The voiced palatal approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is j, and in the Americanist phonetic notation it is . Because the English name of the letter J, jay, does not start with , this approximant is sometimes called yod instead, as in the phonological history terms yod-dropping and yod-coalescence.