Editing Postalveolar consonant (section)

===Tongue shape===
The main distinction is the shape of the tongue, which corresponds to differing degrees of [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalization]] (raising of the body of the tongue). From least to most palatalized, they are ''[[retroflex consonant|retroflex]]'' (such as {{IPA|[ʂ ʐ]}}, unpalatalized); ''[[palato-alveolar consonant|palato-alveolar]]'' (such as {{IPA|[ʃ ʒ]}}, weakly palatalized); and ''[[alveolo-palatal consonant|alveolo-palatal]]'' (such as {{IPA|[ɕ ʑ]}}, strongly palatalized). The increasing palatalization corresponds to progressively higher-pitched and sharper-sounding consonants.

Less technically, the retroflex consonant {{IPA|[ʂ]}} sounds somewhat like a mixture between the regular English {{IPA|[ʃ]}} of "ship" and the "h" at the beginning of "heard", especially when it is pronounced forcefully and with a strong [[rhoticity in English|American "r"]]. The alveolo-palatal consonant {{IPA|[ɕ]}} sounds like a strongly palatalized version of {{IPA|[ʃ]}}, somewhat like "nourish you".

The following table shows the three types of postalveolar sibilant fricatives defined in the IPA:

{| class=wikitable
|+IPA transcription of postalveolar sibilants
|-
! colspan=6 | Voiceless
! colspan=6 | Voiced
|-
! rowspan=2 | IPA
! rowspan=2 | Description
! colspan=4 | Example
! rowspan=2 | IPA
! rowspan=2 | Description
! colspan=4 | Example
|-
! Language
! Orthography
! IPA
! Meaning
! Language
! Orthography
! IPA
! Meaning
|-
! {{IPA|ʃ}}
| [[Voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant]]
| [[English language|English]]
| '''sh'''in
| {{IPA|['''ʃ'''ɪn]}}
| shin
! {{IPA|ʒ}}
| [[Voiced palato-alveolar sibilant]]
| [[English language|English]]
| vi'''s'''ion
| {{IPA|[vɪ'''ʒ'''ən]}}
| vision
|-
! {{IPA|ɕ}}
| [[Voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant]]
| [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]]
| 小 ('''x'''iǎo)
| {{IPA|[}}'''{{IPA|ɕ}}'''{{IPA|iɑu˨˩˦]}}
| small
! {{IPA|ʑ}}
| [[Voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant]]
| [[Polish language|Polish]]
| '''zi'''oło
| {{IPA|[}}'''{{IPA|ʑ}}'''{{IPA|ɔwɔ]}}
| herb
|-
|- style="height:4em"
! {{IPA|ʂ}}
| [[voiceless retroflex sibilant]]
| [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]]
| 上海 ('''Sh'''ànghǎi)
| {{IPA|[}}'''{{IPA|ʂ}}'''{{IPA|ɑ̂ŋ.xàɪ]}}
| Shanghai
! {{IPA|ʐ}}
| [[voiced retroflex sibilant]]
| [[Russian language|Russian]]<br>[[Polish language|Polish]]
| '''ж'''аба ('''''ž'''aba'')
[[Polish orthography|'''ż'''aba]]
| {{IPA|[}}'''{{IPA|ʐ}}'''{{IPA|abə]}}
{{IPA|[}}'''{{IPA|ʐ}}'''{{IPA|aba]}}
| toad<br>frog
|-
|}