Voiceless alveolar affricate

Template:Short description 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 types with significant perceptual differences:

• The voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate is the most common type, similar to the ts in English cats.
• The voiceless alveolar non-sibilant affricate or , 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 in some Sicilian dialects of Standard Italian.
• The voiceless alveolar lateral affricate is found in certain languages, such as Cherokee, Mexican Spanish, and Nahuatl.
• The voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant affricate , 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

The 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). The 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 the 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 is very strong.
  • 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			'time'	The fricative component varies between dentalized laminal, non-retracted laminal and non-retracted apical.Template:Sfnp See Standard German phonology
Italian	StandardTemplate:Sfnp			'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	/canc	{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "tsʰɑntsʰ.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'net'	Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms
Basque				'cold'	Contrasts with a sibilant affricate with an apical fricative component.
BelarusianTemplate:Sfnp		/cötka		'aunt'	Contrasting palatalization. See Belarusian phonology
BulgarianTemplate:Sfnp		/car		'Tsar'	See Bulgarian phonology
Chinese	MandarinTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp	Template:\Template:Tlit		'breakfast'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Standard Chinese phonology
	Cantonese	Template:\Template:Tlit		'breakfast'	See Cantonese phonology
CzechTemplate:Sfnp				'what'	See Czech phonology
HungarianTemplate:Sfnp				'kitten'	See Hungarian phonology
Japanese		Template:\tsunami		'Tsunami'	Allophone of before . See Japanese phonology
		/mottsarera		'mozzarella'	May appear before other vowels in loanwords. See Japanese phonology
Kashmiri		ژاس/cás		'cough'
Kashubian		Template:Example needed
KazakhTemplate:Sfnp		/investitsiya		'price'	Only in loanwords from RussianTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp See Kazakh phonology and Kyrgyz phonology
KyrgyzTemplate:Sfnp
LatvianTemplate:Sfnp				'price'	See Latvian phonology
MacedonianTemplate:Sfnp		/cvet		'flower'	See Macedonian phonology
Pashto		/cëlor		'four'	See Pashto phonology
PolishTemplate:Sfnp			{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Pl-co?.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'what'	See Polish phonology
Romanian				'price'	See Romanian phonology
RussianTemplate:Sfnp		/caŕ		'Tsar'	See Russian phonology
Serbo-CroatianTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp		/ / ڄیڵ		'target'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak				'emperor'	See Slovak phonology
SloveneTemplate:Sfnp				'bloom'	See Slovene phonology
Tyap				'to begin'
Ukrainian		/cej		'this one'	Contrasting palatalization. See Ukrainian phonology
Upper SorbianTemplate:Sfnp				'onion'
UzbekTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Example needed

Non-retracted alveolar

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

Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant affricate

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Dutch	Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialectTemplate:Sfnp			'passer-by'	A possible realization of word-final before pauses.Template:Sfnp
English	General AmericanTemplate:Sfnp	tree	{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "tree-pronunciation-audio-garp.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'tree'	Phonetic realization of the stressed, syllable-initial sequence ; more commonly postalveolar Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp See English phonology
	Received PronunciationTemplate:Sfnp
Italian	SicilyTemplate:Sfnp			'foreign'	Apical. Regional realization of the sequence ; may be a sequence or instead.Template:Sfnp See Italian phonology

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

References

• Template:SOWL
• Template:Cite thesis
• Template:Accents of English

External links

• Template:Phoible