An affricate is a

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wi ...

that begins as a stop and releases as a

fricative A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...

, generally with the same

place of articulation In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a consonant is a location along the vocal tract where its production occurs. It is a point where a constriction is made between an active and a passive articula ...

(most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single

phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...

or a consonant pair. English has two affricate phonemes, and , often spelled ''ch'' and ''j'', respectively.

Examples

The English sounds spelled "ch" and "j" ( broadly transcribed as and in the IPA), German and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

''z'' and

''z'' 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 are relatively uncommon. For several places of articulation they are not attested at all. Much less common are

labiodental In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth. Labiodental consonants in the IPA The labiodental consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are: The IPA chart shades out ''labio ...

affricates, such as in German and Izi, or

velar Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (known also as the velum). Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive a ...

affricates, such as in

Tswana Tswana may refer to: * Tswana people, the Bantu speaking people in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and other Southern Africa regions * Tswana language, the language spoken by the (Ba)Tswana people * Bophuthatswana, the former ba ...

(written ''kg'') or in High Alemannic Swiss German dialects. Worldwide, relatively few languages have affricates in these positions even though the corresponding stop consonants, and , are common or virtually universal. Also less common are alveolar affricates where the fricative release is

lateral Lateral is a geometric term of location which may refer to: Healthcare *Lateral (anatomy), an anatomical direction * Lateral cricoarytenoid muscle * Lateral release (surgery), a surgical procedure on the side of a kneecap Phonetics *Lateral co ...

, such as the sound found in Nahuatl and Navajo. Some other Athabaskan languages, such as

Dene Suline Chipewyan or Denesuline (ethnonym: ), often simply called Dene, is the language spoken by the Chipewyan people of northwestern Canada. It is categorized as part of the Northern Athabaskan languages, Northern Athabaskan language family. Dënës ...

, have unaspirated, aspirated, and ejective series of affricates whose release may be dental, alveolar, postalveolar, or lateral: , , , , , , , , , , , and .

Notation

Affricates are transcribed in the

International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...

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 A tie clip (also tie slide, tie bar, or tie clasp) is a clothing accessory that is used to clip a tie to the underlying shirt front, preventing it from swinging and ensuring that the tie hangs straight, resulting in a neat, uniform appearance. ...

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. 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 Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...

for eight common affricates :. Any of these notations can be used to distinguish an affricate from a sequence of a stop plus a fricative, which exists in some 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, affricates may be transcribed with single letters. The affricates , , , , , are transcribed respectively as or ; , , or (older) ; or ; , , or (older) ; ; and or . Within the IPA, and are sometimes transcribed with the symbols for the palatal stops, and .

Affricates vs. stop–fricative sequences

In some languages, affricates contrast phonemically with stop–fricative sequences: * Polish affricate in ''czysta'' 'clean (f.)' versus stop–fricative in ''trzysta'' 'three hundred'. * Klallam affricate in ''k'ʷə́nc'' 'look at me' versus stop–fricative 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, and (''nuts'', ''nods'') are considered phonemically stop–fricative sequences. They often contain a

morpheme A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone are ...

boundary (for example, ''nuts'' = ''nut'' + ''s''). The English affricate phonemes and do not generally contain morpheme boundaries. Depending on dialect, English speakers may distinguish an affricate from a stop–fricative sequence in some contexts such as when the sequence occurs across syllable boundaries: *''worst shin'' → *''worse chin'' → The in 'worst shin' debuccalizes to a glottal stop before in many dialects, making it phonetically distinct from . One acoustic criterion for differentiating affricates and stop–fricative sequences is the rate of

amplitude The amplitude of a periodic variable is a measure of its change in a single period (such as time or spatial period). The amplitude of a non-periodic signal is its magnitude compared with a reference value. There are various definitions of am ...

increase of the frication noise, which is known as the ''rise time''. Affricates have a short rise time to the peak frication amplitude; 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 are normally used for the stop portion of the affricate regardless of place. For example, is commonly seen for . The exemplar languages are ones that have been reported to have these sounds, but in several cases, they may need confirmation.

Sibilant affricates

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 In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. Some ...

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 Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

(), most dialects of

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

(), and Thai ().

Non-sibilant affricates

Lateral affricates

Trilled affricates

Pirahã and Wari' have a dental stop with bilabial trilled release .

Heterorganic affricates

Although most affricates are homorganic, Navajo and

Chiricahua Apache Chiricahua ( ) is a band of Apache Native Americans. Based in the Southern Plains and Southwestern United States, the Chiricahua (Tsokanende ) are related to other Apache groups: Ndendahe (Mogollon, Carrizaleño), Tchihende (Mimbreño), Sehend ...

have a heterorganic alveolar-velar affricate (Hoijer & Opler 1938, Young & Morgan 1987, Ladefoged & Maddeison 1996, McDonough 2003, McDonough & Wood 2008, Iskarous, et al. 2012). Wari' and Pirahã have a voiceless dental bilabially trilled affricate ̪ʙ̥(see #Trilled affricates), Blackfoot has . Other heterorganic affricates are reported for

Northern Sotho Northern Sotho, or as an endonym, is a Sotho-Tswana language spoken in the northeastern provinces of South Africa. It is sometimes referred to as or , its main dialect, through synecdoche. According to the South African National Census o ...

(Johnson 2003) and other Bantu languages such as Phuthi, which has alveolar–labiodental affricates and , and Sesotho, which has bilabial–palatoalveolar affricates and . Djeoromitxi (Pies 1992) has and .

Phonation, coarticulation and other variants

The coronal and dorsal places of articulation attested as ejectives as well: . Several Khoisan languages such as !Xóõ are reported to have voiced ejective affricates, but these are actually ''pre''-voiced: . Affricates are also commonly aspirated: , murmured: , and

prenasalized Prenasalized consonants are phonetic sequences of a nasal and an obstruent (or occasionally a non-nasal sonorant such as ) that behave phonologically like single consonants. The primary reason for considering them to be single consonants, rather ...

: .

Labialized Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels involve ...

, palatalized,

velarized Velarization is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, velarization is transcribed by one of four d ...

, and pharyngealized affricates are also common. Affricates may also have phonemic length, that is, affected by a

chroneme In linguistics, a chroneme is a basic, theoretical unit of sound that can distinguish words by duration only of a vowel or consonant. The noun ''chroneme'' is derived , and the suffixed ''-eme'', which is analogous to the ''-eme'' in ''phoneme'' ...

, as in

and Karelian.

Phonological representation

In phonology, affricates tend to behave similarly to stops, taking part in phonological patterns that fricatives do not. analyzes phonetic affricates as phonological stops. 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 The Chipewyan ( , also called ''Denésoliné'' or ''Dënesųłı̨né'' or ''Dënë Sųłınë́'', meaning "the original/real people") are a Dene Indigenous Canadian people of the Athabaskan language family, whose ancestors are identified ...

has laminal dental vs. apical alveolar ; other languages may contrast velar with palatal and uvular . Affricates may also be a strategy to increase the phonetic contrast between aspirated or ejective and tenuis consonants. According to , 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 and or and . In feature-based phonology, affricates are distinguished from stops by the feature delayed release

Affrication

Affrication (sometimes called ''affricatization'') is a sound change by which a consonant, usually a stop or

, changes into an affricate. Examples include: *

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic bran ...

> Modern English , as in ''chin'' (cf. German ''Kinn'': Anglo-Frisian palatalization) *

Proto-Semitic Proto-Semitic is the hypothetical reconstructed proto-language ancestral to the Semitic languages. There is no consensus regarding the location of the Proto-Semitic '' Urheimat''; scholars hypothesize that it may have originated in the Levant ( ...

> Standard Arabic in all positions, as in ''جمل'' (camel) (cf.

Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...

: גמלא (gamlā'), Amharic: ግመል (gəmäl), and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

: גמל (gamal)). * Early Modern English > ( yod-coalescence) * > in the High German consonant shift * > before respectively in 16th-century Japanese * > word-initially in Udmurt

Pre-affrication

In rare instances, a fricative–stop contour may occur. This is the case in dialects of

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well ...

that have velar frication where other dialects have pre-aspiration. For example, in the

Harris Harris may refer to: Places Canada * Harris, Ontario * Northland Pyrite Mine (also known as Harris Mine) * Harris, Saskatchewan * Rural Municipality of Harris No. 316, Saskatchewan Scotland * Harris, Outer Hebrides (sometimes called the Isle of ...

dialect there is 'seven' and 'eight' (or , ).Laver (1994) ''Principles of Phonetics'', p. 374.

References

Sources

* *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. *Iskarous, K; McDonough, J; & Whalen, D. (2012) A gestural account of the velar fricative in Navajo. ''Journal of Laboratory Phonology'' 195-210. *Johnson, Keith. (2003). ''Acoustic & auditory phonetics'' (2nd ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. * *Ladefoged, P. (1995) ''A Course in Phonetics'' (5th ed] Wadsworth, Inc *Ladefoged, P; & Maddieson, I. (1996) ''Sounds of the Worlds Languages''. Blackwell. *Maddieson, Ian. (1984). ''Patterns of sounds''. Cambridge University Press. *McDonough, J (2003) ''The Navajo Sound System''. Kluwer *McDonough, Joyce; & Wood, Valerie. (2008). The stop contrasts of the Athabaskan languages. ''Journal of Phonetics'' 36, 427-449. *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. * *Young, R & Morgan W. (1987) ''The Navajo Language''. University of New Mexico Press.

External links

Affricates in English
{{DEFAULTSORT:Affricate Consonant Manner of articulation