Voiced palatal approximant

Voiced palatal approximant
IPA number	153
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	j
Unicode (hex)	U+006A
X-SAMPA	j
Braille	⠚ (braille pattern dots-245)

A voiced palatal approximant is a type of consonant used in many spoken languages. It is familiar to English-speakers as the "y" sound in "young".

The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is Template:Angbr IPA; the equivalent symbol in the Americanist phonetic notation is ⟨y⟩. In order to not imply that the approximant is spread as the vowel is, it may instead be transcribed Template:Angbr IPA. When this sound occurs in the form of a palatal glide it is frequently, but not exclusively, denoted as a superscript j ⟨ʲ⟩ in IPA.

This sound is traditionally called a yod, after its name in Hebrew. This is reflected in the names of certain phonological changes, such as yod-dropping and yod-coalescence.

A palatal approximant is often the semivocalic equivalent of a close front unrounded vowel . They alternate with each other in certain languages, such as French, and in the diphthongs of some languages as Template:Angbr IPA and Template:Angbr IPA, with the non-syllabic diacritic used in some phonetic transcription systems to represent the same sound.

Phonetic ambiguity and transcription usage

Some languages, however, have a palatal approximant that is unspecified for rounding and so cannot be considered the semivocalic equivalent of either or its rounded counterpart, [y], which would normally correspond to [ɥ]. An example is Spanish, which distinguishes two palatal approximants: an approximant semivowel , which is always unrounded (and is a phonological vowel - an allophone of ), and an approximant consonant unspecified for rounding, (which is a phonological consonant). Eugenio Martínez Celdrán describes the difference between them as follows (with audio examples added):

is shorter and is usually a merely transitory sound. It can only exist together with a full vowel and does not appear in syllable onset. [On the other hand,] has a lower amplitude, mainly in F2. It can only appear in syllable onset. It is not noisy either articulatorily or perceptually. can vary towards [ʝ] in emphatic pronunciations, having noise (turbulent airstream). (...) There is a further argument through which we can establish a clear difference between and : the first sound cannot be rounded, not even through co-articulation, whereas the second one is rounded before back vowels or the back semi-vowel. Thus, in words like viuda 'widow', Dios 'God', vio 's/he saw', etc., the semi-vowel is unrounded; if it were rounded, a sound that does not exist in Spanish, [ɥ], would appear. On the other hand, is unspecified as far as rounding is concerned and it is assimilated to the labial vowel context: rounded with rounded vowels, e.g. ayuda 'help', coyote 'coyote', hoyuelo 'dimple', etc., and unrounded with unrounded vowels: payaso 'clown', ayer 'yesterday'.

Celdrán also considers that "the IPA shows a lack of precision in the treatment it gives to approximants, if we take into account our understanding of the phonetics of Spanish. and are two different segments, but they have to be labelled as voiced palatal approximant consonants. I think that the former is a real consonant, whereas the latter is a semi-consonant, as it has traditionally been called in Spanish, or a semi-vowel, if preferred. The IPA, though, classifies it as a consonant."

There is a parallel problem with transcribing voiced velar approximants.

In the writing systems used for most languages of Central, Northern, and Eastern Europe, the letter j denotes a palatal approximant, as in German 'year', which is followed by IPA. Although it may be seen as counterintuitive for English-speakers, there are a few words with that orthographical spelling in certain loanwords in English like Hebrew "hallelujah" and German "Jägermeister".

In grammars of Ancient Greek, a palatal approximant, which was lost early in the history of Greek, is sometimes written as ⟨ι̯⟩, an iota with the inverted breve below, which is the nonsyllabic diacritic or marker of a semivowel.

Features

Features of a voiced palatal approximant:

• Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but not enough to produce a turbulent airstream. The most common type of this approximant is glide or semivowel. The term glide emphasizes the characteristic of movement (or 'glide') of from the [i] vowel position to a following vowel position. The term semivowel emphasizes that, although the sound is vocalic in nature, it is not 'syllabic' (it does not form the nucleus of a syllable). For a description of the approximant consonant variant used e.g. in Spanish, see above.
• 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 [ɰ].
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
• It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Palatal

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		/		'dirt'
Afrikaans				'yes'	See Afrikaans phonology
Arabic	Standard	/		'day'	See Arabic phonology
Aragonese				'falls'	Unspecified for rounding approximant consonant; the language also features an unrounded palatal approximant semivowel (which may replace before ).
Armenian	Eastern	/		'fat'
Assamese		/		'humanity'
Assyrian		/		'sea'
Azerbaijani				'dream'
Basque				'yes'
Bengali		/		'eye'	A phonetic merger of the non-syllabic front vowels /i̯ e̯/. See Bengali phonology
Bulgarian		/		'mother'	See Bulgarian phonology
Catalan	All dialects			'I did'	See Catalan phonology
	Some dialects			'I'
Chechen		/		'six'
Chinese	Cantonese	/		'day'	See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	() /		'duck'	See Mandarin phonology
Chuvash		/		'tree'
Czech				'is'	See Czech phonology
Danish				'I'	See Danish phonology
Dutch	Standard			'yes'	Frequently realized as a fricative [ʝ], especially in emphatic speech. See Dutch phonology
English		you		'you'	See English phonology
Esperanto				'year'	See Esperanto phonology
Estonian				'leg'	See Estonian phonology
Finnish				'leg'	See Finnish phonology
French				'eyes'	See French phonology
German	Standard			'jacket'	Also described as a fricative [ʝ] and a sound variable between a fricative and an approximant. See Standard German phonology
Greek	Ancient Greek	/		's/he shall come'	See Ancient Greek phonology
Hebrew		/		'kid'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani		/ /		'vehicle'	See Hindustani phonology
Hungarian				'game'	See Hungarian phonology
Irish				'would cut'	See Irish phonology
Ingush		/		'grain'	See Ingush phonology
Italian				'ion'	See Italian phonology
Jalapa Mazatec					Contrasts voiceless /j̊/, plain voiced and glottalized voiced approximants.
Japanese		/		'to bake'	See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		/		'game'
Kazakh		/		'so'
Khmer		/		'to cry'	See Khmer phonology
Korean		/		'six'	See Korean phonology
Latin				'to throw'	See Latin spelling and pronunciation
Lithuanian				'she'	Also described as a fricative [ʝ]. See Lithuanian phonology
Macedonian		/		'end'	See Macedonian phonology
Malay				'love'
Malayalam		പായ/paya		'mat'	See Malayalam phonology
Maltese				'he eats'
Mapudungun				'six'	May be a fricative [ʝ] instead.
Marathi		/		'success'
Nepali		/		'season'	See Nepali phonology
Norwegian	Urban East			'to give'	May be a fricative [ʝ] instead. See Norwegian phonology
Odia		/		'time'
Persian		/		'Yazd'	See Persian phonology
Polish				'tomorrow'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese				'buoy', 'float'	Allophone of both /i/ and /ʎ/, as well as a very common epenthetic sound before coda sibilants in some dialects. See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi		/		'friend'
Romanian				'again'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		/		'pit'	See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian		/		'South'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak				'to eat'	See Slovak phonology
Slovene				'I'
Solos				'up'	See Alphabet section in Solos language
Spanish	Standard			'yesterday'	Unspecified for rounding approximant consonant; the language also features an unrounded palatal approximant semivowel. Contrast with . See Spanish phonology
			<phonos file="LL-Q1321 (spa)-Rodelar-tierra.wav"></phonos>	'earth'
	Rioplatense			'ice'
Swedish				'I'	May be realized as a palatal fricative [ʝ] instead. See Swedish phonology
Tagalog				'sparrow'
Tamil				'elephant'	See Tamil phonology
Telugu		/		'agony'
Turkish				'way'	See Turkish phonology
Turkmen				'silk'
Ubykh		/		'you did it'	See Ubykh phonology
Ukrainian		/		'hedgehog'	See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamese	Southern dialects			'cinnamon'	Corresponds to northern /z/. See Vietnamese phonology
Washo				'leaf'	Contrasts voiceless /j̊/ and voiced approximants.
Welsh				'language'	See Welsh phonology
West Frisian				'coat'	See West Frisian phonology
Zapotec	Tilquiapan			'neck'

Post-palatal (pre-velar) approximant

Voiced post-palatal or pre-velar approximant
Audio sample
File:Post-palatal approximant.ogg source · help

There is also a post-palatal or pre-velar approximant in some languages, which is articulated more back than the place of articulation of the prototypical palatal approximant but less far back than the prototypical velar approximant. It can be considered the semivocalic equivalent of the close central unrounded vowel . The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, but it can be transcribed as Template:Angbr IPA, Template:Angbr IPA (a retracted Template:Angbr IPA), Template:Angbr IPA or Template:Angbr IPA (an advanced Template:Angbr IPA). Other possible transcriptions include Template:Angbr IPA (a centralized Template:Angbr IPA), Template:Angbr IPA (a centralized Template:Angbr IPA), and Template:Angbr IPA (a non-syllabic Template:Angbr IPA). The para-IPA symbol Template:Angbr IPA (a barred Template:Angbr IPA) may also be used to represent this approximant.

Features

• Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but not enough to produce a turbulent airstream.

• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
• It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Spanish			<phonos file="Es-seguir.ogg"></phonos>	'to follow'	Lenited allophone of before front vowels; typically transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA. See Spanish phonology
Turkish	Standard prescriptive			'wedding'	Either post-palatal or palatal; phonetic realization of (also transcribed as ) before front vowels. See Turkish phonology

Nasal

Nasalized voiced palatal approximant
Audio sample
File:Nasal palatal approximant.ogg source · help
Encoding
X-SAMPA	j~

A nasalized voiced palatal approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some oral languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is Template:Angbr IPA.

Features

Features of a nasal palatal approximant:

• Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but not enough to produce a turbulent airstream.
• 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.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is a nasal consonant, which means air is exclusively allowed to escape through the nose for nasal stops; otherwise, in addition to through the mouth.
• It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

, written ⟨ny⟩, is a common realization of before nasal vowels in many languages of West Africa that do not have a phonemic distinction between voiced nasal and oral stops, such as Yoruba, Ewe and Bini languages.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Nheengatu				'to speak'	Influenced Brazilian Portuguese ⟨nh⟩ sound. Sometimes written with ⟨ñ⟩
Hindustani		/		'patience'	Allophone of /n/ before . See Hindustani phonology
Kaingang				'brave'	Possible word-initial realization of before a nasal vowel.
Lombard				'need for (something)'	Allophone of /ɲ/ before a consonant. See Lombard phonology
Louisiana Creole		sinñin	sɛ̃j̃ɛ̃	'bleed'	Intervocalic allophone of
Polish			<phonos file="Pl-państwo.ogg"></phonos>	'state, country'	Allophone of before fricatives. See Polish phonology
Portuguese	Brazilian			'dream'	Allophone of /ɲ/ between vowels, nasalizes the preceding vowel. Language's original sound. See Portuguese phonology
	Most dialects			'dogs'	Allophone of /i/ after nasal vowels.
	Some dialects			'love me!'	Non-syllabic allophone of /i/ between nasal sounds.
Shipibo					Allophone of after nasal vowels.
Spanish	Zwolle-Ebarb			'year'	Allophone of between vowels, nasalizing the preceding vowel.
	Other dialects, occasional in rapid, unguarded speech			'kids'	Allophone of . Because nasality is retained and there is no potential merger with any other Spanish phonemes, this process is rarely noticed, and its geographical distribution has never been determined.
Sakha				'sin, transgression'	is not distinguished from in the orthography.

See also

• Palatal lateral approximant
• Index of phonetics articles

References

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External links

• Template:Phoible
• Template:Phoible
• Template:Phoible