Editing Postalveolar consonant (section)

===Examples===
A few languages distinguish three different postalveolar sibilant tongue shapes ({{IPA|/ʂ/ /ʃ/ /ɕ/}}) such as the [[Sino-Tibetan languages|Sino-Tibetan]] [[Northern Qiang]] and [[Southern Qiang]], which make such a distinction among [[affricate]]s (but only a two-way distinction among [[fricative]]s) and the [[Northwest Caucasian languages]] [[Ubykh language|Ubykh]] (now extinct) and [[Abkhaz language|Abkhaz]]. More common are languages such as [[Mandarin Chinese]] and [[Polish language|Polish]], which distinguish two postalveolar [[sibilants]], typically {{IPA|/ʂ/ /ɕ/}} since they are maximally distinct.

The attested possibilities, with exemplar languages, are as follows. IPA diacritics are simplified, and some articulations would require two diacritics to be fully specified, but only one is used to keep the results legible without the need for [[OpenType]] IPA fonts. Also, [[Peter Ladefoged]], whose notation is used here, has resurrected an obsolete IPA symbol, the under dot, to indicate the apical postalveolar, which is normally included in the category of [[retroflex consonant]]s. The notation {{IPA|s̠, ṣ}} is sometimes reversed, and either may also be called 'retroflex' and written {{IPA|ʂ}}.

<!-- Note: Ladefoged is inconsistent in his sub-dot and sub-bar notation, especially between stops and fricatives. This table follows his verbal descriptions and his notation for stops as well as for the fricatives of Ubyx, which was mistakenly placed in the same row as Chinese and Polish in table 5.7 of SOWL, perhaps because of that ambiguity. -->
{|
! IPA !! Place of articulation !! Exemplifying languages
|-
| <big> {{IPA|[s̠&nbsp;z̠]}}</big> || laminal flat postalveolar (laminal retroflex) || [[Polish language|Polish]] ''sz, rz, cz, dż'', [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]] ''sh, zh, ch''
|-
| <big> {{IPA|[ṣ&nbsp;ẓ]}}</big> || apical postalveolar (apical retroflex) || [[Ubykh language|Ubykh]], [[Toda language|Toda]]
|-
| <big> {{IPA|[ʃ&nbsp;ʒ]}}</big> || domed postalveolar (palato-alveolar) || [[English language|English]] ''sh, zh'' (may be either laminal or apical)
|-
| <big> {{IPA|[ʃ̻&nbsp;ʒ̻]}}</big> || laminal domed postalveolar || Toda
|-
| <big> {{IPA|[ɕ&nbsp;ʑ]}}</big> || laminal palatalized postalveolar (alveolo-palatal) || Mandarin ''q, j, x'', Polish ''ć, ś, ź, dź'', Ubykh
|-
| <big> {{IPA|[ʆ&nbsp;ʓ]}}</big> || laminal closed postalveolar || Ubykh
|-
| <big> {{IPA|[ʂ&nbsp;ʐ]}}</big> || subapical postalveolar or palatal (subapical retroflex) || Toda
|}