Voiceless retroflex affricate

Voiceless retroflex affricate
ʈ͡ʂ
t͡ʂ
IPA Number	105 (136)
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʈ​͡​ʂ
Unicode (hex)	U+0288 U+0361 U+0282
X-SAMPA	ts`

The voiceless retroflex sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʈ͡ʂ⟩, sometimes simplified to ⟨tʂ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is ⟨ts`⟩.

The affricate occurs in a number of languages:

• Slavic languages: Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Old Czech, and some speakers of Russian and Serbo-Croatian may use it instead of the voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate.
• a number of Northwest Caucasian languages have retroflex affricates that contrast in secondary articulations like labialization.
• Mandarin and other Sinitic languages.

Some scholars transcribe the laminal variant of this sound as /t͡ʃ/, even though it is not palatalized. In such cases the voiceless palato-alveolar affricate is transcribed /t͡ʃʲ/.

Features

Features of the voiceless retroflex 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 retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical sub-apical articulation, the tongue contact can be apical (pointed) or laminal (flat).
• 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 lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe	Temirgoy	чъыгы		'tree'
	Bzhedug
Asturian	Some dialects	ḷḷobu	[ʈ͡ʂoβu]	'wolf'	Corresponds to standard /ʎ/
Belarusian		пачатак	[paʈ͡ʂatak]	'the beginning'	Laminal. See Belarusian phonology
Chinese	Mandarin	中文/Zhōngwén	[ʈ͡ʂʊŋ˥ u̯ən˧˥]	'Chinese language'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Mandarin phonology
Khanty	Eastern dialects	ҷӓңҷ	[ʈ͡ʂaɳʈ͡ʂ]	'knee'	Corresponds to a voiceless retroflex fricative /ʂ/ in the northern dialects
	Southern dialects
Northern Qiang		zhes	[ʈ͡ʂəs]	'day before yesterday'	Contrasts with aspirated and voiced forms
Polish	Standard	czas		'time'	Laminal. Transcribed /t͡ʃ/ by most Polish scholars. See Polish phonology
	Southeastern Cuyavian dialects	cena	[ˈʈ͡ʂɛn̪ä]	'price'	Some speakers. It is a result of hypercorrecting the more popular merger of /ʈ͡ʂ/ and /t͡s/ into [t͡s]
	Suwałki dialect
Quechua	Cajamarca–Cañaris	ch'upa	[ʈ͡ʂupə]	'tail'
Serbo-Croatian		čokoláda / чоколада	[ʈ͡ʂo̞ko̞ˈɫǎ̠ːd̪a̠]	'chocolate'	Laminal. It may be palato-alveolar instead, depending on the dialect. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak		čakať	[ˈʈ͡ʂakac]	'to wait'	Laminal
Torwali		?	[ʈ͡ʂuwu]	'to sew'	Contrasts with aspirated form
Yi		ꍈ/zha	[ʈ͡ʂa˧]	'a bit'	Contrasts with aspirated form

See also

• Index of phonetics articles