# Voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative

The voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɕ⟩ ("c", plus the curl also found in its voiced counterpart ⟨ʑ⟩). It is the sibilant equivalent of the voiceless palatal fricative, and as such it can be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ç˖⟩.

## Features

Features of the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative:
* Its manner of articulation is sibilant fricative, which means it is generally produced by channeling air flow along a groove in the back of the tongue up to the place of articulation, at which point it is focused against the sharp edge of the nearly clenched teeth, causing high-frequency turbulence.
* Its place of articulation is alveolo-palatal. This means that:
** Its place of articulation is postalveolar, meaning that the tongue contacts the roof of the mouth in the area behind the alveolar ridge (the gum line).
** Its tongue shape is laminal, meaning that it is the tongue blade that contacts the roof of the mouth.
** It is heavily palatalized, meaning that the middle of the tongue is bowed and raised towards the hard palate.
* Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
* 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.
* Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

## In English

In British Received Pronunciation, /j/ after syllable-initial /p, t, k/ (as in Tuesday) is realized as a devoiced palatal fricative. The amount of devoicing is variable, but the fully voiceless variant tends to be alveolo-palatal [ɕ] in the /tj/ sequence:. It is a fricative, rather than a fricative element of an affricate because the preceding plosive remains alveolar, rather than becoming alveolo-palatal, as in Dutch.
The corresponding affricate can be written with ⟨t̠ʲ͡ɕ⟩ or ⟨c̟͡ɕ⟩ in narrow IPA, though ⟨tɕ⟩ is normally used in both cases. In the case of English, the sequence can be specified as ⟨t̺ɕ⟩ as /t/ is normally apical (although somewhat palatalized in that sequence), whereas alveolo-palatal consonants are laminal by definition.
An increasing number of British speakers merge this sequence with the voiceless palato-alveolar affricate /tʃ/: [ˈtʃʉːzdeɪ] (see yod-coalescence), mirroring Cockney, Australian English and New Zealand English. On the other hand, there is an opposite tendency in Canadian accents that have preserved /tj/, where the sequence tends to merge with the plain /t/ instead: (see yod-dropping), mirroring General American which does not allow /j/ to follow alveolar consonants in stressed syllables.

## Occurrence

| Language | Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes |
| Adyghe | Adyghe | щы/šə/شہ‍ | | 'three' | |
| Assamese | Assamese | ব্ৰিটিছ/British | [bɹitiɕ] | 'British' | |
| Bengali | Bengali | শকুন | [ɕokun] | 'Vulture' | May be transliterated as ʃ |
| Burmese | Burmese | ရှ | [ɕa̰] | 'cut superficially' | |
| Catalan | Catalan | caixa | [ˈkä(j)ɕə] | 'box' | See Catalan phonology |
| Chinese | Some Hokkien dialects | 心/sin | [ɕín] | 'heart' | Allophone of /s/ before /i/. |
| Chinese | Mandarin | 西安/Xī'ān | | 'Xi'an' | Complementary distribution allophone of /ʂ/ in front of high front vowels and palatal glides. See Mandarin phonology. |
| Chuvash | Chuvash | çиçĕм/şişĕm | [ˈɕiɕ̬əm] | 'lightning' | Contrasts with /ʂ/ and /s/. Lenis when intervocalic. |
| Danish | Danish | sjæl | [ˈɕeːˀl] | 'soul' | See Danish phonology |
| Dutch | Some speakers | sjabloon | [ɕäˈbloːn] | 'template' | May be [ʃ] or [sʲ] instead. See Dutch phonology |
| English | Cardiff | human | [ˈɕumːən] | 'human' | Phonetic realization of /hj/. More front and more strongly fricated than RP [ç]. Broad varieties drop the /h/: [ˈjumːən]. See English phonology |
| English | Conservative Received Pronunciation | tuesday | [ˈt̺ʲɕuːzdeɪ] | 'Tuesday' | Allophone of /j/ after syllable-initial /t/ (which is alveolar in this sequence), may be only partially devoiced. /tj/ is often realized as an affricate [tʃ] in British English. Mute in General American:. Typically transcribed with ⟨j⟩ in broad IPA. See English phonology, yod-coalescence and yod-dropping |
| English | Some Canadian English | tuesday | [ˈt̺ʲɕuːzdeɪ] | 'Tuesday' | Allophone of /j/ after syllable-initial /t/ (which is alveolar in this sequence), may be only partially devoiced. /tj/ is often realized as an affricate [tʃ] in British English. Mute in General American:. Typically transcribed with ⟨j⟩ in broad IPA. See English phonology, yod-coalescence and yod-dropping |
| English | Ghanaian | ship | [ɕip] | 'ship' | Educated speakers may use [ʃ], to which this phone corresponds in other dialects. |
| Guarani | Paraguayan | che | [ɕɛ] | 'I' | |
| Hindi | Hindi | शनिवार | [ɕəniʋaːr] | Saturday | Sometimes may be transliterated as 'ʃ' |
| Japanese | Japanese | 塩/shio | [ɕi.o] | 'salt' | See Japanese phonology |
| Karen | Eastern Pwo | ယှး | [ɕá] | 'star' | |
| Karen | Western Pwo | ၡၪ | [ɕà] | 'star' | |
| Korean | South | 시/詩/si | [ɕʰi] | 'poem' | See Korean phonology. |
| Kabardian | Kabardian | щэ/ščè/صە | | 'hundred' | |
| Lower Sorbian | Lower Sorbian | pśijaśel | [ˈpɕijäɕɛl] | 'friend' | |
| Luxembourgish | Luxembourgish | liicht | [liːɕt] | 'light' | Allophone of /χ/ after phonologically front vowels; some speakers merge it with [ʃ]. See Luxembourgish phonology |
| Marathi | Marathi | शेतकरी/shetkari | [ɕeːt̪kəɾiː] | 'farmer' | Contrasts with. Allophone of. See Marathi phonology. |
| Malayalam | Malayalam | കുരിശ്/kuriś | [kuɾɪɕ] | 'Cross' | See Malayalam phonology |
| Norwegian | Urban East | kjekk | [ɕe̞kː] | 'handsome' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ç⟩; less often realized as palatal [ç]. Younger speakers in Bergen, Stavanger and Oslo merge it with /ʂ/. See Norwegian phonology |
| Polish | Polish | śruba | | 'screw' | Contrasts with /ʂ/ and /s/. See Polish phonology |
| Portuguese | Portuguese | mexendo | [meˈɕẽd̪u] | 'moving' | Also described as palato-alveolar [ʃ]. See Portuguese phonology |
| Romani | Kalderash | ćhavo | [ɕaˈvo] | 'Romani boy; son' | Realized as [t͡ʃʰ] in conservative dialects. |
| Romanian | Transylvanian dialects | ce | [ɕɛ] | 'what' | Realized as [t͡ʃ] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology |
| Russian | Russian | счастье/schast'e | | 'happiness' | Also represented by ⟨щ⟩. Contrasts with /ʂ/, /s/, and /sʲ/. See Russian phonology |
| Sema | Sema | ashi | [à̠ɕì] | 'meat' | Possible allophone of /ʃ/ before /i, e/. |
| Serbo-Croatian | Croatian | miš će | [mîɕ t͡ɕe̞] | 'the mouse will' | Allophone of /ʃ/ before /t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ/. See Serbo-Croatian phonology |
| Serbo-Croatian | Some speakers of Montenegrin | с́утра/śutra | [ɕût̪ra̠] | 'tomorrow' | Phonemically /sj/ or, in some cases, /s/. |
| Swedish | Finland | sjok | [ɕuːk] | 'chunk' | Allophone of /ɧ/. |
| Swedish | Sweden | kjol | | 'skirt' | See Swedish phonology |
| Tibetan | Lhasa dialect | བཞི་/bzhi | [ɕi˨˧] | 'four' | Contrasts with /ʂ/. |
| Tatar | Tatar | өчпочмак/өçpoçmaq | [ˌøɕpoɕˈmɑq] | 'triangle' | |
| Uzbek | Uzbek | | | | |
| Xumi | Lower | [d͡ʑi ɕɐ˦] | [d͡ʑi ɕɐ˦] | 'one hundred' | |
| Xumi | Upper | [d͡ʑi ɕɐ˦] | [d͡ʑi ɕɐ˦] | 'one hundred' | |
| Yámana (Yahgan) | Yámana (Yahgan) | Šúša | [ɕúɕa] | 'penguin' | |
| Yi | Yi | ꑟ/xi | [ɕi˧] | 'thread' | |
| Zhuang | Zhuang | cib | [ɕǐp] | 'ten' | |