How these sounds differ
ʃ
Voiceless Palato-Alveolar Sibilant Fricative
- Voicing
- voiceless
- Place
- palato-alveolar
- Manner
- sibilant fricative
- Class
- consonant
- In languages
- 224 / 500
ʒ
Voiced Palato-Alveolar Sibilant Fricative
- Voicing
- voiced
- Place
- palato-alveolar
- Manner
- sibilant fricative
- Class
- consonant
- In languages
- 88 / 500
Cross-linguistic distribution
224
Languages with ʃ
82
Languages with both
88
Languages with ʒ
82 languages in our database contrast both sounds as distinct phonemes. Languages that have one but not the other tend to merge them into a single phoneme — meaning speakers of those languages often struggle to hear the distinction when learning a language that contrasts them.
Has ʃ, not ʒ (20)
KANAKURU
Afro-Asiatic
Goajiro
Arawakan
Chacobo
Pano-Tacanan
Maasai
Nilotic
Totonac
Totonacan
Lahu
Sino-Tibetan
SIERRA MIWOK
Miwok-Costanoan
Zoque
Mixe-Zoque
JINGPHO
Sino-Tibetan
Karok
Language isolate
Wapishana
Arawakan
KULLO
Ta-Ne-Omotic
ASHUSLAY
Mataguayan
MURSI
Surmic
LUNGCHOW
Tai-Kadai
Awiya
Afro-Asiatic
Moxo
Arawakan
NONI
Atlantic-Congo
MUINANE
Boran
Chipewyan
Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit