Actually, an interesting thing to note is that although those consonants are distinguished, there aren't actually any minimal pairs that use this distinction.
1. standard chinese is based on the beijing dialect of mandarin
2. the point is that your alphabet doesn't work with one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world. one-eighth of humanity cannot make use of this supposedly universal script
there's actually a language that distinguishes retroflex and palatal sibilants. you might have heard of it, it's called **standard chinese**
and polish
ś ź ć dź - sz ż cz dż
Actually, an interesting thing to note is that although those consonants are distinguished, there aren't actually any minimal pairs that use this distinction.
Cantonese doesn't have any retroflex or palatal sibilants.
1. standard chinese is based on the beijing dialect of mandarin 2. the point is that your alphabet doesn't work with one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world. one-eighth of humanity cannot make use of this supposedly universal script
Sooo, this obviously doesn't work for IPA as multiple sounds have the same glyph which defeats the entire point of the IPA.
It also looks completely arbitrary as to what sounds do get their own symbols and which are lumped in with others
I hate it.
There is a language that distinguishes retroflex and palatal sibilants: Mandarin Chinese.