Voiced retroflex affricate

Voiced retroflex affricate
ɖ͡ʐ
d͡ʐ
IPA Number	106 (137)
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɖ​͡​ʐ
Unicode (hex)	U+0256 U+0361 U+0290
X-SAMPA	dz`
Image

The voiced retroflex sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɖ͡ʐ ⟩, sometimes simplified to ⟨dʐ ⟩. It occurs in such languages as Polish (the laminal affricate dż) and Northwest Caucasian languages (apical).

Some scolars transcribe the laminal variant of this sound as /d͡ʒ/, even though it is not palatalized. In such cases the voiced palato-alveolar affricate is transcribed /d͡ʒʲ/.

Features

Features of the voiced retroflex 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.
• Its place of articulation is retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical sub-apical articulation, the tongue contact can be apical (pointed) or laminal (flat).
• 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
Belarusian		лічба	[lʲiɖ͡ʐbä]	'number'	Laminal. See Belarusian phonology
Chinese	Wu	长	[ɖ͡ʐaŋ]	'long'
Polish	Standard	dżem	<phonos file="Pl-dżem-2.ogg">[ɖ͡ʐɛm]</phonos>	'jam'	Laminal; it's transcribed /d͡ʒ/ by most Polish scolars. See Polish phonology
	Southeastern Cuyavian dialects	dzwon	[ɖ͡ʐvɔn̪]	'bell'	Some speakers. It's a result of hypercorrecting the more popular merger of /ɖ͡ʐ/ and /d͡z/ into [d͡z].
	Suwałki dialect
Northern Qiang		vvdhe	[ʁɖ͡ʐə]	'star'
Russian		джем	<phonos file="Dzem_rus.ogg">[ɖ͡ʐɛm]</phonos>	'jam'	Laminal. It is a very rare variant, and it is usually pronounced as a sequence [dʐ]. See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian		џем / džem	[ɖ͡ʐê̞m]	'jam'	Laminal. It may be palato-alveolar instead, depending on the dialect. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak		džús	[ɖ͡ʐuːs]	'juice'	Laminal.
Torwali		?	[ɖ͡ʐiɡ̥]	'long'	Contrasts with a palatal affricate.
Yi		ꎐ/rry	[ɖ͡ʐɪ˧]	'tooth'

See also

• Index of phonetics articles