Voiceless palatal affricate

A voiceless palatal affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represent this sound are ⟨c͡ç⟩ and ⟨c͜ç⟩. The tie bar may be omitted, yielding ⟨cç⟩.

Voiceless palatal affricate
cç
IPA number	107 (138)
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	`c͡ç`
Unicode (hex)	U+0063 U+0361 U+00E7
X-SAMPA	`c_C`

This sound is the non-sibilant equivalent of the voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate.

A voiceless palatal affricate occurs in such languages as Hungarian and Skolt Sami, among others. The consonant is quite rare; it is mostly absent from Europe (with the Uralic languages and Albanian being exceptions). It usually occurs with its voiced counterpart, the voiced palatal affricate.

There is also a voiceless post-palatal affricate in some languages, which is articulated slightly more back compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical voiceless palatal affricate, though not as back as the prototypical voiceless velar affricate. The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, though it can be transcribed as ⟨c̠͡ç̠⟩, ⟨c͡ç˗⟩ (both symbols denote a retracted ⟨c͡ç⟩) or ⟨k̟͡x̟⟩ (advanced ⟨k͡x⟩) - this article uses only the first symbol.

Especially in broad transcription, a voiceless post-palatal affricate may be transcribed as a palatalized voiceless velar affricate (⟨k͡xʲ⟩ or ⟨k͜xʲ⟩.

Features

Features of a voiceless palatal affricate:

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. It is not a sibilant.
Its place of articulation is palatal, which means it is articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised to the hard palate. The otherwise identical post-palatal variant is articulated slightly behind the hard palate, making it sound slightly closer to the velar [k͡x].
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
Albanian	Standard	qaj	[c͡çaj]	'I cry'	May merge with [t͡ʃ] in some dialects. Retained as [c] in some Tosk Albanian varieties, or alternatively [c͡ç]. See Albanian language
Asturian	Western dialects^{[page needed]}	muyyer	[muˈc͡çeɾ]	'woman'	Alternate evolution of -lj-, -c'l-, pl-, cl- and fl- in the Brañas Vaqueiras area of Western Asturias. May be also realized as [c] or [ɟ͡ʝ]
Kaingang		soinh	[c͡çɔi̯ɟ]	'cranefly'	Possible word-initial realization of /ç/.
Dutch		koekje		'biscuit' (dim.)	Post-palatal; allophone of /k/ before /j/. See Dutch phonology
Korean		위키백과 / wikibaekkwa		'Wikipedia'	Allophone of /kʰ/ before /i/ and /j/. See Korean phonology
Makassarese		pacce	[ˈpʰac.c͡çɛ]	'empathic pain'	Allophone of /c/.
Navajo		ashkii	[aʃc͡çiː]	'boy'	Allophone of /kʰ/ before the front vowels /i, e/. See Navajo phonology
Norwegian	Central and Western dialects	ikkje	[ic͡çə]	'not'	See Norwegian phonology
Skolt Sami		sääˊmǩiõll	[ɕa̟ːmʰʲc͡çjɘlː]	'Skolt Sami'
Tamil	Tirunelveli Tamil	கசப்பு / kacappu	[kɐc͡çɐpːɯ]	'bitterness'	Realization of medial ச in Tirunelveli/Teṉpāṇṭi dialect. Contrasts with /s/ in most other dialects.
Yine		nchanixika	[nt͡ʃanic͡çika]	'I am invited'	May be /c/ instead.

Features

Occurrence

See also