phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

, the ts–ch merger is the merger of the

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. This refers to a class of sounds, not a single sound. There are several ty ...

and the

voiceless postalveolar affricate The voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant affricate or voiceless domed postalveolar sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with , (formerly ...

. In

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

, it is the merger of the consonants rendered by letters Che and Tse. If the shift is towards Tse, it is called ''tsokanye'' (russian: цоканье); the shift towards Che is called ''chokanye'' (russian: чоканье). It is a regular sound change of

Lower Sorbian Lower may refer to: *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England See also *Nizhny Nizhny (russian: Ни́жний; masculine), Nizhnyaya (; feminine), or Nizhneye (russian: Ни́� ...

, but not

Upper Sorbian Upper Sorbian (), occasionally referred to as "Wendish", is a minority language spoken by Sorbs in Germany in the historical province of Upper Lusatia, which is today part of Saxony. It is grouped in the West Slavic language branch, together ...

, as seen in the difference between Lower Sorbian and Upper Sorbian , both meaning "time". In

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

the merger is part of a more general

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

al feature called (mazuration), present in many Polish dialects but named after the

Masovian dialect The Masovian dialect ( pl, dialekt mazowiecki), also written Mazovian, is the dialect of Polish spoken in Mazovia and historically related regions, in northeastern Poland. It is the most distinct of the Polish dialects and the most expansive. M ...

.Stanislaw Gogolewski, "Dialectology in Poland, 1873-1997", In: ''Towards a History of Linguistics in Poland'', by E. F. K. Koerner, A. J. Szwedek (eds.) (2001)
p. 128
/ref> It also occurs in a few areas of the Chakavian dialect of

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...

, known as '' tsakavism''. The ''

sabesdiker losn Der sabesdiker-losn (Yiddish: דער סאַבעסדיקער לשון (לאָסן)) is a dialectal feature characteristic of the Northeastern dialect of the Yiddish language (NEY, ''Litvisher-vaysrusisher dialekt'', צפֿון ייִדיש ''Tsofn- ...

'' feature of

Northeastern Yiddish Yiddish dialects are variants of the Yiddish language and are divided according to the region in Europe where each developed its distinctiveness. Linguistically, Yiddish is divided in distinct Eastern and Western dialects. While the Western diale ...

includes the merger.

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

-speaking people may merge (and ) into (and ) when speaking foreign languages that contain those sounds.

References

Phonology Russian language Russian language varieties and styles {{phonology-stub