ʃ is the IPA symbol for the Voiceless Palato-Alveolar Sibilant Fricative, a voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant fricative consonant. It appears in 224 of 500 languages (45% cross-linguistic frequency).
ʃ

Voiceless Palato-Alveolar Sibilant Fricative

Consonant · voiceless

Audio via Wikimedia Commons

Languages using this sound 224 / 500
Cross-linguistic frequency 45%

Moderately common across languages.

Type consonant

Articulation

Every speech sound is defined by three properties: its class (consonant, vowel, or tone), its place of articulation (where in the vocal tract it is formed — lips, teeth, palate, etc.), its manner (how airflow is controlled — stopped, funneled into a fricative, channeled through the nose), and its voicing (whether the vocal cords vibrate during production).

Class
Consonant
Voicing
Voiceless
Place
Palato-alveolar
Manner
Sibilant fricative

Languages using this sound

This sound appears in 224 of the 500 languages in our database. Languages that use a sound only in loanwords or in rare, specialized contexts are marked as marginal (*) — the sound exists but is not a core part of the phonological system. Click any language to view its full sound inventory.

Related sounds