Voiced alveolo-palatal fricative

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The voiced alveolo-palatal fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ʑ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is z. The closest representation in English is a voiced postalveolar fricative as in the word Asia

Features

Features of the voiced alveolo-palatal fricative:

Its manner of articulation is sibilant fricative, which means it is produced by directing air flow through a groove in the tongue at the place of articulation and directing it over the sharp edge of the teeth, causing high-frequency turbulence.
Its place of articulation is alveolo-palatal, that is, palatalized laminal postalveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue raised toward the palate.
Its phonation type is voiced, which means the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation.
It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz	ажьа	[aˈʑa]	'the hare'
Catalan	ajut	?	'help'	See Catalan phonology
Japanese	火事/kaji	[kaʑi]	'fire'	Found in free variation with [dʲʑ] between vowels. See Japanese phonology
Kabardian	лIыжь''	[ɬʼɪʑ]	'old man'
Polish	źrebię		'foal'	Also denoted by the digraph . See Polish phonology
Russian	езжу	[ˈjeʑːu]	'I drive'	Most speakers. Usually written <жж> or <зж>. See Russian phonology