Voiceless alveolar affricate

Voiceless alveolar affricate
t͡s
Image
IPA number	103 (132)
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʦ
Unicode (hex)	U+02A6
X-SAMPA	ts
Kirshenbaum	ts
Sound

The voiceless alveolar 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⟩). The voiceless alveolar affricate occurs in such languages as German, Cantonese, Italian, Russian, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, among many others. International auxiliary languages, such as Esperanto, Ido and Interlingua also include this sound.

Features

Features of the voiceless alveolar 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 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 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
Abkhaz		хьаца	[χaˈt͡sa]	'hornbeam'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe		цэ	[t͡se]	'tooth'
Ainu		チュㇰ	[t͡suk̚]	'autumn'
Albanian		cimbidh	[t͡simbið]	'tongs'
Armenian		ցանց	[t͡sʰant͡sʰ]	'net'
Asturian		cibieḷḷa	[θibiɛt͡sa]	'stick'
Berber	Kabyle	iḥeşşeḇ	[iħət͡st͡səβ]	'he counts'
Basque		hotz	[ot͡s̻]	'cold'
		hots	[ot͡s̺]	'sound'
Bulgarian		цена	[t͡sɛˈna]	'price'
Catalan		potser	[puˈtt͡se]	'maybe'	See Catalan phonology
Cherokee		ᏣᎳᎩ/tsa-la-gi	[t͡salaɡi]	'Cherokee'
Chinese	Cantonese	妻/cai1	[t͡sʰɐi˥]	'wife'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	早餐/zǎocān	[t͡sɑʊ˨˩ t͡sʰan˥]	'breakfast'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Mandarin phonology
Czech		co	[t͡so]	'what'	See Czech phonology
Esperanto		ceceo	[t͡seˈt͡seo]	'tsetse fly'	See Esperanto phonology
French	Quebec	petit	[pəˈt͡si]	'small'	See Quebec French phonology
Georgian		კაცი	[kʼɑt͡si]	'man'
German		zehn	[t͡seːn]	'ten'	See German phonology
Greek		κορίτσι/korítsi	[ko̞ˈrit͡si]	'girl'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew		צבע	[ˈt͡se̞va]	'color'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hungarian		cica	[ˈt͡sit͡sɒ]	'kitten'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian		grazia	[ˈɡrat̪͡s̪ja]	'grace'	The letter <z> may also represent /dz/. See Italian phonology
Japanese		つなみ/tsunami	[t͡su͍namʲi]	'tsunami'	See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		цы	[t͡sʰɪ]	'hair'
Kiowa		chḗ	[t͡séː]	'short'
Latvian		cik	[t͡sik]	'how many'	See Latvian phonology
Maltese		zokk	[t͡sokk]	'(tree) trunk'
Nez Perce		cíickan	[ˈt͡siːt͡skan]	'blanket'
Pashto		څلور	[t͡saˈlor]	'four'
Polish		co	[t͡sɔ]	'what'	See Polish phonology
Romanian		preţ	[pret͡s]	'price'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		царь	[t͡sarʲ]	'Tsar'	See Russian phonology
Sardinian	Campidanese	petza	[ˈpɛt͡sa]	'meat'
Serbo-Croatian		циљ/cilj	[t͡síːʎ]	'target'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak		cudzí	[t͡sudziː]	'foreign'
Tanacross		dzeen	[t͡seːn]	'day'
Ukrainian		цей	[t͡sɛj]	'this one'	See Ukrainian phonology
West Frisian		tsiis	[t͡siːs]	'cheese'
Central Alaskan Yup'ik		cetaman	[t͡səˈtaman]	'four'	allophone of /t͡ʃ/ before schwa
Yi		ꊪ/zy	[t͡sɪ˧]	'to plant'	Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms

See also

• List of phonetics topics

Bibliography

• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103–107 
• Recasens, Daniel; Espinosa, Aina (2007), "An electropalatographic and acoustic study of affricates and fricatives in two Catalan dialects", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37 (2): 143–172 
• Shosted, Ryan K.; Vakhtang, Chikovani (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255–264 
• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117–121 
• Jacobson, Steven (1995), A Practical Grammar of the Central Alaskan Yup'ik Eskimo Language, Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center, ISBN 9781555000509