Affricate

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

An affricate is 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.[1]
English has two affricate phonemes, /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/, often spelled ch and j, respectively.

Examples

The English sounds spelled "ch" and "j" (broadly transcribed as [t͡ʃ] and [d͡ʒ] in the IPA), German and Italian z [t͡s] and Italian z [d͡z] 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 [d͡ʒ] are relatively uncommon. For several places of articulation they are not attested at all.

Much less common are

Dene Suline
, have unaspirated, aspirated, and ejective series of affricates whose release may be dental, alveolar, postalveolar, or lateral: [t̪͡θ], [t̪͡θʰ], [t̪͡θʼ], [t͡s], [t͡sʰ], [t͡sʼ], [t͡ʃ], [t͡ʃʰ], [t͡ʃʼ], [t͡ɬ], [t͡ɬʰ], and [t͡ɬʼ].

Notation

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.[2] Thus:

p͡f, t͡s d͡z, t͡ɬ d͡ɮ, t͡ʃ d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ d͡ʑ, ʈ͡ʂ ɖ͡ʐ , k͡x

or

p͜f, t͜s d͜z, t͜ɬ d͜ɮ, t͜ʃ d͜ʒ, t͜ɕ d͜ʑ, ʈ͜ʂ ɖ͜ʐ , k͜x.

A less common notation indicates the release of the affricate with a superscript:

pᶠ, tˢ dᶻ, t𐞛 d𐞞, tᶴ dᶾ, tᶝ dᶽ, tᶳ dᶼ, kˣ

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:

ʦ ʣ, ʨ ʥ, ʧ ʤ, 𝼜 𝼙, ꭧ ꭦ.[note 1]

Any of these notations can be used to distinguish an affricate from a sequence of a stop plus a fricative, which is contrastive in 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 [t͡s], [d͡z], [t͡ʃ], [d͡ʒ], [t͡ɬ], [d͡ɮ] are transcribed respectively as ⟨c⟩ or ⟨¢⟩; ⟨j⟩, ⟨ƶ⟩, or (older) ⟨ʒ⟩; ⟨c⟩ or ⟨č⟩; ⟨ǰ⟩, ⟨ǧ⟩, or (older) ⟨ǯ⟩; ⟨ƛ⟩; and ⟨λ⟩ or ⟨dl⟩. Within the IPA, [tʃ] and [dʒ] are sometimes transcribed with the symbols for the palatal stops, c and ɟ.

Affricates vs. stop–fricative sequences

In some languages, affricates contrast phonemically with stop–fricative sequences:

  • Polish affricate /ʈ͡ʂ/ in czysta 'clean (f.)' versus stop–fricative /tʂ/ in trzysta 'three hundred'.[3]
  • Klallam affricate /t͡s/ in k'ʷə́nc 'look at me' versus stop–fricative /ts/ 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, /ts/ and /dz/ (nuts, nods) are considered phonemically stop–fricative sequences. They often contain a morpheme boundary (for example, nuts = nut + s). The English affricate phonemes /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/ do not generally contain morpheme boundaries.

The phonemic distinction in English between the affricate /t͡ʃ/ and the stop–fricative sequence /t.ʃ/ (found across syllable boundaries) can be observed by minimal pairs such as the following:

  • worst shin /wɜː(ɹ)st.ʃɪn/[wɜː(ɹ)sʔʃɪn]
  • worse chin /wɜː(ɹ)s.t͡ʃɪn/[wɜː(ɹ)st͡ʃɪn]

In some accents of English, the /t/ in 'worst shin' debuccalizes to a glottal stop before /ʃ/.

Stop–fricatives can be distinguished acoustically from affricates by the rise time of the frication noise, which is shorter for affricates. (Howell & Rosen 1983,[full citation needed] Johnson 2003,[full citation needed] Mitani et al. 2006[full citation needed]).

List of affricates

In the case of coronals, the symbols t, d are normally used for the stop portion of the affricate regardless of place. For example, [t͡ʂ] is commonly seen for [ʈ͡ʂ].

The exemplar languages are ones that have been reported to have these sounds, but in several cases, they may need confirmation.

Sibilant affricates

Voiceless Languages Voiced Languages
Voiceless alveolar affricate
Pashto
څ
Voiced alveolar affricate Japanese (some dialects)
Italian z
Pashto ځ
t̪͡s̪
Serbo-Croatian c
Polish
c
d̪͡z̪
Hungarian dz
Macedonian ѕ
Bulgarian дз
Polish dz
Voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate Japanese ち/チ [tɕi]

Mandarin j (pinyin)
Polish ć, ci
Serbo-Croatian ć
Thai

Vietnamese ch

Voiced alveolo-palatal affricate Japanese じ/ジ, ぢ/ヂ [dʑi]
Polish , dzi
Serbo-Croatian đ
Korean
Voiceless palato-alveolar affricate
English ch, tch
French tch
Portuguese tch
German tsch
Hungarian cs
Italian ci, ce
Romanian ci, ce
Kʼicheʼ ch
Persian چ
Spanish ch
Voiced palato-alveolar affricate
Arabic ج
English j, g
French dj
Portuguese dj
Hungarian dzs
Italian gi, ge
Romanian gi, ge
Voiceless retroflex affricate Mandarin zh (pinyin)
Polish cz
Serbo-Croatian č
Slovak č
Vietnamese tr
Voiced retroflex affricate Polish
Serbo-Croatian
Slovak

The

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 ([d̠ʒ]), most dialects of Spanish ([t̠ʃ]), and Thai
([tɕ]).

Non-sibilant affricates

Sound (voiceless) IPA Languages Sound (voiced) IPA Languages
Voiceless bilabial affricate [pɸ] Present allophonically in Kaingang and Taos. Not reported as a phoneme in any natural language. Voiced bilabial affricate [bβ] Allophonic in
Banjun[4] and Shipibo[5]
Voiceless bilabial-labiodental affricate [pf]
Teke
Voiced bilabial-labiodental affricate [bv] ]
Voiceless labiodental affricate [p̪f] XiNkuna Tsonga Voiced labiodental affricate [b̪v] XiNkuna Tsonga
Voiceless dental non-sibilant affricate [t̪θ]
Dene Suline, Cun, some varieties of Venetian
and other North Italian dialects
Voiced dental non-sibilant affricate [d̪ð] New York,[6] Dublin,[7] and Maori English,[8] Dene Suline
Voiceless retroflex non-sibilant affricate
[tɻ̝̊]
Voiced retroflex non-sibilant affricate
[dɻ̝] Malagasy
Voiceless palatal affricate [cç]
Skolt Sami (younger speakers), Hungarian (casual speech), Albanian
(transcribed as [c]), allophonically in Kaingang
Voiced palatal affricate [ɟʝ] Skolt Sami (younger speakers), Hungarian (casual speech), Albanian (transcribed as [ɟ]), some Spanish dialects. Not reported to contrast with a voiced palatal plosive [ɟ]
Voiceless velar affricate [kx] Tswana,[citation needed] High Alemannic German Voiced velar affricate [ɡɣ] Allophonic in some
English English[9][10]
Voiceless uvular affricate [qχ]
Nez Percé, Wolof, Bats, Kabardian, Avar, Tsez. Not reported to contrast with a voiceless uvular plosive
[q] in natural languages.
Voiced uvular affricate [ɢʁ] Reported from the
Ekagi
with a velar lateral allophone [ɡʟ] before front vowels.
Voiceless pharyngeal affricate
[ʡħ]
epiglottal stop
[ʡ]
Voiced pharyngeal affricate
[ʡʕ] Not attested in any natural language
Voiceless glottal affricate [ʔh] Yuxi dialect, allophonic in Received Pronunciation[12] Voiced glottal affricate [ʔɦ] Not attested in any natural language

Lateral affricates

Sound (voiceless) IPA Languages Sound (voiced) IPA Languages
Voiceless alveolar lateral affricate [tɬ]
Nahuatl, Navajo, Tswana
, etc.
Voiced alveolar lateral affricate [dɮ]
voiced alveolar lateral fricative
[ɮ].
Voiceless retroflex lateral affricate [ʈꞎ]
Bhadrawahi, apical post-alveolar. Realization of phonemic /ʈl/ in Kamkata-vari and Kamvari.[13]
Voiced retroflex lateral affricate [ɖ𝼅]
Bhadrawahi
, apical post-alveolar. Realization of phonemic /ɖl/ in Kamkata-vari and Kamviri.
Voiceless palatal lateral affricate [c𝼆] as ejective [c𝼆ʼ] in Dahalo; in free variation with [t𝼆] in Hadza. Voiced palatal lateral affricate [ɟʎ̝] Allophonic in Sandawe.
Voiceless velar lateral affricate [k𝼄] as a prevelar in Archi and as an ejective [k𝼄ʼ] in Zulu,[citation needed] also exist in the Laghuu language. Voiced velar lateral affricate [ɡʟ̝] Laghuu.

Trilled affricates

Sound (voiceless) IPA Languages Sound (voiced) IPA Languages
Voiceless trilled bilabial affricate [pʙ̥] Not attested in any natural language. Voiced trilled bilabial affricate [bʙ]
Avava
. Reported only in an allophone of [mb] before [o] or [u].
Voiceless trilled alveolar affricate [tr̥] Ngkoth. Voiced trilled alveolar affricate [dr]
Avava
also have this sound after [n].
Voiceless epiglottal affricate [ʡʜ] Hydaburg Haida. Voiced epiglottal affricate [ʡʢ] Hydaburg Haida. Cognate to Southern Haida [ɢ], Masset Haida [ʕ].[14]

[t̪ʙ̥].

Heterorganic affricates

Although most affricates are

Djeoromitxi
(Pies 1992) has [ps] and [bz].

Phonation, coarticulation and other variants

The coronal and dorsal places of articulation attested as

prenasalized: [ⁿdz, ⁿdzʱ, ᶯɖʐ, ᶯɖʐʱ]. 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

In phonology, affricates tend to behave similarly to stops, taking part in phonological patterns that fricatives do not. Kehrein (2002) analyzes phonetic affricates as phonological stops.[15] 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 [t̪͡θ] vs. apical alveolar [t]; other languages may contrast velar [k] with palatal [c͡ç] and uvular [q͡χ]. Affricates may also be a strategy to increase the phonetic contrast between aspirated or ejective and tenuis consonants.

According to Kehrein (2002), 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 /t̪/ and /t̪θ/ or /k/ and /kx/.

In feature-based phonology, affricates are distinguished from stops by the feature [+delayed release].[16]

Affrication

Affrication (sometimes called affricatization) is a

fricative
, changes into an affricate. Examples include:

Pre-affrication

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

Harris dialect there is seachd [ʃaˣkʰ] 'seven' and ochd [ɔˣkʰ] 'eight' (or [ʃax͜kʰ], [ɔx͜kʰ]).[19] These have been proposed to be called suffricates. Awngi has 2 suffricates /s͡t/ and /ʃ͡t/ according to some analyses.[20]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ John Laver created the para-IPA letters  ᶘ ᶚ for the not-quite retroflex fricatives of Polish sz and ż.

References

  1. ^ Roach, Peter (2009). "English Phonetics and Phonology Glassary" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on April 12, 2015.
  2. S2CID 7138676
    .
  3. ^ "Phoible 2.0 -". Archived from the original on 2021-02-04. Retrieved 2020-12-27.
  4. ^ Valenzuela, Márquez Pinedo & Maddieson (2001).
  5. ^ Labov, William (1966), The Social Stratification of English in New York City (PDF) (2nd ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 36–37, archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-08-24, retrieved 2014-06-27
  6. ^ Collins & Mees (2003), p. 302.
  7. .
  8. .
  9. ^ Collins & Mees (2003), p. 148.
  10. ^ Strand, Richard F. (2010). "Nurestâni Languages". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition. Archived from the original on 2016-11-06. Retrieved 2015-06-20.
  11. ^ Bessell, Nicola J. "Preliminary Notes on Some Pacific Northwest Coast Pharyngeals" (PDF). Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, University of Pennsylvania. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-06-05.
  12. ^ Kehrein (2002), p. 1.
  13. .
  14. from the original on 2 May 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  15. .
  16. .
  17. ^ Joswig, Andreas (2010). The Phonology of Awngi (PDF). SIL Electronic Working Papers. SIL International.

Sources

External links