Voiced Palatal Plosive

The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɟ⟩, a barred dotless ⟨j⟩ that was initially created by turning the type for a lowercase letter ⟨f⟩. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is J\.

Voiced palatal plosive
ɟ
IPA Number	108
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɟ
Unicode (hex)	U+025F
X-SAMPA	J\
Braille
Image

If the distinction is necessary, the voiced alveolo-palatal plosive may be transcribed ⟨ɟ̟⟩, ⟨ɟ˖⟩ (both symbols denote an advanced ⟨ɟ⟩) or ⟨d̠ʲ⟩ (retracted and palatalized ⟨d⟩), but they are essentially equivalent since the contact includes both the blade and body (but not the tip) of the tongue. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are J\_+ and d_-' or d_-_j, respectively. There is also a non-IPA letter U+0221 ȡ LATIN SMALL LETTER D WITH CURL; ⟨ȡ⟩ ("d" with the curl found in the symbols for alveolo-palatal sibilant fricatives ⟨ɕ, ʑ⟩) that is used especially in Sinological circles.

[ɟ] is a less common sound worldwide than the voiced postalveolar affricate [d͡ʒ] because it is difficult to get the tongue to touch just the hard palate without also touching the back part of the alveolar ridge. It is also common for the symbol ⟨ɟ⟩ to be used to represent a palatalized voiced velar plosive or palato-alveolar/alveolo-palatal affricates, as in Indic languages. That may be considered appropriate when the place of articulation needs to be specified, and the distinction between plosive and affricate is not contrastive.

There is also the voiced post-palatal plosive in some languages, which is articulated slightly more back than the place of articulation of the prototypical palatal consonant but not as back as the prototypical velar consonant. The IPA does not have a separate symbol, which can be transcribed as ⟨ɟ̠⟩, ⟨ɟ˗⟩ (both symbols denote a retracted ⟨ɟ⟩), ⟨ɡ̟⟩ or ⟨ɡ˖⟩ (both symbols denote an advanced ⟨ɡ⟩). The equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are J\_- and g_+, respectively.

Especially in broad transcription, the voiced post-palatal plosive may be transcribed as a palatalized voiced velar plosive (⟨ɡʲ⟩ in the IPA, g' or g_j in X-SAMPA).

 

Features of the voiced 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 plosive.
• 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 closer to the velar [ɡ].
  • Alveolo-palatal variant is articulated also with the blade of the tongue at or behind the alveolar ridge.
• 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 intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Palatal or alveolo-palatal

Post-palatal

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