# Voiced retroflex fricative

The voiced retroflex 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 ⟨ʐ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is z`. Like all the retroflex consonants, the IPA symbol is formed by adding a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of a z (the letter used for the corresponding alveolar consonant).

## Features

Features of the voiced retroflex sibilant:
* 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 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 subapical articulation, the tongue can be apical (pointed) or, in some fricatives, 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.
* 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.

## Occurrence

In the following transcriptions, diacritics may be used to distinguish between apical [ʐ̺] and laminal [ʐ̻].
The commonality of [ʐ] cross-linguistically is 2% in a phonological analysis of 2155 languages.
| Language | Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes |
| Abkhaz | Abkhaz | абжа/abža | [ˈabʐa] | 'half' | See Abkhaz phonology |
| Adyghe | Adyghe | жъы / jı / ظہـ | | 'old' | Laminal. |
| Awetí | Awetí | [pɨtiˈʐɨk˺] | [pɨtiˈʐɨk˺] | 'to pray' | Diachronically related to [ɾ] and also to some other alveolar sounds in certain occasions. As word lists created in the 1900s appoint for [ɾ] where there is [ʐ] now, the latter sound is supposed to be the result of a very recent sound change that is analogically happening in Waurá. |
| Chinese | Mandarin | 肉/ròu | | 'meat' | Also transcribed as a retroflex approximant [ɻ] depending on accent and dialect. See Mandarin phonology. |
| Chinese | Changshu dialect | 常熟 | /dʐan ʐɔʔ/ [tʂʱä̃233 ʐɔʔ23] (without tone sandhi) | 'Changshu' | Pronounced [ʂʱ] when occurring at the first syllable. A native Wu Chinese speaker may reduce it a sound closer to a retroflex approximant [ɻ] (similar to the Standard Mandarin r) when trying to force a unnatural voiced pronunciation on the first syllable. |
| Faroese | Faroese | renn | [ʐɛn] | 'run' | |
| Lower Sorbian | Lower Sorbian | Łužyca | [ˈwuʐɨt͡sa] | 'Lusatia' | |
| Mapudungun | Mapudungun | rayen | [ʐɜˈjën] | 'flower' | May be [ɻ] or [ɭ] instead. |
| Marrithiyel | Marri Tjevin dialect | [wiˈɲaʐu] | [wiˈɲaʐu] | 'they are laughing' | Voicing is non-contrastive. |
| Mehináku | Mehináku | [ɨˈʐũte] | [ɨˈʐũte] | 'parrot' | Resulted from the voicing of /ʂ/ in between vowels. |
| Pashto | Southern dialect | تږى/tâjai‎ | [ˈtəʐai] | 'thirsty' | See Pashto phonology |
| Polish | Standard | żona | | 'wife' | Also represented orthographically by ⟨rz⟩ and, when written so, may be instead pronounced as the raised alveolar non-sonorant trill by few speakers. It is transcribed as /ʒ/ by most Polish scholars. See Polish phonology |
| Polish | Southeastern Cuyavian dialects | zapłacił | [ʐäˈpwät͡ɕiw] | 'he paid' | Some speakers. It is a result of hypercorrecting the more popular merger of /ʐ/ and /z/ into [z] (see Szadzenie). |
| Polish | Suwałki dialect | zapłacił | [ʐäˈpwät͡ɕiw] | 'he paid' | Some speakers. It is a result of hypercorrecting the more popular merger of /ʐ/ and /z/ into [z] (see Szadzenie). |
| Romagnol | Romagnol | diṣ | [ˈdiːʐ] | 'ten' | Apical; may be [z̺ʲ] or [ʒ] instead. |
| Russian | Russian | жена/žena | | 'wife' | See Russian phonology |
| Serbo-Croatian | Serbo-Croatian | жут / žut | [ʐûːt̪] | 'yellow' | Typically transcribed as /ʒ/. See Serbo-Croatian phonology |
| Shina | Gilgiti | ڙَکُݨ / ẓakuṇ | [ʐəkuɳ] | 'donkey' |
| Shina | Kohistani | ڙَکُݨ / ẓakuṇ | [ʐəkuɳ] | 'donkey' |
| Slovak | Slovak | žaba | [ˈʐäbä] | 'frog' | |
| Spanish | Andean | hacer | [a'seʐ] | 'do' | The phoneme [r] changes to [ʐ], when it is at the end of a syllable |
| Spanish | Andean | marrón, ratón | [maˈʐon], [ʐa'ton] | 'brown', 'mouse' | See Spanish phonology |
| Swedish | Central dialects | fri | [fʐi] | 'free' | Allophone of /ɹ/. Also may be pronounced as [r] or [ɾ]. See Swedish phonology |
| Taruma | Taruma | hoza | [ˈho.ʐa] | 'rain' | |
| Tilquiapan Zapotec | Tilquiapan Zapotec | ? | [ʐan] | 'bottom' | |
| Torwali | Torwali | ݜوڙ | [ʂuʐ] | 'straight' | |
| Ubykh | Ubykh | [ʐa] | [ʐa] | 'firewood' | See Ubykh phonology |
| Ukrainian | Ukrainian | жaбa/žaba | [ˈʐɑbɐ] | 'frog' | See Ukrainian phonology |
| Upper Sorbian | Some dialects | | | | Used in dialects spoken in villages north of Hoyerswerda; corresponds to [ʒ] in the standard language. |
| Yi | Yi | ꏜ ry | [ʐʐ̩˧] | 'grass' | |

## Voiced retroflex non-sibilant fricative
### Features

Features of the voiced retroflex non-sibilant fricative:
* Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing 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 subapical articulation, the tongue can be apical (pointed) or, in some fricatives, 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.
* 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.

### Occurrence

| Language | Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes |
| English | Eastern Cape | red | [ɻ˔ed] | 'red' | Apical; typical realization of /r/ in that region. See South African English phonology |