Voiceless alveolar affricate

A voiceless alveolar affricate is a type of affricate consonant pronounced with the tip or blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (gum line) just behind the teeth. There are several types with significant perceptual differences:

• The voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate Template:IPA is the most common type, similar to the ts in English cats.
• The voiceless alveolar non-sibilant affricate Template:IPA or Template:IPA, using the alveolar diacritic from the Extended IPA, is somewhat similar to the th in some pronunciations of English eighth. It is found as a regional realization of the sequence Template:IPA in some Sicilian dialects of Standard Italian.
• The voiceless alveolar lateral affricate Template:IPA is found in certain languages, such as Cherokee, Mexican Spanish, and Nahuatl.
• The voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant affricate Template:IPA, also called apico-alveolar or grave, has a weak hushing sound reminiscent of Template:Lcons affricates. One language in which it is found is Basque, where it contrasts with a more conventional non-retracted laminal alveolar affricate.

This article discusses the first two.

Voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate

A voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with Template:Angbr IPA or Template:Angbr IPA (formerly with Template:Angbr IPA or Template:Angbr IPA). A voiceless alveolar affricate occurs in many Indo-European languages, such as German (which was also part of the High German consonant shift), Kashmiri, Marathi, Pashto, Russian and most other Slavic languages such as Polish and Serbo-Croatian; also, among many others, in Georgian, in Mongolia, and Tibetan Sanskrit, in Japanese, in Mandarin Chinese, and in Cantonese. Some international auxiliary languages, such as Esperanto, Ido and Interlingua also include this sound.

Features

Features of a voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate:

• The stop component of this affricate is laminal alveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge. For simplicity, this affricate is usually called after the sibilant fricative component.
• There are at least three specific variants of the fricative component:
  • Dentalized laminal alveolar (commonly called "dental"), which means it is articulated with the tongue blade very close to the upper front teeth, with the tongue tip resting behind lower front teeth. The hissing effect in this variety of Template:IPA is very strong.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt, cited in Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
  • Non-retracted alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
  • Retracted alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue slightly behind the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal. Acoustically, it is close to Template:IPAblink or laminal Template:IPAblink.

Occurrence

The following sections are named after the fricative component.

Variable

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
German	StandardTemplate:Sfnp	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'time'	The fricative component varies between dentalized laminal, non-retracted laminal and non-retracted apical.Template:Sfnp See Standard German phonology
Italian	StandardTemplate:Sfnp	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'grace'	The fricative component varies between dentalized laminal and non-retracted apical. In the latter case, the stop component is laminal denti-alveolar.Template:Sfnp See Italian phonology

Dentalized laminal alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Armenian	EasternTemplate:Sfnp	Template:Lang/canc	Template:Audio-IPA	'net'	Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms
Basque<ref name="hualde">Template:Harvcoltxt. Although this paper discusses mainly the Goizueta dialect, the authors state that it has "a typical, conservative consonant inventory for a Basque variety".</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'cold'	Contrasts with a sibilant affricate with an apical fricative component.<ref name="hualde"/>
BelarusianTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang/cötka	Template:IPA	'aunt'	Contrasting palatalization. See Belarusian phonology
BulgarianTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang/car	Template:IPA	'Tsar'	See Bulgarian phonology
Chinese	MandarinTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp	Template:LangTemplate:\Template:Tlit	Template:Nowrap	'breakfast'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Standard Chinese phonology
	Cantonese	Template:LangTemplate:\Template:Tlit	Template:IPA	'breakfast'	See Cantonese phonology
CzechTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'what'	See Czech phonology
HungarianTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'kitten'	See Hungarian phonology
Japanese		Template:LangTemplate:\tsunami	Template:Nowrap	'Tsunami'	Allophone of Template:IPA before Template:IPA. See Japanese phonology
		Template:Lang/mottsarera	Template:Nowrap	'mozzarella'	May appear before other vowels in loanwords. See Japanese phonology
Kashmiri		ژاس/cás	Template:IPA	'cough'
Kashubian<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>		Template:Example needed
KazakhTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang/investitsiya	Template:IPA	'price'	Only in loanwords from RussianTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp See Kazakh phonology and Kyrgyz phonology
KyrgyzTemplate:Sfnp
LatvianTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'price'	See Latvian phonology
MacedonianTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang/cvet	Template:IPA	'flower'	See Macedonian phonology
Pashto		Template:Lang/śalor	Template:IPA	'four'	See Pashto phonology
PolishTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang	Template:Audio-IPA	'what'	See Polish phonology
Romanian<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'price'	See Romanian phonology
RussianTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang/caŕ	Template:IPA	'Tsar'	See Russian phonology
Serbo-CroatianTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang / Template:Lang / ڄیڵ	Template:IPA	'target'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'emperor'	See Slovak phonology
SloveneTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'bloom'	See Slovene phonology
Spanish	Andalusian<ref>Template:Cite conference</ref>	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'rest'	See Andalusian Spanish
Tyap		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'to begin'
Ukrainian<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>		Template:Lang/cej	Template:IPA	'this one'	Contrasting palatalization. See Ukrainian phonology
Upper SorbianTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'onion'
UzbekTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Example needed

Non-retracted alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Arabic	NajdiTemplate:Sfnp	Template:Lang/tsalb	Template:IPA	'dog'	Corresponds to Template:IPA and Template:IPA in other dialects
Asturian	Some dialects<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'eight'	Corresponds to standard Template:IPA
	Ḷḷena, Mieres, and others	ḷḷuna	Template:IPA	'moon'	Alveolar realization of che vaqueira instead of normal retroflex Template:IPAblink
Basque<ref name="hualde"/>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'sound'	The fricative component is apical. Contrasts with a laminal affricate with a dentalized fricative component.<ref name="hualde"/>
Blackfoot<ref name="NL-guide">Template:Cite web</ref>		Template:Lang / Template:Transliteration	Template:IPA	'original person' or 'Blackfoot Person'
CatalanTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'maybe'	The fricative component is apical. Only restricted to morpheme boundaries, some linguistics do not consider it a phoneme (but a sequence of Template:IPA + Template:IPA). Long and short versions of intervocalic affricates are in free variation in Central Catalan Template:IPA ~ Template:IPA. See Catalan phonology
Central Alaskan Yup'ikTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'four'	Allophone of Template:IPA before schwa
ChamorroTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'Chamorro'	Spelled Template:Lang in the orthography used in the Northern Mariana Islands.
Chechen		Template:Lang / Template:Lang / Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'sieve'
Cherokee<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>		Template:Lang Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'Cherokee'
Danish	StandardTemplate:Sfnp	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'two'	The fricative component is apical.Template:Sfnp In some accents, it is realized as Template:IPA.Template:Sfnp Usually transcribed Template:IPA or Template:IPA. Contrasts with the unaspirated stop Template:IPAblink, which is usually transcribed Template:IPA or Template:IPA. See Danish phonology
Dargwa		Template:Lang / Template:Lang / Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'unity, oneness'
Dutch	Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialectTemplate:Sfnp	mat	Template:IPA	'market'	Optional pre-pausal allophone of Template:IPA.Template:Sfnp See Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect phonology
English	Broad CockneyTemplate:Sfnp	tea	Template:IPA	'tea'	Possible word-initial, intervocalic and word-final allophone of Template:IPA.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp See English phonology
	Received PronunciationTemplate:Sfnp		Template:IPA
	New YorkTemplate:Sfnp				Possible syllable-initial and sometimes also utterance-final allophone of Template:IPA.Template:Sfnp See English phonology
	New ZealandTemplate:Sfnp				Word-initial allophone of Template:IPA.Template:Sfnp See English phonology
	North WalesTemplate:Sfnp		Template:IPA		Word-initial and word-final allophone of Template:IPA; in free variation with a strongly aspirated stop Template:IPA.Template:Sfnp See English phonology
	Port Talbot<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>				Allophone of Template:IPA. In free variation with Template:IPA.<ref name=":0" />
	ScouseTemplate:Sfnp				Possible syllable-initial and word-final allophone of Template:IPA.Template:Sfnp See English phonology
	General South AfricanTemplate:Sfnp	wanting	Template:IPA	'wanting'	Possible syllable-final allophone of Template:IPA.Template:Sfnp
Esperanto		cico	Template:IPA	'nipple'	See Esperanto phonology
Filipino		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'chocolate'
French	Quebec	tu	Template:IPA	'you'	Allophone of Template:IPA before Template:IPA.
GeorgianTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang/k'atsi	Template:IPA	'man'
Haida		x̱ants	Template:IPA	'shadow'	Allophone of Template:IPA.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Hebrew		Template:Lang/tzel	Template:IPA	'shadow'
Korean	North Korean	Template:Lang / Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'North Korea'	Corresponds to /t͡ɕ/ in South Korean. See Korean phonology
LuxembourgishTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'train'	See Luxembourgish phonology
Marathi		चमचा/tsamtsā	Template:IPA	'spoon'	Represented by <च>, which also represents Template:IPAblink. It is not a marked difference.
Nepali		Template:Lang/tsāp	Template:IPA	'pressure'	Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated versions. The unaspirated is represented by /च/. The aspirated sound is represented by /छ/. See Nepali phonology
Portuguese	European<ref name="rio grande">Template:Cite web</ref>	Template:Lang	Template:Nowrap	'lifeless part'	Allophone of Template:IPAslink before Template:IPA, or assimilation due to the deletion of Template:IPA. Increasingly used in Brazil.<ref name="camila">Template:Cite web</ref>
	Brazilian<ref name="rio grande"/><ref name="camila"/>	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'participation'
	Most speakers<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'shiatsu'	Marginal sound. Many Brazilians might break the affricate with epenthetic Template:IPA, often subsequently palatalizing Template:IPA, specially in pre-tonic contexts (e.g. Template:Lang Template:IPA).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> See Portuguese phonology
Spanish	Madrid<ref name="unikiel">Template:Cite web</ref>	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'wide'	Palatalized;<ref name="unikiel"/> with an apical fricative component. It corresponds to Template:IPAblink in standard Spanish. See Spanish phonology
	Chilean
	Some Rioplatense dialects	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'aunt'
	Some Venezuelan dialects	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'fox'	Allophone of Template:IPA word initially.
Tamil	Jaffna Tamil	Template:Lang/cantai	Template:IPA	'market'	Rare, other realizations include Template:IPA.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Telugu		Template:Lang/ĉaṭṭi	Template:IPA	'pot'

Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant affricate

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Dutch	Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialectTemplate:Sfnp	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'passer-by'	A possible realization of word-final Template:IPA before pauses.Template:Sfnp
English	General AmericanTemplate:Sfnp	tree	Template:Audio-IPA	'tree'	Phonetic realization of the stressed, syllable-initial sequence Template:IPA; more commonly postalveolar Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp See English phonology
	Received PronunciationTemplate:Sfnp
Italian	SicilyTemplate:Sfnp	Template:Lang	Template:Nowrap	'foreign'	Apical. Regional realization of the sequence Template:IPA; may be a sequence Template:IPA or Template:IPA instead.Template:Sfnp See Italian phonology

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

References

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External links

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