Palatal fricative

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A palatal fricative is a type of fricative consonant that is also a palatal consonant. The two main types of palatal fricatives are:

• voiceless palatal fricative ({{IPA|[ç]}})
• voiced palatal fricative ({{IPA|[ʝ]}})

They are produced with the friction of the dorsum of the tongue against the hard palate.{{Cite book|last=Fromkin, Victoria|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1043382090|title=An introduction to language|others=Rodman, Robert, Hyams, Nina, 1952-|date=January 2018|isbn=978-1-337-55957-7|edition=Eleventh|location=Boston, MA|oclc=1043382090}} In some dialects of English, {{IPA|[ç]}} acts as an allophone for /hj/,{{cite book | last=Cox | first=Felicity | last2=Fletcher | first2=Janet | title=Australian English pronunciation and transcription | publisher=Cambridge University Press | publication-place=Port Melbourne, Vic. | date=2017 | isbn=978-1-316-63926-9 | oclc=974647851}} p. 159{{cite book | last=Roach | first=Peter | title=English phonetics and phonology : a practical course | publication-place=Cambridge | date=2009 | isbn=978-0-521-71740-3 | oclc=268793192}} p. 43{{citation|last=Wells|first=John C|author-link=John C. Wells|access-date=2016-03-13|title=A huge query|work=John Wells's phonetic blog|url=http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/blog0901.htm|date=2009-01-29}} and some loanwords may start with {{IPA|[ʝ]}}.

Phonemic palatal fricatives are decently rare, especially the voiced palatal fricative. They occur more often as allophones (such as in German, where [ç] is an allophone of the voiceless velar fricative after consonants and front vowels{{cite book |last=Benware |first=Wilbur A |title=Phonetics and phonology of modern German: an introduction |publisher=Georgetown University Press |publication-place=Washington, D.C. |date=1986 |isbn=978-0-87840-193-2}} p. 42), or as alternative realizations of the voiced palatal approximant.