THC Science

The voiced retroflex sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɖ͡ʐ⟩, sometimes simplified to ⟨dʐ⟩ or ⟨ꭦ⟩. It occurs in such languages as Polish (the laminal affricate dż) and Northwest Caucasian languages (apical).

Features[edit]

Features of the voiced retroflex affricate:

Its manner of articulation is sibilant affricate, which means it is produced by first stopping the air flow entirely, then directing it with the tongue to the sharp edge of the 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 contact can be apical (pointed) or 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.
The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Asturian	Some dialects	ḷḷuna	['ɖ͡ʐunä]	'moon'	Corresponds to /ʎ/ in other dialects. See Che Vaqueira
Belarusian		лічба	[lʲiɖ͡ʐbä]	'number'	Laminal. See Belarusian phonology
Chinese	Wu	长	[ɖ͡ʐaŋ]	'to grow'	Only found in a few Wu dialects.
Polish	Standard^[1]^[2]	dżem	[ɖ͡ʐɛm] (help·info)	'jam'	Laminal; it's transcribed /d͡ʒ/ by most Polish scholars. See Polish phonology
	Southeastern Cuyavian dialects^[3]	dzwon	[ɖ͡ʐvɔn̪]	'bell'	Some speakers. It's a result of hypercorrecting the more popular merger of /ɖ͡ʐ/ and /d͡z/ into [d͡z].
	Suwałki dialect^[4]	dzwon	[ɖ͡ʐvɔn̪]	'bell'
Northern Qiang		vvdhe	[ʁɖ͡ʐə]	'star'
Serbo-Croatian^[5]^[6]		џеп / džep	[ɖ͡ʐê̞p]	'pocket'	Apical. It may be palato-alveolar instead, depending on the dialect. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak^[7]		džús	[ɖ͡ʐu̞ːs]	'juice'	Laminal.
Torwali^[8]		حؕىگ	[ɖ͡ʐiɡ̥]	'long'	Contrasts with a palatal affricate.
Yi		ꎐ / rry	[ɖ͡ʐɪ˧]	'tooth'

^ Jassem (2003:103)
^ Hamann (2004:65)
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-11-13. Retrieved 2013-11-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-11-13. Retrieved 2013-11-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ Kordić (2006), p. 5.
^ Landau et al. (1999), p. 67.
^ Hanulíková & Hamann (2010:374)
^ Lunsford (2001:16–20)

Hamann, Silke (2004), "Retroflex fricatives in Slavic languages" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 53–67, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001604
Hanulíková, Adriana; Hamann, Silke (2010), "Slovak" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 40 (3): 373–378, doi:10.1017/S0025100310000162
Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191
Lunsford, Wayne A. (2001), "An overview of linguistic structures in Torwali, a language of Northern Pakistan" (PDF), M.A. Thesis, University of Texas at Arlington
Kordić, Snježana (2006), Serbo-Croatian, Languages of the World/Materials; 148, Munich & Newcastle: Lincom Europa, ISBN 978-3-89586-161-1
Landau, Ernestina; Lončarić, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66–69, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0