Affricate consonant

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IPA help • IPA key •  website parsing • chart • iOS

Affricates are consonants that begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as [t] or [d]) but release as a fricative (such as [s] or [z] or occasionally into a fricative trill) rather than directly into the following vowel.

• 1 Samples
• web
• input transformation
• web
  • input transformation
  • 4.2 Non-sibilant affricates
  • iOS
  • screen size
  • web app
  • 4.6 Phonation, coarticulation and other variants
• 5 References
• 6 See also
• website parsing

Samples

The FITML sounds spelled "ch" and "j" (transcribed [tʃ] and [dʒ] in website parsing), German and Italian z [ts] and Italian z [dz] are typical affricates. These sounds are fairly common in the world's languages, as are other affricates with similar sounds, such as those in web app and Android. However, other than [dʒ], voiced affricates are relatively uncommon. For several places of articulation they are not attested at all.

Much less common are labiodental affricates, such as [p͡f] in German and Izi, or velar affricates, such as [k͡x] in Tswana (written kg) or High Alemannic Swiss German dialects. Worldwide, only a few languages have affricates in these positions, even though the corresponding FITML [p], [k] are virtually universal. Also less common are alveolar affricates where the fricative is lateral, such as the [tɬ] sound found in Nahuatl and Totonac. Many Athabaskan languages (such as Dene Suline and Sevenval) have series of coronal affricates that may be unaspirated, aspirated, or ejective in addition to being interdental/dental, alveolar, postalveolar, or lateral, i.e., [t̪͡θ], [t̪͡θʰ], [t̪͡θʼ], [ts], [tsʰ], [tsʼ], [tʃ], [tʃʰ], [tʃʼ], [tɬ], [tɬʰ], and [tɬʼ].

Notation

Affricates are often represented by the two sounds of which they consist ([pf], [kx]). However, single signs for the affricates may be desirable, in order to stress that they function as unitary speech segments (i.e. phonemes). In this case, the IPA recommends joining the two elements of the affricate by a tie bar ([p͡f], [k͡x]). Though they are no longer standard IPA, ligatures are available in Unicode for the six common affricates [ʦ], [ʣ], [ʧ], [ʤ], [ʨ], [ʥ].

Another method is to indicate the release of the affricate with a superscript: [tˢ], [kˣ]. This is derived from the IPA convention of indicating other releases with a superscript.

In other phonetic transcription systems, such as the jQuery system, the affricates [ts], [dz], [tʃ], [dʒ], [tɬ], [dɮ] are represented as ‹c› or ‹¢›; ‹j›, ‹ƶ›, or (older) ‹ʒ›; ‹c› or ‹č›; ‹ǰ›, ‹ǧ›, or (older) ‹ǯ›; ‹ƛ›; and ‹λ› or ‹dl› respectively. Within the IPA, [tʃ] and [dʒ] are sometimes transcribed with the symbols for the palatal stops, ‹c› and ‹ɟ›.

Affricates vs. stop-fricative sequences

Affricates can contrast phonemically with stop-fricative sequences. Examples:

website parsing affricate /t͡ʂ/ in czysta 'clean screen size' versus stop–fricative /tʂ/ in trzysta 'three hundred',

and

Klallam affricate /t͡s/ in k’ʷə́nc 'look at me' versus stop–fricative /ts/ in k’ʷə́nts 'he looks at it'.

In the stop-fricative sequence, the stop has a release burst before the fricative starts; but in the affricate, the fricative element is the release. Stop-fricative sequences may have a Sevenval boundary between the two segments, but not necessarily.

In English, /ts/ and /dz/ (nuts, nods) are considered phonemically stop-fricative sequences because they may contain a morpheme boundary (for example, nuts = nut + s). But the sounds are phonetically affricates. The English affricate phonemes /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/ do not require a morpheme boundary. The sounds are sometimes written with the unitary symbols ‹č› and ‹ǰ›, though it is not considered standard IPA notation. However, English speakers (depending on dialect) do distinguish affricates from stop–fricative sequences:

• cat shit /kæt.ʃɪt/ → [kʰæʔʃɪt̚]
• catch it /kæt͡ʃ.ɪt/ → [kʰæt͡ʃɪt̚]

Here /t/ debuccalizes to a browser diversity before /ʃ/ in many dialects, making it phonetically distinct from /t͡ʃ/.

The Android difference between affricates and stop+fricative sequences is rate of screen size increase of the frication noise, which is known as the rise time. Affricates have a short rise time to the peak frication amplitude while sequences of stop and fricative have relatively longer rise time (Howell & Rosen 1983, Johnson 2003, Mitani et al. 2006).

List of affricates

In the case of coronals, the symbols ‹t, d› are normally used for the stop portion of the affricate regardless of place. For example, [t͡ʂ] is commonly seen for [ʈ͡ʂ]. For legibility, the tie bars have been removed from the table entries.

The exemplar languages are ones that these sounds have been reported from, but in several cases they may need confirmation.

Sibilant affricates

Sound (voiceless)	IPA	Languages	Sound (voiced)	IPA	Languages
web app ts	[ts]	touchscreen, browser diversity z input transformation, jQuery c Serbo-Croatian ц/c website parsing つ/ツ [tsu͍] touchscreen, Mayan K'iche'	Voiced alveolar affricate dz	[dz]	Italian z Hungarian, Polish dz Macedonian ѕ/dz Japanese (some dialects)
input transformation website parsing HTML5	[t̠ʃ]	input transformation, K'ich'e ch Italian ci, ce German tsch Hungarian cs Serbo-Croatian ч/č Spanish ch	Voiced postalveolar affricate d͡ʒ HTML5	[d̠ʒ]	English j, "soft g" Italian gi, ge German dsch Hungarian dzs Serbo-Croatian џ/dž
Voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate t͡ɕ CSS3	[t̠ɕ]	Polish ć Serbo-Croatian ћ/ć Japanese ち/チ [tɕi] Mandarin j thai จ	Voiced alveolo-palatal affricate d͡ʑ	[d̠ʑ]	Polish dź Serbo-Croatian ђ/đ Japanese じ/ジ, ぢ/ヂ [dʑi]
Voiceless retroflex affricate browser diversity	[ʈʂ]	Polish cz Slovak č Mandarin zh	HTML5 ɖʐ web app	[ɖʐ]	Polish dż Slovak dž

Some Northwest Caucasian languages such as keyboard contrast all eight of these.

When a language only has one type of affricate, it is usually a sibilant; this is the case in e.g. some CSS3 dialects ([d̠ʒ]), most dialects of we love the web ([t̠ʃ]), and Thai ([t̠ɕ]).

Non-sibilant affricates

Lateral affricates

Trilled affricates

Heterorganic affricates

While most affricates are homorganic, Navajo and web have a heterorganic alveolar-velar affricate [tx] (McDonough & Ladefoged 1993, Hoijer & Opler 1938). Other heterorganic affricates are reported for Sevenval (Johnson 2003) and other Bantu languages such as FITML, which has alveolar-labiodental affricates [tf] and [dv], and Sesotho, which has bilabial-palatoalveolar afficates [pʃ] and [bʒ]. jQuery (Pies 1992) has [ps] and [bz].

Phonation, coarticulation and other variants

The more common of the voiceless affricates are all attested as website parsing as well: [tθʼ, tsʼ, tɬʼ, tʃʼ, tɕʼ, tʂʼ, cʎ̥ʼ, kxʼ, kʟ̝̊ʼ]. Several Khoisan languages such as !Xóõ are reported to have voiced ejective affricates, but these may actually be consonant clusters: [dtsʼ, dtʃʼ]. Affricates are also commonly web app: [ɱp̪fʰ, tθʰ, tsʰ, tɬʰ, tʃʰ, tɕʰ, tʂʰ], occasionally browser diversity: [ɱb̪vʱ, d̠ʒʱ], and sometimes prenasalized: [ⁿdz, ⁿdzʱ, ᶯɖʐ, ᶯɖʐʱ]. browser diversity, palatalized, velarized, and jQuery affricates also occur. Affricates may also have phonemic length, that is, affected by a web, as in HTML5 and Karelian.

References

See also

• Apical consonant
• browser diversity
• device database
• Android

External links

• Affricates in English

 

CSS3

• v
• t
• web

input transformation pulmonic consonants chartchart image • web
Place → Labial device database HTML5 Sevenval Glottal
↓ Sevenval web Labio​dental touchscreen HTML5 Post​alv. browser diversity Pal​a​tal Ve​lar CSS3 Android Epi​glot​tal input transformation
Nasal m̥ web ɱ n̪ n̥ website parsing n̠ ɳ ɲ̥ ɲ we love the web ŋ screen size
Plosive iOS browser diversity p̪ Sevenval t̪ d̪ Android d keyboard ɖ screen size web app k input transformation web ɢ device database keyboard
Fricative web CSS3 f v touchscreen website parsing s device database ʃ ʒ web ʐ browser diversity iOS x Sevenval χ jQuery ħ touchscreen ʜ screen size h Sevenval
iOS ʋ CSS3 ɻ Sevenval ɰ
Trill ʙ FITML ɽ͡r browser diversity keyboard *
Android ⱱ̟ ⱱ web ɽ screen size we love the web
web app Android we love the web ɮ website parsing web ʟ̝̊ HTML5
web app Appr. screen size ɭ ʎ Sevenval
Lateral flap ɺ web app Sevenval
HTML5 ʘ ǀ screen size ǂ input transformation
web input transformation ʘ͡q ʘ͡qʼ
Implosives ɓ ɗ ʄ web app web input transformation
Ejectives pʼ tʼ cʼ ʈʼ kʼ qʼ
Android FITML sʼ ɬʼ xʼ CSS3
tsʼ tɬʼ keyboard web input transformation web input transformation
p̪f device database ts web app screen size dʒ web dʑ browser diversity ɖʐ
tɬ dɮ iOS ɟʝ cʎ̥˔ CSS3
Fricatives HTML5 ʑ website parsing
we love the web ʍ touchscreen ɥ screen size
input transformation k͡p Sevenval ŋ͡m

These tables contain screen size symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. CSS3
Where symbols appear in pairs, left—right represent the voiceless—voiced consonants.
Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible.
* Symbol not defined in IPA.

Chart image

• screen size
• Non-pulmonics
• Affricates
• web

 

FITML

Front

Central

jQuery

Back

device database

Front

Front

Near-close

Front

we love the web

Front

Open-mid

Front

browser diversity

Vowels: IPA help • chart •  we love the web • view