Voiced palatal implosive

Voiced post-palatal or pre-velar implosive
Voiced post-palatal or pre-velar implosive
ʄ˗
ɠ˖
Audio sample
	source · help

Voiced palatal implosive
Voiced palatal implosive
ʄ
IPA number	164
Audio sample
	source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʄ
Unicode (hex)	U+0284
X-SAMPA	J\_<
Braille
Image

A voiced palatal implosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ ʄ ⟩. Typographically, the IPA symbol is a dotless lowercase letter j with a horizontal stroke that was initially created by turning the type for a lowercase letter f (the symbol for the voiced palatal stop) and a rightward hook (the diacritic for implosives). A very similar-looking letter, ⟨ ƒ ⟩ (an ⟨f⟩ with a tail), is used in Ewe for /ɸ/.

Features

Features of a voiced palatal implosive:

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, it 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.
Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
The airstream mechanism is implosive (glottalic ingressive), which means it is produced by pulling air in by pumping the glottis downward. Since it is voiced, the glottis is not completely closed, but allows a pulmonic airstream to escape through it.

Occurrence

Palatal

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Fula		jetugol	[ʄetugol]	'to take'
Konso		japjap	[ʄapʄap]	‘to rot/decay completely’
Serer		ʃaar	[ʄaːɾ]	'to have ringworm'	Written as ⟨ݖ⟩ in the Arabic script and as ⟨ʃ⟩ in Latin script. Contrasts /ɓ̥, ɗ̥, ʄ̊, ɓ, ɗ, ʄ/.
Somali	Maay Maay	^{[example needed]}
Swahili		jana	[ʄana]	'yesterday'	In free variation with /dʒ/
Saraiki		ڄاݨݨ	[ʄä̃ːɳəɳ]	'know'
Sindhi		ڄِڀَ	[ʄɪbʱə]^ⓘ	'tongue'
Tunni		[ʄoːɡ]		'to stay'
Wu	Fengxian	家 (cia¹)	[ʄiɑ˥˧]	'domestic'	literary reading

Post-palatal

There is also a voiced post-palatal (or pre-velar) implosive. The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for this sound, but it can be transcribed as ⟨ʄ̠⟩/⟨ʄ˗⟩ or ⟨ɠ̟⟩/⟨ɠ˖⟩.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Ndebele	Northern	sisibekelo	[sisiβɛɠ̟ɛlɔ]	'lid'	Velar before back vowels; 'pre-velar' before front vowels.

Notes

↑ Keer (1999:82)
↑ Orkaydo, Ongaye Oda (2013). A Grammar of Konso. p. 11.
↑ Mc Laughlin (2005:204)
↑ Paster, Mary (2006). Aspects of Maay phonology and morphology. Pomona College.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ Tosco (1997:15)
↑ Zhu, Xiaonong (2006). "內爆音" [On Implosives]. 方言 [Fangyan] (1). Beijing: 16–21.
↑ "吳語學堂" [Wugniu]. 27 February 2024.
1 2 Wilkes, A. (2001). "Northern and Southern Ndebele—Why harmonisation will not work". South African Journal of African Languages. 21 (3–4). doi:10.1080/02572117.2001.10587480. The source mentions it, which will be highlighted here: "The voiced velar implosive phoneme [ɠ] (written as k in the normal orthography as for instance in (7) below) which occurs in no other Nguni language than in Northern Ndebele. It is not known when and where Northern Ndebele has acquired this sound which occurs as a velar implosive before the back vowels /u/, /o/ and /a/ respectively and as a pre-velar implosive /ɠy/ (also written as gy in (7)) before front vowels."

↑ Both indicate a retracted ⟨ʄ⟩.
↑ Both indicate an advanced ⟨ɠ⟩.

References

Connell, Bruce; Ahoua, Firmin; Gibbon, Dafydd (2002), "Ega", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 32 (1): 99–104, doi:10.1017/S002510030200018X(subscription required)
Keer, Edward (1999), Geminates, The OCP and The Nature of CON, Rutgers University
Mc Laughlin, Fiona (2005), "Voiceless implosives in Seereer-Siin", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 35 (2): 201–214, doi:10.1017/S0025100305002215, S2CID 145717014(subscription required)
Tosco, Mauro (1997), Af Tunni: Grammar, texts, and glossary of a southern Somali dialect, Rüdiger Köppe, ISBN 3896450603

External links

List of languages with [ʄ] on PHOIBLE

[1] Keer (1999:82)

[2] Orkaydo, Ongaye Oda (2013). A Grammar of Konso. p. 11.

[3] Mc Laughlin (2005:204)

[4] Paster, Mary (2006). Aspects of Maay phonology and morphology. Pomona College.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

[5] Tosco (1997:15)

[6] Zhu, Xiaonong (2006). "內爆音" [On Implosives]. 方言 [Fangyan] (1). Beijing: 16–21.

[7] "吳語學堂" [Wugniu]. 27 February 2024.

[Ndebele-10] 1 2 Wilkes, A. (2001). "Northern and Southern Ndebele—Why harmonisation will not work". South African Journal of African Languages. 21 (3–4). doi:10.1080/02572117.2001.10587480. The source mentions it, which will be highlighted here: "The voiced velar implosive phoneme [ɠ] (written as k in the normal orthography as for instance in (7) below) which occurs in no other Nguni language than in Northern Ndebele. It is not known when and where Northern Ndebele has acquired this sound which occurs as a velar implosive before the back vowels /u/, /o/ and /a/ respectively and as a pre-velar implosive /ɠy/ (also written as gy in (7)) before front vowels."

[8] Both indicate a retracted ⟨ʄ⟩.

[9] Both indicate an advanced ⟨ɠ⟩.