Palatal fricatives /ʃ/ and /ʒ/

 

Palatal fricatives /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ 

The 'sh’ sound /ʃ/ is unvoiced, and is the counterpart to the voiced /ʒ/. Both are fricatives. To create /ʃ/ and its voiced counterpart /ʒ/, the sides of the tongue touch the sides of upper teeth. The tip of the tongue does not touch anything. The blade of the tongue is concave. Air is forced between a wide groove in the center of the tongue and the palatal area. The lips are kept slightly tense, and may protrude somewhat during the production of the sounds. To say /ʒ/, additionally, voice the vocal cord.

Words with /ʃ/

Many letters can make the /ʃ/ sound: SH, SS, TI, CI, CEA, CH and X. These are words with the /ʃ/ sound. 

With "sh": 

she, show, wish, push, fashion, publisher, relationship

With "ss": 

assure, commission, discussion, expression, issue, tissue, mission, pressure, profession 

With "ci": 

efficient, musician, racial, special, facial

With "cea":

  ocean

With "ch":

machine

With "ti": 

action, education, function, partial, patience, rational, substantial

With "x": 

anxious, complexion (The letter ‘x’ in these words is pronounced with two sounds:/kʃ/.)

Words with /ʒ/ 

French origin words

/ʒ/ is a French sound and is rare in English. So words derived from French often have the /ʒ/ sound: 

beige, rouge, barrage, deluge, mirage, collage, genre, lingerie, garage 

 

Some of these French-ogin words can be pronounced with the rather mundane /ʤ/ instead of /ʒ/. For instance, many Americans say garage with /ʤ/. 

 

These are some more words with /ʒ/ sound:

luxury, Asian, Persian, equation, amnesia, seizure, sabotage

Word endings with -SION, -SUAL, -SURE 

measure, pleasure, leisure, exposure 

usual, visual, usually, unusual, luxury

Words that end with ‘sion’ also are pronounced with /ʒ/.

vision, television, version, conclusion, confusion, division, provision, lesion, allusion

 

Notice that, in the following, when the verb form changes to the noun form with the -SION ending, the ‘S’ sound changes from /z/ to /ʒ/. 

 

From /z/ to /ʒ/

confuse, confusion

transfuse, transfusion

revise, revision

supervise, supervision