We propose a picture based on simple percolative concepts for the basic understanding of vibrational properties in the new attractive class of ternary semiconductor alloys made of materials with highly contrasted bond stiffness. In Zn 1--x Be x Se this accounts for the activation of a strong extra BeSe-like optical mode for x between the percolation thresholds of the Be-Se and Zn-Se bonds. Latter mode is attributed to Be-Se bonds within the quasi-continuous Be-rich hard-like cluster which forms above the percolation threshold.Introduction Atomic substitution in alloys A 1--x B x C brings major topological changes at the percolation thresholds of A-C and B-C bonds. These are the critical compositions associated with the first formation of pseudo-continuous wall-to-wall chains of the corresponding bonds, and were identified at x = x B-C % 0.19 and x = x A-C % 0.81 in zinc-blende systems [1]. In usual alloys these major changes do not go with anomalies for the current physical properties because parent materials are chosen similar in nature. Recently the attention turned towards the new attractive class of ternary alloys made from binaries with highly contrasted mechanical properties, and deviations from this simple picture were predicted [1]. Latter class of alloys opens the way for the observation of percolative effects by vibrational spectroscopies since these techniques address directly the force constant of the bonding, which is extremely sensitive to the mechanical properties of the host matrix.Mixed crystal ZnSe-BeSe is such a contrasted system. Vé rié [2] has predicted a highly covalent bonding for BeSe, corresponding to a small lattice parameter of 5.037 A and a high reduced shear modulus C * s of 0.478. The values for ZnSe are 5.669 A and 0.277 [3]. The longitudinal optical (LO) and transverse optical (TO) phonons of Zn 1--x Be x Se were identified by infrared and Raman analysis [4][5][6][7]. Most of Raman spectra were recorded with the 'LO-allowed/TO-forbidden' geometry. At first sight the alloy shows an MREI (modified random-element isodisplacement)-like [8] twomode behavior. This is observed in similarly mismatched alloys ZnS-ZnTe [9] and InAs-GaAs [10]. However, out of the dilute limits ZnBeSe shows an extra mode between the MREI ones [5,6]. This attracted little attention, probably because it is weak and overdamped. It does not result from structural disorder since high quality is evidenced at any x by X-ray diffraction, nor from symmetry breaking due to lattice distortion [11] since it obeys the selection rules [6]. It is an intrinsic feature since it