Voiceless postalveolar affricate

Consonantal sound

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 ⟨t͡ʃ ⟩, ⟨t͜ʃ ⟩ ⟨tʃ ⟩ (formerly the ligature ⟨ʧ ⟩), or, in broad transcription, ⟨c⟩. The alternative commonly used in American tradition is ⟨č⟩. It is familiar to English speakers as the "ch" sound in "chip".

Historically, this sound often derives from a former voiceless velar stop /k/ (as in English church; also in Gulf Arabic, Slavic languages, Indo-Iranian languages and Romance languages), or a voiceless dental stop /t/ by way of palatalization, especially next to a front vowel (as in English nature; also in Amharic, Portuguese, some accents of Egyptian, etc.).

Features

Features of the voiceless domed postalveolar 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.
• Its place of articulation is palato-alveolar, that is, domed (partially palatalized) postalveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the front of the tongue bunched up ("domed") at the palate.
• 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 air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Polish, Catalan, and Thai have a voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate /t͡ɕ/; this is technically postalveolar but it is less precise to use /t͡ʃ/.

Related characters

There are several Unicode characters based on the tesh digraph (ʧ):

• U+107AE 𐞮 MODIFIER LETTER SMALL TESH DIGRAPH is an IPA superscript letter^[16]
• U+1DF17 𝼗 LATIN SMALL LETTER TESH DIGRAPH WITH PALATAL HOOK is used in phonetic transcription^[17][18]
• U+1DF1C 𝼜 LATIN SMALL LETTER TESH DIGRAPH WITH RETROFLEX HOOK has been used in phonetic descriptions of Polish^[19]

Voiceless postalveolar non-sibilant affricate

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 postalveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge.
• 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 air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Notes

1. Watson (2002:17)
2. Dum-Tragut (2009:13)
3. "Tjongejonge". 2 April 2019.
4. Shosted & Chikovani (2006:255)
5. Mangold (2005:51–52)
6. Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004:117)
7. Jerzy Treder. "Fonetyka i fonologia". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
8. Ladefoged (2005:158)
9. Dubisz, Karaś & Kolis (1995:62)
10. Barbosa & Albano (2004:228)
11. Blevins (1994:492)
12. Dąbrowska (2004:?)
13. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:255)
14. Danyenko & Vakulenko (1995), p. 4.
15. Merrill (2008:108)
16. Miller, Kirk; Ashby, Michael (2020-11-08). "L2/20-252R: Unicode request for IPA modifier-letters (a), pulmonic" (PDF).
17. Miller, Kirk (2020-07-11). "L2/20-125R: Unicode request for expected IPA retroflex letters and similar letters with hooks" (PDF).
18. Anderson, Deborah (2020-12-07). "L2/21-021: Reference doc numbers for L2/20-266R "Consolidated code chart of proposed phonetic characters" and IPA etc. code point and name changes" (PDF).
19. Miller, Kirk; Everson, Michael (2021-01-03). "L2/21-004: Unicode request for dezh with retroflex hook" (PDF).
20. Cox & Fletcher (2017), p. 144.
21. Cruttenden (2014), pp. 177, 186–188, 192.
22. Wells (2008).

References

• Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004). "Brazilian Portuguese". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 34 (2): 227–232. doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756.
• Blevins, Juliette (1994). "The Bimoraic Foot in Rotuman Phonology and Morphology". Oceanic Linguistics. 33 (2): 491–516. doi:10.2307/3623138. JSTOR 3623138.
• Cox, Felicity; Fletcher, Janet (2017) [First published 2012]. Australian English Pronunciation and Transcription (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-316-63926-9.
• Cruttenden, Alan (2014). Gimson's Pronunciation of English (8th ed.). Routledge. ISBN 9781444183092.
• Dąbrowska, Anna (2004). Język polski. Wrocław: wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie. ISBN 83-7384-063-X.
• Dubisz, Stanisław; Karaś, Halina; Kolis, Nijola (1995). Dialekty i gwary polskie. Warsaw: Wiedza Powszechna. ISBN 83-2140989-X.
• Danyenko, Andrii; Vakulenko, Serhii (1995). Ukrainian. Lincom Europa. ISBN 9783929075083.
• Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009). Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 9789027238146.
• Ladefoged, Peter (2005). Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.). Blackwell.
• Mangold, Max (2005) [First published 1962]. Das Aussprachewörterbuch (6th ed.). Mannheim: Dudenverlag. ISBN 978-3-411-04066-7.
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003). "Castilian Spanish". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 33 (2): 255–259. doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373.
• Merrill, Elizabeth (2008). "Tilquiapan Zapotec" (PDF). Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 38 (1): 107–114. doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344.
• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004). "Italian". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 34 (1): 117–121. doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628.
• Shosted, Ryan K.; Chikovani, Vakhtang (2006). "Standard Georgian" (PDF). Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 36 (2): 255–264. doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659.
• Watson, Janet (2002). The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Wells, John C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Longman. ISBN 9781405881180.

External links

• List of languages with [t̠ʃ] on PHOIBLE