Alveolo-palatal consonant

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Not to be confused with palato-alveolar consonant.
Sagittal section
of alveolo-palatal fricative
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

In

alveolar ridge.[1] These descriptions are essentially equivalent, since the contact includes both the blade and body (but not the tip) of the tongue (see schematic at right). They are front enough that the fricatives and affricates are sibilants
, the only sibilants among the dorsal consonants.

According to Daniel Recasens, alveolo-palatal consonants are realized through the formation of a simultaneous closure or constriction at the alveolar and palatal zones with a primary articulator which encompasses the blade and the tongue dorsum. Their place of articulation may include the postalveolar zone and the prepalate, but also a larger contact area extending towards the front alveolar zone and the back palate surface. The tongue tip is bent downwards and the tongue dorsum is raised and fronted during the production of these consonants.[3]

Sibilants

The alveolo-palatal sibilants are often used in

Tibetan and Burmese as well as Tai languages such as Thai, Lao, Shan and Zhuang. Alveolo-palatal sibilants are also a feature of many Slavic languages, such as Polish, Russian, and Serbo-Croatian, and of Northwest Caucasian languages, such as Abkhaz and Ubykh. The alveolo-palatal consonants included in the International Phonetic Alphabet
are:

IPA Description Example
Language Orthography IPA Meaning
ɕ
Voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant
 Mandarin 小 (xiǎo) [ɕiɑu˨˩˦] small
ʑ
Voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant
 Polish zioło [ʑɔwɔ] herb
t͡ɕ Voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate Serbo-Croatian kuća / кућа [kut͡ɕa] house
d͡ʑ Voiced alveolo-palatal affricate Japanese 地震 (jishin) [d͡ʑiɕĩɴ] earthquake

The letters ⟨ɕ⟩ and ⟨ʑ⟩ are essentially equivalent to ⟨ ʃʲ⟩ and ⟨ʒʲ⟩. They are the sibilant homologues of the pre-palatal fricatives [ç˖] and [ʝ˖].

Stops, nasals, and liquids

Symbols for alveolo-palatal stops U+0236 ȶ LATIN SMALL LETTER T WITH CURLU+0221 ȡ LATIN SMALL LETTER D WITH CURL(ȶ, ȡ),

sinological
circles (a circumflex accent is also sometimes seen), but they are not recognized by the IPA.

In standard IPA, they can be transcribed ⟨t̠ʲ d̠ʲ n̠ʲ l̠ʲ⟩ or ⟨c̟ ɟ̟ ɲ̟ ʎ̟⟩. An alternative transcription for the voiced alveolo-palatal stop and nasal is ⟨ɟ˖ ɲ˖⟩, but it is used only when ⟨ɟ̟ ɲ̟⟩ cannot be displayed properly.

For example, the Polish nasal represented with the letter

Indigenous Australian languages
are also often closer to alveolo-palatal in their articulation.

Extra-IPA IPA Description Example
Language Orthography IPA Meaning
ȶ, t̂ t̠ʲ, c̟ Voiceless alveolo-palatal stop Korean 티끌 tikkeul [t̠ʲʰiʔk͈ɯl] dust
ȡ, d̂ d̠ʲ, ɟ̟ Voiced alveolo-palatal stop Korean 반디 bandi [b̥ɐnd̠ʲi] firefly
ȵ, n̂ n̠ʲ, ɲ̟
Alveolo-palatal nasal
 Nuosu ꑌ nyi [n̠ʲi˧]
sit
ȴ, l̂ l̠ʲ, ʎ̟
Alveolo-palatal lateral
 Catalan ull [ˈul̠ʲ] eye

Contrasting with palatovelar consonants

Further information: Palatal consonant § Alveolo-palatal

In

syllabic coda (or intervowel) position in conservative Irish, laminal alveolo-palatal phoneme /ṉʲ/ (termed fortis slender coronal nasal, orthographic example inn) contrasts with both dorsal palatal phoneme /ɲ/[5] (termed slender dorsal nasal, orthographic example ing or -nc-) and apical palatalized alveolar phoneme /nʲ/ (termed lenis slender coronal nasal, orthographic example in);[6] while general Irish other than Munster Irish
contrasts alveolo-palatal nasal only with palatal nasal. In both cases, the palatal consonants work as the palatalization of velar consonants while alveolo-palatal consonants work as the palatalization of alveolar consonants.

In some spoken Chinese varieties, such as the Luchuan Hakka [zh] in Hengshan [zh], contrast the alveolo-palatal nasal with the palato-velar nasal. For example, the following contrasting pairs can bs found in Luchuan Ngai.

Luchuan Ngai contrasting pairs
EMC Character Pronunciation Tone
newH 尿 niau 去
nraewX 撓 阳平
nyew 饒 ȵiau 阳平
ngewH 澆 ɲ̠iau 上
nrjem 黏 niam 阴平
nyemX 染 ȵiam 上
ngjaem 嚴 ɲ̠iam 阳平
nyin 人 ȵin 阳平
仁 ɲ̠in

Although a number of spoken Chinese varieties, such as standard Mandarin, also contrast EMC alveolo-palatal nasal with velar nasal of class III (palatalizing medial), most don't contrast them in a way that alveolo-palatal differs from palatal. For example, in Pianlian [Wikidata] Hakka, alveolo-palatal nasal marginally contrasts with velar nasal under close front medials, but there is little sign of palatal contrasts.

M pairs
EMC Character Pronunciation Tone
nrjep 聶 niap 阳
鑷 ȵiap
nyip 入 ȵap
net 捏 ŋiap

Thus most frequently, the Sinologist use of ȵ instead of ɲ is not to indicate a contrast, but to emphasize its primary allophone not to be the Turkish [ɲ], or to indicate its coronal origin or that it has evolved with other dorsal consonants which have become alveolopalatals, where ɲ is reserved for postpalatals evolved from dorsal consonants. However, since ȵ has also been unfortunately used by some for Meixian Hakka, the distinction of usage has become vague. ȶ, on the other hand, has retained its accurate usage representing phonemes in certain spoken Chinese in Hengyang and has never been applied on Hakka or on certain Mandarin in or near Shandong.

References

  1. ^ a b John Esling, 2010, "Phonetic Notation". In Hardcastle, Laver, & Gibbon, eds, The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences, p 693
  2. ISBN 0-631-19815-6
    .
  3. ^ Recasens, Daniel. "On the articulatory classification of (alveolo)palatal consonants". Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  4. doi:10.20396/liames.v20i0.8660822
    .
  5. ISBN 0-946452-97-0
  6. ISBN 0-901282-02-2

Further reading
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