Palatal approximant
This is the Palatal Glide/Approximant. It is also used as a semi-vowel, equivalent to the high front vowels /i/ or /ɪ/. It is often written in diphthongs for this reason. Thus /ai/ or /aɪ/ are similar or the same as /aj/. It is comes from Germanic languages that use j for /j/.
| j | |
|---|---|
| Pulmonic Consonant | |
| IPA: | j |
| X-SAMPA: | j |
| Kirshenbaum: | j |
| Place of Articulation: | Palatal |
| Manner of Articulation: | Approximant |
| Phonological features: |
[+consonantal] |
Natlangs
Germanic Languages
English
Anglo-Saxon
In Anglo-Saxon, the Glide is represented by the symbol Ȝ, ȝ (called yogh /jox/) and/or G, g around a front vowel. Thus, gear is /jæar/. It was even used in the formation of diphthongs, so thus dæg is often pronounced like the modern Australian form /daj/. A common grammatical prefix was ge- /yə-/, used to indicate the past tense.
Middle English
The symbol Ȝ was still used well into the Middle English era, and Y, y was beginning to be pronounced /i/ or /ɪ/. It was also used along with I, i to form some diphthongs. The prefix in Anglo-Saxon merged into y- but was pronounced /i-/ or /ji-/ depending on dialect.
Modern English
In all forms of Modern English, Y, y is used as the glide and occasionally as the diphthong. Thus year /yiɹ/ as a glide, and day /dej/ as the diphthong.
High German
In High German, the symbol used for this symbol is J, j. The word Jäger is pronounced /yegər/. For diphthongs different symbols are used. For /oj/, eu or äu is used, and for /aj/, ei or occasionally ai is used.
Japanese
| Plain | や, よ, ゆ (ya, yo, yu) | 四, /jon/ |
Conlangs
Toki Pona
| Plain | j | jelo “yellow” |
Etimri
| Plain | j | jof (fem) and jod (masc) “gross” |
Sources
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