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 with significant perceptual differences:

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

Voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate
ts
ʦ
IPA number	103 132
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʦ
Unicode (hex)	U+02A6
X-SAMPA	ts
Image

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 ⟨t͡s⟩ or ⟨t͜s⟩ (formerly with ⟨ʦ⟩ or ⟨ƾ⟩). 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 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 [s] 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 [ʃ] or laminal [ʂ].
• 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.

Variable

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
German	Standard	Zeit	[t͡säɪ̯t]	'time'	The fricative component varies between dentalized laminal, non-retracted laminal and non-retracted apical. See Standard German phonology
Italian	Standard	grazia	[ˈɡrät̚t͡sjä]	'grace'	The fricative component varies between dentalized laminal and non-retracted apical. In the latter case, the stop component is laminal denti-alveolar. See Italian phonology

Dentalized laminal alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Armenian	Eastern	ցանց/canc		'net'	Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms
Basque		hotz	[o̞t̻͡s̪]	'cold'	Contrasts with a sibilant affricate with an apical fricative component.
Belarusian		цётка/cötka	[ˈt̻͡s̪ʲɵtka]	'aunt'	Contrasting palatalization. See Belarusian phonology
Bulgarian		цар/car	[t̻͡s̪är]	'Tsar'	See Bulgarian phonology
Chinese	Mandarin	早餐 / zǎo cān	[t̻͡s̪ɑʊ˨˩ t̻͡s̪ʰan˥]	'breakfast'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Standard Chinese phonology
	Cantonese	早餐 / zou2 caan1	/t͡sou˧˥ t͡sʰaːn˥/	'breakfast'	See Cantonese phonology
Czech		co	[t̻͡s̪o̝]	'what'	See Czech phonology
Hungarian		cica	[ˈt̻͡s̪it̻͡s̪ɒ]	'kitten'	See Hungarian phonology
Japanese		津波 / tsunami	[t̻͡s̪ɯ̟ᵝnämʲi]	'Tsunami'	Allophone of /t/ before /u/. See Japanese phonology
		モッツァレラ/mottsarera	[mo̞t̻t̻͡s̪äɾe̞ɾä]	'mozzarella'	May appear before other vowels in loanwords. See Japanese phonology
Kashmiri		ژاس/cás	[t͡saːs]	'cough'
Kashubian		^[example needed]
Kazakh		инвестиция/investitsiya	[investit̻͡s̪əja]	'price'	Only in loanwords from Russian See Kazakh phonology and Kyrgyz phonology
Kyrgyz
Latvian		cena	[ˈt̻͡s̪en̪ä]	'price'	See Latvian phonology
Macedonian		цвет/cvet	[t̻͡s̪ve̞t̪]	'flower'	See Macedonian phonology
Pashto		څلور/śalor	[t͡saˈlor]	'four'	See Pashto phonology
Polish		co		'what'	See Polish phonology
Romanian		preț	[pre̞t̻͡s̪]	'price'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		царь/caŕ	[t̻͡s̪ärʲ]	'Tsar'	See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian		циљ / cilj / ڄیڵ	[t̻͡s̪îːʎ]	'target'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak		cisár	[t̻͡s̪isaːr]	'emperor'	See Slovak phonology
Slovene		cvet	[t̻͡s̪ʋêːt̪]	'bloom'	See Slovene phonology
Spanish	Andalusian	resto	[ˈre̞t̻͡s̪o̞]	'rest'	See Andalusian Spanish
Tyap		tsa	[t͡sa]	'to begin'
Ukrainian		цей/cej	[t̻͡s̪ɛj]	'this one'	Contrasting palatalization. See Ukrainian phonology
Upper Sorbian		cybla	[ˈt̻͡s̪ɘblä]	'onion'
Uzbek		^[example needed]

Non-retracted alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Arabic	Najdi	ك‍‍لب/tsalb	[t͡salb]	'dog'	Corresponds to /k/ and /t͡ʃ/ in other dialects
Asturian	Some dialects	otso	[ˈot͡so]	'eight'	Corresponds to standard /t͡ʃ/
	Ḷḷena, Mieres, and others	ḷḷuna	[ˈt͡sunɐ]	'moon'	Alveolar realization of che vaqueira instead of normal retroflex [ʈ͡ʂ]
Basque		hots	[ot̻͡s̺]	'sound'	The fricative component is apical. Contrasts with a laminal affricate with a dentalized fricative component.
Blackfoot		ᖹᒧᐧᒣᑯ / Niitsítapii	[niːt͡sɪ́tʌpiː]	'original person' or 'Blackfoot Person'
Catalan		potser	[pu(t)ˈt̻͡s̺e]	'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 [tːs] ~ [ts]. See Catalan phonology
Central Alaskan Yup'ik		cetaman	[t͡səˈtaman]	'four'	Allophone of /t͡ʃ/ before schwa
Chamorro		CHamoru	[t͡sɑˈmoːɾu]	'Chamorro'	Spelled Chamoru in the orthography used in the Northern Mariana Islands.
Chechen		цаца / caca / ر̤ار̤ا	[t͡sət͡sə]	'sieve'
Cherokee		ᏣᎳᎩ tsalagi	[t͡salaɡi]	'Cherokee'
Danish	Standard	to	[ˈt̻͡s̺ʰoːˀ]	'two'	The fricative component is apical. In some accents, it is realized as [tʰ]. Usually transcribed /tˢ/ or /t/. Contrasts with the unaspirated stop [t], which is usually transcribed /d̥/ or /d/. See Danish phonology
Dargwa		цадеш / ꞩadeş / ڝادەش	[t͡sadeʃ]	'unity, oneness'
Dutch	Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect	mat	[ˈmät͡s]	'market'	Optional pre-pausal allophone of /t/. See Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect phonology
English	Broad Cockney	tea	[ˈt͡səˑi̯]	'tea'	Possible word-initial, intervocalic and word-final allophone of /t/. See English phonology
	Received Pronunciation		[ˈt͡sɪˑi̯]
	New York				Possible syllable-initial and sometimes also utterance-final allophone of /t/. See English phonology
	New Zealand				Word-initial allophone of /t/. See English phonology
	North Wales		[ˈt͡siː]		Word-initial and word-final allophone of /t/; in free variation with a strongly aspirated stop [tʰ]. See English phonology
	Port Talbot				Allophone of /t/. In free variation with [tʰʰ].
	Scouse				Possible syllable-initial and word-final allophone of /t/. See English phonology
	General South African	wanting	[ˈwɑnt͡sɪŋ]	'wanting'	Possible syllable-final allophone of /t/.
Esperanto		cico	['t͡sit͡so]	'nipple'	See Esperanto phonology
Filipino		tsokolate	[t͡sokɔlate]	'chocolate'
French	Quebec	tu	[t͡sy]	'you'	Allophone of /t/ before /i, y/.
Georgian		კაცი/k'atsi	[kʼɑt͡si]	'man'
Haida		x̱ants	[ʜʌnt͡s]	'shadow'	Allophone of /t͡ʃ/.
Hebrew		צל/tzel	[t͡se̞l]	'shadow'
Korean	North Korean	조선 / Chosŏn	[t͡sɔsɔn]	'North Korea'	Corresponds to /t͡ɕ/ in South Korean. See Korean phonology
Luxembourgish		Zuch	[t͡suχ]	'train'	See Luxembourgish phonology
Marathi		चमचा/tsamtsā	['t͡səmt͡saː]	'spoon'	Represented by <च>, which also represents [t͡ʃ]. It is not a marked difference.
Nepali		चाप/tsāp	[t͡säp]	'pressure'	Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated versions. The unaspirated is represented by /च/. The aspirated sound is represented by /छ/. See Nepali phonology
Portuguese	European	parte sem vida	[ˈpaɾt͡sẽj ˈviðɐ]	'lifeless part'	Allophone of /t/ before /i, ĩ/, or assimilation due to the deletion of /i ~ ɨ ~ e/. Increasingly used in Brazil.
	Brazilian	participação	[paʁt͡sipaˈsɐ̃w̃]	'participation'
	Most speakers	shiatsu	[ɕiˈat͡su]	'shiatsu'	Marginal sound. Many Brazilians might break the affricate with epenthetic [i], often subsequently palatalizing /t/, specially in pre-tonic contexts (e.g. tsunami [tɕisuˈnɜ̃mʲi]). See Portuguese phonology
Spanish	Madrid	ancha	[ˈänʲt͡sʲä]	'wide'	Palatalized; with an apical fricative component. It corresponds to [t͡ʃ] in standard Spanish. See Spanish phonology
	Chilean
	Some Rioplatense dialects	tía	[ˈt͡siä]	'aunt'
	Some Venezuelan dialects	zorro	[ˈt͡so̞ro̞]	'fox'	Allophone of /s/ word initially.
Tamil	Jaffna Tamil	சந்தை/cantai	[t͡sɐn̪d̪ɛi̯]	'market'	Rare, other realizations include [t͡ʃ, ʃ, s].
Telugu		ౘట్టి/ĉaṭṭi	[t͡sɐʈʈi]	'pot'

Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant affricate

Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant affricate
tɹ̝̊
tθ̠
tθ͇
Audio sample
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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

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Dutch	Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect	verbèganger	[vərˈbɛːɣäŋət͡ɹ̝̊]	'passer-by'	A possible realization of word-final /r/ before pauses.
English	General American	tree		'tree'	Phonetic realization of the stressed, syllable-initial sequence /tr/; more commonly postalveolar [t̠ɹ̠̊˔]. See English phonology
	Received Pronunciation
Italian	Sicily	straniero	[st͡ɹ̝̊äˈnjɛɾo]	'foreign'	Apical. Regional realization of the sequence /tr/; may be a sequence [tɹ̝̊] or [tɹ̝] instead. See Italian phonology

See also

• Index of phonetics articles