Affricate
Template:Short description Template:Full citations needed Template:IPA affricates Template:IPA notice An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> English has two affricate phonemes, Template:IPA and Template:IPA, often spelled ch and j, respectively.
Examples
[edit]The English sounds spelled "ch" and "j" (broadly transcribed as Template:IPA and Template:IPA in the IPA), German and Italian z Template:IPA and Italian z Template:IPA are typical affricates, and sounds like these are fairly common in the world's languages, as are other affricates with similar sounds, such as those in Polish and Chinese. However, voiced affricates other than Template:IPA are relatively uncommon. For several places of articulation they are not attested at all.
Much less common are labiodental affricates, such as Template:IPA in German, Kinyarwanda and Izi, or velar affricates, such as Template:IPA in Tswana (written kg) or in High Alemannic Swiss German dialects. Worldwide, relatively few languages have affricates in these positions even though the corresponding stop consonants, Template:IPA and Template:IPA, are common or virtually universal. Also less common are alveolar affricates where the fricative release is lateral, such as the Template:IPA sound found in Nahuatl and Navajo. Some other Athabaskan languages, such as Dene Suline, have unaspirated, aspirated, and ejective series of affricates whose release may be dental, alveolar, postalveolar, or lateral: Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, and Template:IPA.
Notation
[edit]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 it is more legible.<ref>For example, in Template:Cite journal</ref> Thus:
or
A less common notation indicates 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 sibilant affricates, which remain in common use:
Approved for Unicode 18 in 2026, per request from the IPA, are the remaining coronal affricates:<ref>Unicode pipeline: L2/24-051</ref>
Ligatures Template:Angbr IPA for the non-coronal affricates Template:IPA are recognized in China.<ref>The Universal Phonetic Symbol Set in China [中国通用音标符号集. Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, Language and Writing Standards no. GF 3007-2006.</ref>
Any of these notations can be used to distinguish an affricate from a sequence of a plosive plus a fricative, which is contrastive in languages such as Polish. However, in languages where there is no such distinction within a syllable, such as English or Turkish, a simple sequence of letters such as Template:Angbr IPA is commonly used, with no overt indication that they form an affricate. in such cases the syllable boundary may be written to distinguish the plosive-fricative sequence in petshop Template:IPA from the similar affricate in ketchup Template:IPA.
In other phonetic transcription systems, such as the Americanist system, affricates may be transcribed with single letters. The affricate Template:IPA may be transcribed as Template:Angbr or Template:Angbr; Template:IPA as Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr or (older) Template:Angbr; Template:IPA as Template:Angbr or Template:Angbr; Template:IPA as Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr or (older) Template:Angbr; Template:IPA as Template:Angbr; and Template:IPA as Template:Angbr.
This also happens with phonemic transcription in IPA: Template:IPA and Template:IPA are sometimes transcribed with the symbols for the palatal stops, Template:Angbr IPA and Template:Angbr IPA, for example in the IPA Handbook.
Affricates vs. stop–fricative sequences
[edit]In some languages, affricates contrast phonemically with stop–fricative sequences:
- Polish affricate Template:IPA in czysta 'clean (f.)' versus stop–fricative Template:IPA in trzysta 'three hundred'.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
- Klallam affricate Template:IPA in k'ʷə́nc 'look at me' versus stop–fricative Template:IPA in k'ʷə́nts 'he looks at it'.
The exact phonetic difference varies between languages. In stop–fricative sequences, the stop has a release burst before the fricative starts; but in affricates, the fricative element is the release. Phonologically, stop–fricative sequences may have a syllable boundary between the two segments, but not necessarily.
In English, Template:IPA and Template:IPA (nuts, nods) are considered phonemically stop–fricative sequences. They often contain a morpheme boundary (for example, nuts = nut + s). The English affricate phonemes Template:IPA and Template:IPA do not contain morpheme boundaries.
The phonemic distinction in English between the affricate Template:IPA and the stop–fricative sequence Template:IPA (found across syllable boundaries) can be observed by minimal pairs such as the following:
- worst shin Template:IPA → Template:IPA
- worse chin Template:IPA → Template:IPA
In some accents of English, the Template:IPA in 'worst shin' debuccalizes to a glottal stop before Template:IPA.
Stop–fricatives can be distinguished acoustically from affricates by the rise time of the frication noise, which is shorter for affricates.Template:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp
Geminate affricates
[edit]When affriates are geminated, it is the duration of the plosive closure that is lengthened, not that of the frication. For example, Template:IPA is pronounced Template:IPA, not *Template:IPA.<ref>Template:SOWL</ref><ref>Joshua Wilbur (2014) A Grammar of Pite Saami, p 47</ref>
List of affricates
[edit]In the case of coronals, the symbols Template:Angbr IPA are normally used for the stop portion of the affricate regardless of place. For example, Template:Angbr IPA is commonly seen for Template:Angbr IPA, Template:Angbr IPA for Template:Angbr IPA and Template:Angbr IPA for Template:Angbr IPA.
The exemplar languages are ones that have been reported to have these sounds, but in several cases, they may need confirmation.
Sibilant affricates
[edit]| Voiceless | Languages | Voiced | Languages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless alveolar affricate | Albanian c Georgian ც German z, tz Japanese つ/ツ Template:IPA Kʼicheʼ Mandarin z (pinyin) Italian z Pashto Template:Lang |
Voiced alveolar affricate | Albanian x Georgian ძ Japanese (some dialects) Italian z Pashto Template:Lang |
| Voiceless dental affricate | Hungarian c Macedonian ц Serbo-Croatian c/ц Polish c |
Voiced dental affricate | Hungarian dz Macedonian ѕ Bulgarian дз Polish dz |
| Voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate | Japanese ち/チ Template:IPA Mandarin j (pinyin) Polish ć, ci Serbo-Croatian ć/ћ Thai จ Vietnamese ch |
Voiced alveolo-palatal affricate | Japanese じ/ジ, ぢ/ヂ Template:IPA Polish dź, dzi Serbo-Croatian đ/ђ Korean ㅈ |
| Voiceless palato-alveolar affricate | Albanian ç English ch, tch Georgian ჩ German tsch Hungarian cs Italian ci, ce Maltese ċ Persian Template:Lang Romanian ci, ce Spanish ch Turkish ç |
Voiced palato-alveolar affricate | Albanian xh Arabic Template:Lang Czech dž English j, g Georgian ჯ Hungarian dzs Indonesian j Italian gi, ge Maltese ġ Romanian gi, ge Turkish c |
| Voiceless retroflex affricate | Mandarin zh (pinyin) Polish cz Serbo-Croatian č/ч Slovak č Vietnamese tr |
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 has only one type of affricate, it is usually a sibilant; this is the case in e.g. Arabic (Template:IPA), most dialects of Spanish (Template:IPA), and Thai (Template:IPA).
Non-sibilant affricates
[edit]Lateral affricates
[edit]Trilled affricates
[edit]| Sound (voiceless) | IPA | Languages | Sound (voiced) | IPA | Languages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless trilled bilabial affricate | Template:IPA | Not attested in any natural language. | Voiced trilled bilabial affricate | Template:IPA | Kele and Avava. Reported only in an allophone of [mb] before [o] or [u]. |
| Voiceless trilled alveolar affricate | Template:IPA | Ngkoth. | Voiced trilled alveolar affricate | Template:IPA | Nias. Fijian and Avava also have this sound after [n]. |
| Voiceless epiglottal affricate | Template:IPA | Hydaburg Haida. | Voiced epiglottal affricate | Template:IPA | Hydaburg Haida. Cognate to Southern Haida Template:IPA, Masset Haida Template:IPA.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
Pirahã and Wari' have a dental stop with bilabial trilled release Template:IPA.
Heterorganic affricates
[edit]Although most affricates are homorganic, Navajo and Chiricahua Apache have a heterorganic alveolar-velar affricate Template:IPA.Template:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp Wari' and Pirahã have a voiceless dental bilabially trilled affricate [t̪ʙ̥] (see #Trilled affricates), Blackfoot has Template:IPA. Other heterorganic affricates are reported for Northern SothoTemplate:Sfnp and other Bantu languages such as Phuthi, which has alveolar–labiodental affricates Template:IPA and Template:IPA, and Sesotho, which has bilabial–palatoalveolar affricates Template:IPA and Template:IPA. Djeoromitxi has Template:IPA and Template:IPA.Template:Sfnp
Phonation, coarticulation and other variants
[edit]The coronal and dorsal places of articulation attested as ejectives as well: Template:IPA. Several Khoisan languages such as Taa are reported to have voiced ejective affricates, but these are actually pre-voiced: Template:IPA. Affricates are also commonly aspirated: Template:IPA, murmured: Template:IPA, and prenasalized: Template:IPA (as in Hmong). Labialized, palatalized, velarized, and pharyngealized affricates are also common. Affricates may also have phonemic length, that is, affected by a chroneme, as in Italian and Karelian.
Phonological representation
[edit]Template:Expand section In phonology, affricates tend to behave similarly to stops, taking part in phonological patterns that fricatives do not. Template:Harvp analyzes phonetic affricates as phonological stops.Template:Sfnp A sibilant or lateral (and presumably trilled) stop can be realized phonetically only as an affricate and so might be analyzed phonemically as a sibilant or lateral stop. In that analysis, affricates other than sibilants and laterals are a phonetic mechanism for distinguishing stops at similar places of articulation (like more than one labial, coronal, or dorsal place). For example, Chipewyan has laminal dental Template:IPA vs. apical alveolar Template:IPA; other languages may contrast velar Template:IPA with palatal Template:IPA and uvular Template:IPA. Affricates may also be a strategy to increase the phonetic contrast between aspirated or ejective and tenuis consonants.
According to Template:Harvp, no language contrasts a non-sibilant, non-lateral affricate with a stop at the same place of articulation and with the same phonation and airstream mechanism, such as Template:IPA and Template:IPA or Template:IPA and Template:IPA.
In feature-based phonology, affricates are distinguished from stops by the feature [+delayed release].<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Affrication
[edit]Affrication (sometimes called affricatization) is a sound change by which a consonant, usually a stop or fricative, changes into an affricate. Examples include:
- Proto-Germanic Template:IPA > Modern English Template:IPA, as in chin (cf. Template:Langx: Anglo-Frisian palatalization)
- Proto-Semitic Template:IPA > Standard Arabic Template:IPA in all positions, as in Template:Lang Template:IPA (Template:Transliteration) Template:Gloss (cf. Aramaic: גמלא (gamlā'), Template:Langx (Template:Transliteration), and Template:Langx (Template:Transliteration)).
- Early Modern English Template:IPA > Template:IPA (yod-coalescence)
- Template:IPA > Template:IPA in the High German consonant shift
- Template:IPA > Template:IPA before Template:IPA respectively in 16th-century Japanese<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Template:IPA > Template:IPA word-initially in Udmurt<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Polish Template:IPA > Template:IPA
Pre-affrication
[edit]In rare instances, a fricative–stop contour may occur. This is the case in dialects of Scottish Gaelic that have velar frication Template:IPA where other dialects have pre-aspiration. For example, in the Harris dialect there is Template:Lang Template:IPA 'seven' and Template:Lang Template:IPA 'eight' (or Template:IPA, Template:IPA).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Richard Wiese argues this is the case for word-initial fricative-plosive sequences in German, and coined the term suffricate for such contours.<ref>Harry van der Hulst & Nancy Ritter (2012: 175) The Syllable: Views and Facts. De Gruyter.</ref> Awngi has 2 suffricates Template:IPA and Template:IPA according to some analyses.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]References
[edit]Sources
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External links
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