[z]→[ʒ]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 4/5

Voiced alveolar fricative to Voiced postalveolar fricative

The shift from the voiced alveolar fricative [z] to the voiced postalveolar fricative [ʒ] is a form of palatalization, often triggered by a following palatal glide or high front vowel.

Phonetic Effects

Palatalization

Language Examples

English Germanic

as you [z j]→as-zhu [ʒ]— Yod-coalescence in rapid speech.

Portuguese Romance

[z]→[ʒ]— Dialectal palatalization of /z/ in syllable-final position (e.g., in Lisbon or Rio de Janeiro).

Related Transformations

Reverse Voiceless equivalent

More Romance Shifts

[ã] → [õ] — Raising [a] → [ã] — Assimilatory Nasalization [a] → [∅] — Elision [a] → [ʔ] — Glottalization [a] → [ə] — Vowel Reduction

Sources & References

Spotted a mistake or have a better example?

EchoDrift is community-driven. You can suggest a change directly through GitHub.

Propose an Edit on GitHub