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 of median affricates with significant perceptual differences:

A voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate [tÍ¡s] is the most common type, similar to the ts in English cats.
A voiceless alveolar non-sibilant affricate [tÉ¹ÌÌ]. It is found as a regional realization of the sequence /tr/ in some Sicilian dialects of Standard Italian.
A voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant affricate [tÍ¡sÌº], also called apico-alveolar or grave, has a weak hushing sound reminiscent of retroflex affricates. One language in which it is found is Basque, where it contrasts with a more conventional non-retracted laminal alveolar affricate.

IPA number103 132

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Voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate

ts

Ê¦

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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 â¨tÍ¡sâ© or â¨tÍsâ©. The tie bar may be omitted, yielding â¨tsâ©. There is also a ligature â¨Ê¦â©, which has been retired by the International Phonetic Association but is still used. 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:

Its manner of articulation is sibilant affricate, which means it is produced by first stopping the air flow entirely, then directing it with the tongue to the sharp edge of the teeth, causing high-frequency turbulence.
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 described by 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 [s] is very strong.^[1]
- 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 [Ê] or laminal [Ê].
Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

The following sections are named after the fricative component.

Dentalized laminal alveolar

More information Language, Word ...

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Armenian	Eastern^[2]	ÖÕ¡Õ¶Ö/canc	[tÌ»Í¡sÌªÊ°anÌªtÌ»Í¡sÌªÊ°]^â	'net'	Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms
Basque^[3]		hotz	[oÌtÌ»Í¡sÌª]	'cold'	Contrasts with a sibilant affricate with an apical fricative component.^[3]
Belarusian^[4]		ÑÑÑÐºÐ°/ciotka	[ËtÌ»Í¡sÌªÊ²Éµtka]	'aunt'	Contrasting palatalization. See Belarusian phonology
Bulgarian^[5]		ÑÐ°Ñ/car	[tÌ»Í¡sÌªÃ¤r]	'Tsar'	See Bulgarian phonology
Chinese	Mandarin^[6]^[7]	æ©é¤ / zÇo cÄn	[tÌ»Í¡sÌªÉÊË¨Ë© tÌ»Í¡sÌªÊ°anË¥]	'breakfast'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Standard Chinese phonology
Chinese	Cantonese	æ©é¤ / zou2 caan1	/tÍ¡souË§Ë¥ tÍ¡sÊ°aËnË¥/	'breakfast'	See Cantonese phonology
Czech^[8]		co	[tÌ»Í¡sÌªoÌ]	'what'	See Czech phonology
Hungarian^[9]		cica	[ËtÌ»Í¡sÌªitÌ»Í¡sÌªÉ]	'kitten'	See Hungarian phonology
Japanese		æ´¥æ³¢ / tsunami	[tÌ»Í¡sÌªÉ¯ÌáµnÃ¤mÊ²i]	'Tsunami'	Allophone of /t/ before /u/. See Japanese phonology
Japanese		ã¢ããã¡ã¬ã©/mottsarera	[moÌtÌ»tÌ»Í¡sÌªÃ¤É¾eÌÉ¾Ã¤]	'mozzarella'	May appear before other vowels in loanwords. See Japanese phonology
Kashmiri		ÚØ§Ø³/cÃ¡s	[tÍ¡saËs]	'cough'
Kashubian^[10]		^{[example needed]}
Kazakh^[11]		Ð¸Ð½Ð²ÐµÑÑÐ¸ÑÐ¸Ñ/investitsiya	[investitÌ»Í¡sÌªÉja]	'price'	Only in loanwords from Russian^[11]^[12] See Kazakh phonology and Kyrgyz phonology
Kyrgyz^[12]		Ð¸Ð½Ð²ÐµÑÑÐ¸ÑÐ¸Ñ/investitsiya	[investitÌ»Í¡sÌªÉja]	'price'
Latvian^[13]		cena	[ËtÌ»Í¡sÌªenÌªÃ¤]	'price'	See Latvian phonology
Macedonian^[14]		ÑÐ²ÐµÑ/cvet	[tÌ»Í¡sÌªveÌtÌª]	'flower'	See Macedonian phonology
Pashto		ÚÙÙØ±/Åalor	[tÍ¡saËlor]	'four'	See Pashto phonology
Polish^[15]		co	[tÌ»Í¡sÌªÉ]^â	'what'	See Polish phonology
Romanian^[16]		preÈ	[preÌtÌ»Í¡sÌª]	'price'	See Romanian phonology
Russian^[5]		ÑÐ°ÑÑ/caÅ	[tÌ»Í¡sÌªÃ¤rÊ²]	'Tsar'	See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian^[17]^[18]		ÑÐ¸Ñ / cilj / ÚÛÚµ	[tÌ»Í¡sÌªÃ®ËÊ]	'target'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak		cisÃ¡r	[tÌ»Í¡sÌªisaËr]	'emperor'	See Slovak phonology
Slovene^[19]		cvet	[tÌ»Í¡sÌªÊÃªËtÌª]	'bloom'	See Slovene phonology
Spanish	Andalusian^[20]	resto	[ËreÌtÌ»Í¡sÌªoÌ]	'rest'	See Andalusian Spanish
Tyap		tsa	[tÍ¡sa]	'to begin'
Ukrainian^[21]		ÑÐµÐ¹/cej	[tÌ»Í¡sÌªÉj]	'this one'	Contrasting palatalization. See Ukrainian phonology
Upper Sorbian^[22]		cybla	[ËtÌ»Í¡sÌªÉblÃ¤]	'onion'
Uzbek^[23]		^{[example needed]}

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Non-retracted alveolar

More information Language, Word ...

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Arabic	Najdi^[24]	ÙâÙØ¨/tsalb	[tÍ¡salb]	'dog'	Corresponds to /k/ and /tÍ¡Ê/ in other dialects
Asturian	Some dialects^[25]	otso	[ËotÍ¡so]	'eight'	Corresponds to standard /tÍ¡Ê/
Asturian	á¸¶á¸·ena, Mieres, and others	á¸·á¸·una	[ËtÍ¡sunÉ]	'moon'	Alveolar realization of che vaqueira instead of normal retroflex [ÊÍ¡Ê]
Basque^[3]		hots	[otÌ»Í¡sÌº]	'sound'	The fricative component is apical. Contrasts with a laminal affricate with a dentalized fricative component.^[3]
Blackfoot^[26]		á¹á§á§á£á¯ / NiitsÃtapii	[niËtÍ¡sÉªÌtÊpiË]	'original person' or 'Blackfoot Person'
Catalan^[27]		potser	[pu(t)ËtÌ»Í¡sÌºe]	'maybe'	The fricative component is apical. Only restricted to morpheme boundaries, some linguistics do not consider it a phoneme (but a sequence of [t] + [s]). Long and short versions of intervocalic affricates are in free variation in Central Catalan [tËs] ~ [ts]. See Catalan phonology
Central Alaskan Yup'ik^[28]		cetaman	[tÍ¡sÉËtaman]	'four'	Allophone of /tÍ¡Ê/ before schwa
Chamorro^[29]		CHamoru	[tÍ¡sÉËmoËÉ¾u]	'Chamorro'	Spelled Chamoru in the orthography used in the Northern Mariana Islands.
Chechen		ÑÐ°ÑÐ° / caca / Ø±Ì¤Ø§Ø±Ì¤Ø§	[tÍ¡sÉtÍ¡sÉ]	'sieve'
Cherokee^[30]		á£á³á© tsalagi	[tÍ¡salaÉ¡i]	'Cherokee'
Danish	Standard^[31]	to	[ËtÌ»Í¡sÌºÊ°oËË]	'two'	The fricative component is apical.^[31] In some accents, it is realized as [tÊ°].^[31] Usually transcribed /tË¢/ or /t/. Contrasts with the unaspirated stop [t], which is usually transcribed /dÌ¥/ or /d/. See Danish phonology
Dargwa		ÑÐ°Ð´ÐµÑ / ê©adeÅ / ÚØ§Ø¯ÛØ´	[tÍ¡sadeÊ]	'unity, oneness'
Dutch	Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect^[32]	mat	[ËmÃ¤tÍ¡s]	'market'	Optional pre-pausal allophone of /t/.^[32] See Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect phonology
English	Broad Cockney^[33]	tea	[ËtÍ¡sÉËiÌ¯]	'tea'	Possible word-initial, intervocalic and word-final allophone of /t/.^[34]^[35] See English phonology
	Received Pronunciation^[35]		[ËtÍ¡sÉªËiÌ¯]
	New York^[36]				Possible syllable-initial and sometimes also utterance-final allophone of /t/.^[36] See English phonology
	New Zealand^[37]				Word-initial allophone of /t/.^[37] See English phonology
	North Wales^[38]		[ËtÍ¡siË]		Word-initial and word-final allophone of /t/; in free variation with a strongly aspirated stop [tÊ°].^[38] See English phonology
	Port Talbot^[39]				Allophone of /t/. In free variation with [tÊ°Ê°].^[39]
	Scouse^[40]				Possible syllable-initial and word-final allophone of /t/.^[40] See English phonology
	General South African^[41]	wanting	[ËwÉntÍ¡sÉªÅ]	'wanting'	Possible syllable-final allophone of /t/.^[41]
Esperanto		cico	['tÍ¡sitÍ¡so]	'nipple'	See Esperanto phonology
Filipino		tsokolate	[tÍ¡sokÉlate]	'chocolate'
French	Quebec	tu	[tÍ¡sy]	'you'	Allophone of /t/ before /i, y/.
Georgian^[42]		áááªá/k'atsi	[kÊ¼ÉtÍ¡si]	'man'
Haida		xÌ±ants	[ÊÊntÍ¡s]	'shadow'	Allophone of /tÍ¡Ê/.^[43]
Hebrew		×¦Öµ×/tzel	[tÍ¡seÌl]	'shadow'
Hmong Daw		txaug	/tÍ¡sauÌ¯Ë§Ë©Ì¤/	'chisel'	Contrast aspirated and non-aspirated versions.
Korean	North Korean	ì¡°ì / ChosÅn	[tÍ¡sÉsÉn]	'North Korea'	Corresponds to /tÍ¡É/ in South Korean. See Korean phonology
Luxembourgish^[44]		Zuch	[tÍ¡suÏ]	'train'	See Luxembourgish phonology
Marathi		à¤à¤®à¤à¤¾/tsamtsÄ	['tÍ¡sÉmtÍ¡saË]	'spoon'	Represented by â¨à¤â©, which also represents [tÍ¡Ê]. It is not a marked difference.
Nepali		à¤à¤¾à¤ª/tsÄp	[tÍ¡sÃ¤p]	'pressure'	Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated versions. The unaspirated is represented by â¨à¤â©. The aspirated sound is represented by â¨à¤â©. See Nepali phonology
Portuguese	European^[45]	parte sem vida	[ËpaÉ¾tÍ¡sáº½j ËviÃ°É]	'lifeless part'	Allophone of /t/ before /i, Ä©/, or assimilation due to the deletion of /i ~ É¨ ~ e/. Increasingly used in Brazil.^[46]
	Brazilian^[45]^[46]	participaÃ§Ã£o	[paÊtÍ¡sipaËsÉÌwÌ]	'participation'
	Most speakers^[47]	shiatsu	[ÉiËatÍ¡su]	'shiatsu'	Marginal sound. Many Brazilians might break the affricate with epenthetic [i], often subsequently palatalizing /t/, specially in pre-tonic contexts (e.g. tsunami [tÉisuËnÉÌmÊ²i]).^[48] See Portuguese phonology
Spanish	Madrid^[49]	ancha	[ËÃ¤nÊ²tÍ¡sÊ²Ã¤]	'wide'	Palatalized;^[49] with an apical fricative component. It corresponds to [tÍ¡Ê] in standard Spanish. See Spanish phonology
	Chilean	ancha	[ËÃ¤nÊ²tÍ¡sÊ²Ã¤]	'wide'
	Some Rioplatense dialects	tÃa	[ËtÍ¡siÃ¤]	'aunt'
	Some Venezuelan dialects	zorro	[ËtÍ¡soÌroÌ]	'fox'	Allophone of /s/ word initially.
Tamil	Jaffna Tamil	à®à®¨à¯à®¤à¯/cantai	[tÍ¡sÉnÌªdÌªÉiÌ¯]	'market'	Rare, other realizations include [tÍ¡Ê, Ê, s].^[50]
Telugu		à±à°à±à°à°¿/Äaá¹á¹i	[tÍ¡sÉÊÊi]	'pot'

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Variable

More information Language, Word ...

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
German	Standard^[51]	Zeit	[tÍ¡sÃ¤ÉªÌ¯t]	'time'	The fricative component varies between dentalized laminal, non-retracted laminal and non-retracted apical.^[51] See Standard German phonology
Italian	Standard^[52]	grazia	[ËÉ¡rÃ¤tÌtÍ¡sjÃ¤]	'grace'	The fricative component varies between dentalized laminal and non-retracted apical. In the latter case, the stop component is laminal denti-alveolar.^[52] See Italian phonology

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Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant affricate

Quick facts tÉ¹ÌÌ ...

Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant affricate
tÉ¹ÌÌ

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Features

Its manner of articulation is affricate, which means it is produced by first stopping the airflow entirely, then allowing air flow through a constricted channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
Its place of articulation is 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.
Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

More information Language, Word ...

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Dutch	Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect^[32]	verbÃ¨ganger	[vÉrËbÉËÉ£Ã¤ÅÉtÍ¡É¹ÌÌ]	'passer-by'	A possible realization of word-final /r/ before pauses.^[32]
English	General American^[53]	tree	[tÍ¡É¹ÌÌÊ·ÉªiÌ¯]^â	'tree'	Phonetic realization of the stressed, syllable-initial sequence /tr/; more commonly postalveolar [tÌ É¹Ì ÌË].^[53] See English phonology
English	Received Pronunciation^[53]	tree	[tÍ¡É¹ÌÌÊ·ÉªiÌ¯]^â	'tree'
Italian	Sicily^[54]	straniero	[stÍ¡É¹ÌÌÃ¤ËnjÉÉ¾o]	'foreign'	Apical. Regional realization of the sequence /tr/; may be a sequence [t É¹ÌÌ] or [t É¹Ì] instead (spaces added for distinction).^[55] See Italian phonology

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Notes

References

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Voiceless alveolar affricate

Voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate

Features

Occurrence

Dentalized laminal alveolar

Non-retracted alveolar

Variable

Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant affricate

Features

Occurrence

See also

Notes

References

External links

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