Voiceless palatal stop

Voiceless palatal stop
c
IPA number	107
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	c
Unicode (hex)	U+0063
X-SAMPA	c
Kirshenbaum	c
Braille
Sound
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The voiceless palatal stop or voiceless palatal plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in some vocal languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨c⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is c.

If distinction is necessary, the voiceless alveolo-palatal stop may be transcribed ⟨c̟⟩ or ⟨t̠ʲ⟩; these are essentially equivalent, because the contact includes both the blade and body (but not the tip) of the tongue. There is also a non-IPA letter ⟨ȶ⟩, used especially in Sinological circles.

It is common for the phonetic symbol ⟨c⟩ to be used to represent voiceless postalveolar affricate [t͡ʃ] or other similar affricates, for example in the Indic languages. This may be considered appropriate when the place of articulation needs to be specified and the distinction between stop and affricate is not contrastive.

There is also a voiceless post-palatal stop (also called pre-velar, fronted velar etc.) in some languages.

Features

Features of the voiceless palatal stop:

• Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is a stop.

• 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 [k].

• 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.

• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Albanian[1]		shqip	[ʃcip]	'Albanian Language'	Merged with [t͡ʃ] in Gheg Albanian for all speakers and in Tosk for some speakers.[2]
Aranda			—	—	Dento-alveolo-palatal and alveolar.[3]
Basque		ttantta	[cäɲcä]	'droplet'
Blackfoot		ᖳᖽᖾᖳᐡ/akikoan	[aˈkicoan]	'girl'	Allophone of /k/ after front vowels.
Bulgarian	Banat dialect	kaćétu	[kacetu]	'as'
Catalan	Eastern[4]	adquirir	[ət̪k̟iˈɾi(ɾ)]	'to acquire'	Post-palatal.[4] Allophone of /k/ before front vowels.[4] See Catalan phonology
	Majorcan[5]	mags	[ˈmacs]	'wizards'	Simultaneous dento-alveolo-palatal and palatal.[3] Corresponds to /k/ in other varieties. See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Taiwanese Hokkien	機車/ki-tshia	[ciː˧˧ t͡ɕʰia˥˥]	'motorcycle'
Corsican		chjodu	[ˈcoːdu]	'nail'	Also present in the Gallurese dialect
Czech		čeština	[ˈtʃɛʃcɪna]	'Czech language'	Alveolar and alveolo-palatal.[3] See Czech phonology
Dawsahak		[cɛːˈnɐ]		'small'
Dinka		car	[car]	'black'
Dutch		mietje	[mic(j)ə]	'wimp'
Ega[6]		[cá]		'understand'
English[7][8]		keen	[k̟ʰiːn]	'keen'	Post-palatal.[7][8] Allophone of /k/ before front vowels and /j/,[8] in Australia it may be (less commonly) palatal instead.[8] See English phonology and Australian English phonology
French[3]		qui	[ci]	'who' (int.)	Ranges from alveolar to palatal with more than one closure point. See French phonology
Friulian		cjase	[case]	'house'
Ganda		caayi	[caːji]	'tea'
Greek[9]		Μακεδνός	[mɐc̠e̞ˈðno̞s̠]	'Makedon'	Post-palatal.[9] See Modern Greek phonology
Gweno		[ca]		'to come'
Hungarian[10]		tyúk	[cuːk]	'hen'	Alveolo-palatal.[3] See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic		gjóla	[couːla]	'light wind'	Alveolo-palatal.[3] See Icelandic phonology
Italian	Standard[11]	chi	[k̟i]	'who(m)'	Post-palatal.[11] Allophone of /k/ before /i e ɛ j/.[11] See Italian phonology
Irish		ceist	[cɛʃtʲ]	'question'	Simultaneous alveolo-palatal and palatal.[3] See Irish phonology
Khmer		ចាប	[caap]	'bird'	Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms.
Kinyarwanda		ikintu	[iciːntu]	'question'
Latvian		ķirbis	[ˈcirbis]	'pumpkin'
Low German	Plautdietsch	kjoakj	[coac]	'church'	Corresponds to [kʲ] in all other dialects.
Macedonian		вреќа	[ˈvrɛca]	'sack'	See Macedonian phonology
Norwegian	Northern and central dialects[12]	fett	[fɛcː]	'fat'	See Norwegian phonology
Occitan	Limousin	tireta	[ciˈʀetɒ]	'drawer'
	Auvergnat	tirador	[ciʀaˈdu]	'drawer'
Portuguese	Some Fluminense speakers	pequi	[pi̥ˈci]	'pequi'	Allophone of stressed /k/ after [i ~ ɪ] and before close front vowels (/i e ĩ ẽ/).
	Some Brazilian speakers	metido	[miˈc̟idu]	'meddlesome', 'cocky' (m.)	Corresponds to the affricate allophone of /t/ before /i/ that is common in Brazil).[13] See Portuguese phonology
Romanian[14]		chin	[cin]	'torture'	Allophone of /k/ before /i/ and /e/. See Romanian phonology
Romansh	Sursilvan[15]	notg	[nɔc]	'night'
	Sutsilvan[16]	tgàn	[caŋ]	'dog'
	Surmiran[17]	vatgas	[ˈvɑcɐs]	'cows'
	Puter[18]	zücher	[ˈtsycər]	'sugar'
	Vallader[19]	müs-chel	[ˈmyʃcəl]	'moss'
Slovak		deväť	[ˈɟɛvæc]	'nine'	Alveolar.[3]
Turkish		köy	[cʰœj]	'village'	See Turkish phonology
Vietnamese[20]		chị	[ci˧ˀ˨ʔ]	'elder sister'	May be slightly affricated [t͡ɕ]. See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian		tjems	[cɛms]	'strainer'
Western Desert		kutju	[kucu]	'one'

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

References

1. Newmark, Hubbard & Prifti (1982), p. 10.
2. Kolgjini (2004).
3. Recasens (2013), p. 11–13.
4. Rafel (1999), p. 14.
5. Recasens & Espinosa (2005), p. 1.
6. Connell, Ahoua & Gibbon (2002), p. 100.
7. Lyons (1981), p. 76.
8. Mannell, Cox & Harrington (2009).
9. Arvaniti (2007), p. 20.
10. Ladefoged (2005), p. 164.
11. Canepari (1992), p. 62.
12. Skjekkeland (1997), pp. 105–107.
13. Palatalization in Brazilian Portuguese revisited
14. DEX Online :
15. Menzli (1993), p. 92.
16. Liver (1999), pp. 53–54.
17. Liver (1999), pp. 56–57.
18. Liver (1999), pp. 59–60.
19. Liver (1999), pp. 63–64.
20. Thompson (1959), pp. 458–461.

Bibliography

• Arvaniti, Amalia (2007), "Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art" (PDF), Journal of Greek Linguistics 8: 97–208, doi:10.1075/jgl.8.08arv
• Canepari, Luciano (1992), Il MªPi – Manuale di pronuncia italiana [Handbook of Italian Pronunciation] (in Italian), Bologna: Zanichelli, ISBN 88-08-24624-8
• Connell, Bruce; Ahoua, Firmin; Gibbon, Dafydd (2002), "Ega", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 32 (1): 99–104, doi:10.1017/S002510030200018X
• Kolgjini, Julie M. (2004), Palatalization in Albanian: An acoustic investigation of stops and affricates (Ph.D.), The University of Texas at Arlington
• Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.), Blackwell
• Liver, Ricarda (1999), Rätoromanisch: Eine Einführung in das Bünderromanische, Gunter Narr Verlag, ISBN 3-8233-4973-2
• Lyons, John (1981), Language and Linguistics: An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-54088-9
• Mannell, R.; Cox, F.; Harrington, J. (2009), An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology, Macquarie University
• Menzli, Gierdi (1993), Cuors da romontsch sursilvan: Lecziuns 1–18, Ligia romontscha
• Newmark, Leonard; Hubbard, Philip; Prifti, Peter R. (1982), Standard Albanian: A Reference Grammar for Students, Stanford University Press, ISBN 978-0-8047-1129-6
• Rafel, Joaquim (1999), Aplicació al català dels principis de transcripció de l'Associació Fonètica Internacional (PDF) (3rd ed.), Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, ISBN 84-7283-446-8
• Recasens, Daniel (2013), "On the articulatory classification of (alveolo)palatal consonants" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43 (1): 1–22, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000199
• Recasens, Daniel; Espinosa, Aina (2005), "Articulatory, positional and coarticulatory characteristics for clear /l/ and dark /l/: evidence from two Catalan dialects", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35 (1): 1–25, doi:10.1017/S0025100305001878
• Skjekkeland, Martin (1997), Dei norske dialektane: Tradisjonelle særdrag i jamføring med skriftmåla, Høyskoleforlaget (Norwegian Academic Press)
• Thompson, Laurence (1959), "Saigon phonemics", Language 35 (3): 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232