The voiced palatal approximant is a type of consonant used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is j, and in the Americanist phonetic notation it is. Because the English name of the letter J, jay, does not start with but with , this approximant is sometimes called yod instead, as in the phonological history terms yod-dropping and yod-coalescence.
Nature of the sound
The palatal approximant can in many cases be considered the semivocalic equivalent of the close front unrounded vowel. The two are almost identical featurally. They alternate with each other in certain languages, such as French, and in the diphthongs of some languages, and with the non-syllabic diacritic are used in different transcription systems to represent the same sound. Some languages, though, have a palatal approximant that is unspecified for rounding, and therefore cannot be considered the semivocalic equivalent of either or its rounded counterpart . An example of such language is Spanish, which distinguishes two palatal approximants: an approximant semivowel, which is always unrounded, and an unspecified for rounding approximant consonant. Eugenio Martínez Celdrán describes the difference between them as follows: He also says that in his opinion, "the IPA shows a lack of precision in the treatment it gives to approximants, if we take into account our understanding of the phonetics of Spanish. and are two different segments, but they have to be labelled as voiced palatal approximant consonants. I think that the former is a real consonant, whereas the latter is a semi-consonant, as it has traditionally been called in Spanish, or a semi-vowel, if preferred. The IPA, though, classifies it as a consonant." There is a parallel problem with transcribing the voiced velar approximant. The symbol may also be used when the palatal approximant is merely an allophone of the voiced palatal fricative as, compared with, it is somewhat more similar to the symbol. The X-SAMPA equivalent of is j\_o. The symbol may not display properly in all browsers. In that case, should be substituted. In the writing systems used for most of the languages of Central, Northern, and Eastern Europe, the letter j denotes the palatal approximant, as in German label=none 'year'. That is followed by IPA although it may be counterintuitive for English speakers. In grammars of Ancient Greek, the palatal approximant, which was lost early in the history of Greek, is sometimes written as . There is also the post-palatal approximant in some languages, which is articulated slightly more back compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical palatal approximant, though not as back as the prototypical velar approximant. It can be considered the semivocalic equivalent of the close central unrounded vowel, and the two are almost identical featurally. The InternationalPhonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, though it can be transcribed as, , or . The equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are j_- and M\_+, respectively. Other possible transcriptions include a centralized , a centralized and a non-syllabic . For the reasons mentioned above and in the article velar approximant, none of these symbols are appropriate for languages such as Spanish, in which the post-palatal approximant consonant appears as an allophone of before front vowels, and is best transcribed, , or . The equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are j\_o_- and G_o_+. Especially in broad transcription, the post-palatal approximant may be transcribed as a palatalized velar approximant.
Features
Features of the voiced palatal approximant: The most common type of this approximant is glide or semivowel. The term glide emphasizes the characteristic of movement of from the vowel position to a following vowel position. The term semivowel emphasizes that, although the sound is vocalic in nature, it is not 'syllabic'. For a description of the approximant consonant variant used e.g. in Spanish, see above. The otherwise identical post-palatal variant is articulated slightly behind the hard palate, making it sound slightly closer to the velar.
