Affricate consonant

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Related
IPA chart affricate consonants
p̪͡f
t͡s
d͡z
t͡ʃ
d͡ʒ
t͡ɕ
d͡ʑ
ʈ͡ʂ
ɖ͡ʐ
b̪͡v
t͡ɬ
d͡ɮ
c͡ç
ɟ͡ʝ
k͡x
q͡χ


Where symbols appear in pairs, left—right represent the voiceless—voiced consonants
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Affricates are consonants that begin as a stop and release as a fricative with the same place of articulation (most often alveolar). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair.[1] English has two affricates, [t͡ʃ] and [d͡ʒ], often spelled ch and j.

Examples

The English sounds spelled "ch" and "j" (transcribed [t͡ʃ] and [d͡ʒ] in IPA), German and Italian z [t͡s] and Italian z [d͡z] are typical affricates. These sounds are fairly common in the world's languages, as are other affricates with similar sounds, such as those in Polish and Chinese. However, other than [d͡ʒ], 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, relatively few languages have affricates in these positions, even though the corresponding stop consonants [p], [k] are virtually universal. Also less common are alveolar affricates where the fricative is lateral, such as the [t͡ɬ] sound found in Nahuatl and Navajo. Some other Athabaskan languages, such as Dene Suline, have unaspirated, aspirated, and ejective series of affricates that may be dental, alveolar, postalveolar, or lateral, that is [t̪͡θ], [t̪͡θʰ], [t̪͡θʼ], [t͡s], [t͡sʰ], [t͡sʼ], [t͡ʃ], [t͡ʃʰ], [t͡ʃʼ], [t͡ɬ], [t͡ɬʰ], and [t͡ɬʼ].

Notation

Affricates are transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet by a combination of two letters, one for the stop element and the other for the fricative element. In order to show that these are parts of a single consonant, a tie bar is generally used. The tie bar appears most commonly above the two letters, but may be placed under them if it fits better there, or simply because this is more legible.[2] Thus:

or

A less common notation is to indicate the release of the affricate with a superscript:

This is derived from the IPA convention of indicating other releases with a superscript. However, this convention is more typically used for a fricated release that is too brief to be considered a true affricate.

Though they are no longer standard IPA, ligatures are available in Unicode for the six common affricates

Any of these notations distinguishes affricates from sequences of stop plus fricative, a difference that distinguishes words in languages such as Polish. However, in languages where there is no such distinction, such as English, the tie bars are commonly dropped.

In other phonetic transcription systems, such as the Americanist system, the affricates [t͡s], [d͡z], [t͡ʃ], [d͡ʒ], [t͡ɬ], [d͡ɮ] are transcribed respectively as ⟨c⟩ or ⟨¢⟩; ⟨j⟩, ⟨ƶ⟩, or (older) ⟨ʒ⟩; ⟨c⟩ or ⟨č⟩; ⟨ǰ⟩, ⟨ǧ⟩, or (older) ⟨ǯ⟩; ⟨ƛ⟩; and ⟨λ⟩ or ⟨dl⟩. 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:

and

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 syllable boundary between the two segments, but not necessarily.

In English, /ts/ and /dz/ (nuts, nods) are considered phonemically stop–fricative sequences because they usually contain a morpheme boundary (for example, nuts = nut + s), but the sounds are phonetically affricates. The English affricate phonemes /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/ are generally not at a morpheme boundary. However, depending on dialect, English speakers do distinguish affricates from stop–fricative sequences:

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

The acoustic difference between affricates and stop–fricative sequences is rate of amplitude increase of the frication noise, which is known as the rise time. Affricates have a short rise time to the peak frication amplitude whereas stop–fricative sequences have longer rise times (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].

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

Sibilant affricates

Voiceless Languages Voiced Languages
Voiceless alveolar affricate
t͡s
 German z, tz
Japanese つ/ツ [tsu͍]
K'iche'
Mandarin z (pinyin)
Pashto		 Voiced alveolar affricate
d͡z
 Japanese (some dialects)
Voiceless dental affricate
t̪͡s̪
 Hungarian c
Italian z
Macedonian ц
Serbo-Croatian c/ц
Polish c		 Voiced dental affricate
d̪͡z̪
 Bulgarian дз
Hungarian dz
Italian z
Macedonian ѕ
Polish dz
Voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate Japanese ち/チ [tɕi]
Mandarin j (pinyin)
Polish ć, ci
Serbo-Croatian ć/ћ
Thai จ		 Voiced alveolo-palatal affricate Japanese じ/ジ, ぢ/ヂ [dʑi]
Polish dź, dzi
Serbo-Croatian đ/ђ
Voiceless postalveolar affricate English ch, tch
French tch
German tsch
Hungarian cs
Italian ci, ce
K'ich'e ch
Spanish ch
 Voiced postalveolar affricate English j, g
French dj
German dsch
Hungarian dzs
Italian gi, ge
Voiceless retroflex affricate Mandarin zh (pinyin)
Polish cz
Serbo-Croatian č/ч
Slovak č		 Voiced retroflex affricate Polish dż
Serbo-Croatian dž/џ
Slovak dž

The Northwest Caucasian languages Abkhaz and Ubykh both contrast sibilant affricates at four places of articulation: alveolar, postalveolar, alveolo-palatal and retroflex. They also distinguish voiceless, voiced, and ejective affricates at each of these.

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

Non-sibilant affricates

Sound (voiceless) IPA Languages Sound (voiced) IPA Languages
Voiceless bilabial affricate [pɸ] Present allophonically in Kaingang and Taos. Not reported as a phoneme in any natural language. Voiced bilabial affricate [bβ] Not attested in any natural language
Voiceless bilabial-labiodental affricate [pf] German, Teke Voiced bilabial-labiodental affricate [bv] Teke
Voiceless labiodental affricate [p̪f] XiNkuna Tsonga Voiced labiodental affricate [b̪v] XiNkuna Tsonga
Voiceless dental non-sibilant affricate [t̪θ] New York English, Luo, Dene Suline, Cun, some varieties of Venetian and other North Italian dialects Voiced dental non-sibilant affricate [d̪ð] New York English, Dene Suline
Voiceless retroflex non-sibilant affricate [tɻ̝̊] Mapudungun , Malagasy Voiced retroflex non-sibilant affricate [dɻ̝] Malagasy
Voiceless palatal affricate [cç] Skolt Sami, Hungarian; allophonically in Kaingang Voiced palatal affricate [ɟʝ] Skolt Sami, Hungarian, some Spanish dialects. Not reported to contrast with a voiced palatal plosive [ɟ]
Voiceless velar affricate [kx] Tswana, High Alemannic German Voiced velar affricate [ɡɣ] Not attested in any natural language
Voiceless uvular affricate [qχ] Nez Percé, Wolof, Bats, Kabardian, Avar, Tsez. Not reported to contrast with a voiceless uvular plosive [q] in natural languages. Voiced uvular affricate [ɢʁ]
Voiceless epiglottal affricate [ʡ̥ʜ] Haida. Not reported to contrast with an epiglottal stop [ʡ] Voiced epiglottal affricate [ʡ̬ʢ]

Lateral affricates

Sound IPA Languages
Voiceless alveolar lateral affricate [tɬ] Cherokee, Nahuatl, Navajo, Tswana, etc.
Voiced alveolar lateral affricate [dɮ] Gwich'in, Sandawe. Not reported to ever contrast with a voiced alveolar lateral fricative [ɮ].
Voiceless palatal lateral affricate [cʎ̥˔] also ⟨c⟩; as ejective [cʎ̥˔ʼ] = [cʼ] in Dahalo; as [tʎ̥˔] = [t] in Hadza.
Voiceless velar lateral affricate [kʟ̝̊] also ⟨k⟩; as a prevelar in Archi and as an ejective [kʟ̝̊ʼ] = [kʼ] in Zulu, also exist in the Laghuu language.
Voiced velar lateral affricate [ɡʟ̝] Laghuu.

Trilled affricates

Main article: Trilled affricate
Sound IPA Languages
Voiced prenasalized trilled bilabial affricate [mbʙ] Kele and Avava
Voiceless dental bilabially trilled affricate [t̪ʙ̥] Wari’
Voiced prenasalized trilled alveolar affricate [ndr] Fijian and Avava
Voiceless alveolar trilled affricate [tʳ] Ngkoth
Voiced alveolar trilled affricate [dʳ] Nias

Heterorganic affricates

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

Phonation, coarticulation and other variants

The more common of the voiceless affricates are all attested as ejectives 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 aspirated: [ɱp̪fʰ, tθʰ, tsʰ, tɬʰ, tʃʰ, tɕʰ, tʂʰ], occasionally murmured: [ɱb̪vʱ, d̠ʒʱ], and sometimes prenasalized: [ⁿdz, ⁿdzʱ, ᶯɖʐ, ᶯɖʐʱ]. Labialized, palatalized, velarized, and pharyngealized affricates also occur. Affricates may also have phonemic length, that is, affected by a chroneme, as in Italian and Karelian.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Peter Roach, Engelish Phonetics and Phonology Glassary, 2009
  2. ↑ For example, in Niesler, Louw, & Roux (2005) Phonetic analysis of Afrikaans, English, Xhosa and Zulu using South African speech databases
  • Hoijer, Harry; & Opler, Morris E. (1938). Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache texts. The University of Chicago publications in anthropology; Linguistic series. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Howell Peter; & Rosen, Stuart. (1983). Production and perception of rise time in the voiceless affricate/fricative distinction. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 73 (3), 976–984.
  • Johnson, Keith. (2003). Acoustic & auditory phonetics (2nd ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
  • Maddieson, Ian. (1984). Patterns of sounds. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-26536-3
  • McDonough, Joyce; & Ladefoged, Peter. (1993). Navajo stops. UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics, 84, 151–164.
  • Mitani, Shigeki; Kitama, Toshihiro; & Sato, Yu. (2006). Voiceless affricate/fricative distinction by frication duration and amplitude rise slope. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 120 (3), 1600–1607.

External links