatalised postalveolar articulation, the latter is usually termed retroflex.

However, in some non-standard forms of Malayalam, there is a laminal postalveolar nasal that contrasts with apical alveolar, palatal, and subapical retroflex nasals: m n̟ n͇ n̠ ɳ ɲ ŋ.

[edit] See also

• Place of articulation
• Alveolo-palatal consonant
• Retroflex consonant
• Hush consonant
• List of phonetics topics

[edit] References

• Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19814-8. 

v · d · e International Phonetic Alphabet  IPA topics IPA International Phonetic Association · History of the IPA · Kiel convention (1989) · Journal of the IPA (JIPA) · Naming conventions Phonetics Diacritics · Segments · Tone letter · Place of articulation · Manner of articulation Special topics Extensions to the IPA · Obsolete and nonstandard symbols · IPA chart for English dialects Technical SAMPA · X-SAMPA · Conlang X-SAMPA · Kirshenbaum · TIPA · Phonetic symbols in Unicode  Consonants v · d · eIPA pulmonic consonants chartchart image • audio Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Radical Glottal ↓ Manner Bila​bial Labio​dental Den​tal Alve​olar Post​alv. Retro​flex Pal​a​tal Ve​lar Uvu​lar Pha​ryn​geal Epi​glot​tal Glot​tal Nasal m ɱ n̪ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ Plosive p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Fricative ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Approximant ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Trill ʙ r • * ʀ я * Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̯ Lateral Fric. ɬ ɮ ɭ˔̊ ʎ̥˔ ʟ̝̊ Lateral Appr. l ɭ ʎ ʟ Lateral flap ɺ ɺ̢ * ʎ̯ Non-pulmonic consonants Clicks ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ Implosives ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ Ejectives pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ sʼ tsʼ tɬʼ tʃʼ kxʼ kʼ Affricates p̪f ts dz tʃ dʒ tɕ dʑ ʈʂ ɖʐ tɬ dɮ cç ɟʝ Co-articulated consonants Fricatives ɕ ʑ ɧ Approximants ʍ w ɥ ɫ Stops k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m These tables contain phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, left—right represent the voiceless—voiced consonants. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible. * Symbol not defined in IPA. Chart image Pulmonics · Non-pulmonics  · Affricates · Co-articulated  Vowels v · d · e IPA vowel chartimage •  audio Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ •ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ ə •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ ɐ •aɶ •ä •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded.