The voiced palatal implosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʄ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is J\_<. Typographically, the IPA symbol is a dotless lowercase letter j with a horizontal stroke (the symbol for the voiced palatal stop) and a rightward hook (the diacritic for implosives). A very similar looking letter, ⟨ƒ⟩ (an ⟨f⟩ with a tail), is used in Ewe for /ɸ/.

Features

Features of the voiced palatal implosive:

• Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is a plosive.
• Its place of articulation is palatal, which means it is articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised to the hard palate.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is implosive (glottalic ingressive), which means it is produced by pulling air in by pumping the glottis downward. Since it is voiced, the glottis is not completely closed, but allows a pulmonic airstream to escape through it.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Ega[1]		[ʄè]		'swear'
Fula[2]		[ʄetugol]		'to take'
Serer[3]		ʃaar	[ʄaaɾ]	'to have ringworm'	Contrasts phonemically with voiceless implosive
Swahili		jana	[ʄana]	'yesterday'	In free variation with /dʒ/
Saraiki		ڄاݨݨ	[ʄɑ̃ɽəɳ]	'know'
Sindhi		ڄِڀَ	[ʄɪbʱə] (help·info)	'tongue'
Tunni[4]		[ʄoːɡ]		'to stay'