yawiki.org entry for Palatal approximant

	Navigation Home Recent Most Active Popular Blog Credits RSS
	Interaction Register Statistics
	Help Suggestions Contact Us How to Edit Help

[Edit]

The palatal approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in very many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is j which is equivalant i_^ in X-sampa, and in the Americanist phonetic notation it is y.

    Palatal approximant
        Features
        In English
        Other languages
        See also

Ipa-number	153
Ipa	153
Ipa-image	Xsampa-j2.png
Xsampa	j
Kirshenbaum	j

top

Features

Features of the palatal approximant:

Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by bringing one articulator close to another but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent that a turbulent airstream is produced.

Its place of articulation is palatal which means it is articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised against the hard palate.

Its phonation type is voiced, which means the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation.

It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.

It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.

The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

top

In English

The palatal approximant occurs in English, and it is the sound denoted by the letter "y" in you or yesterday.

top

Other languages
In most languages of Central, Northern and Eastern Europe, the letter "j" denotes the palatal approximant, like the German word "Jacke". In Finnic languages such as Finnish, this is mostly without exception, but the Savo dialect also marks palatalization with 'j'. In Germanic languages, there are exceptions such as the Swedish and Norwegian digraph "tj" (, , or ).

top

	Source Privacy License Download Contact Us Atlas Scientus.org Dictionary (Yet Another Wiki) RC : 1.39 MIT OpenCourseWare This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License [copyleft]. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Palatal approximant". link