Voiceless postalveolar affricate
The voiceless palato-alveolar affricate or domed postalveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to English speakers as the "ch" sound in "chip".
Historically, this sound often derives from a former voiceless velar plosive (k, as in English, Slavic languages and Romance languages), or a voiceless dental plosive by way of palatalization, especially next to a front vowel.
Features
Features of the voiceless domed postalveolar affricate:
- Its manner of articulation is sibilant affricate, which means it is produced by first stopping the airflow entirely, then directing it through a groove in the tongue and over 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 front of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue bunched up ("domed") at the palate.
- Its phonation type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
- It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
- It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
- The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.
Transcription
The International Phonetic Alphabet uses two symbols together to represent this sound: tʃ. They may be joined with a tiebar (t͡ʃ), and the t may sometimes be given the "retracted" diacritic (t̠ʃ). Formerly a ligature (ʧ) was used. Other phonetic transcriptions used include:
- c
- č
- ch
- tc (older Americanist transcription)
- tš
- cs
- cz
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albanian | çelur | [tʃɛluɾ] | 'open' | ||
| Atkan Aleut | chamĝul | [tʃɑmʁul] | 'to wash' | ||
| Amharic | አንቺ | [antʃi] | 'you' f. sg. | ||
| Azeri | Əkinçi | [ækintʃi] | 'the ploughman' | ||
| Basque | txalupa | [tʃalupa] | 'boat' | ||
| Czech | morče | ? | 'guinea pig' | See Czech phonology | |
| Bohairic Coptic | ϭⲟϩ | [tʃoh] | 'touch' | ||
| Deg Hit'an | example needed | -- | -- | ||
| Dena’ina | example needed | -- | -- | ||
| Esperanto | ĉar | [tʃar] | 'because' | ||
| Faroese | tjørn | [ʧɶtn] | 'lake' | ||
| Georgian | ჩრდილოეთი | ? | 'north' | ||
| Gwich’in | example needed | -- | -- | ||
| Hän | example needed | -- | -- | ||
| Hebrew | example needed | -- | -- | See Hebrew phonology | |
| Italian | ciao | [tʃao] | 'ciao' | See Italian phonology | |
| English | bleach | [bliːtʃ] | 'bleach' | See English phonology | |
| Hungarian | csap | [tʃɒp] | 'faucet, he/she strikes' | ||
| K'iche' | K'iche' | [kʼiʧeʔ] | K'iche'' | Contrasts with ejective form | |
| Maltese | bliċ | [blitʃ] | 'bleach' | ||
| Norwegian | kjøkken | [tʃøkːen] | 'kitchen' | See Norwegian phonology | |
| Persian | چوب | ? | ? | See Persian phonology | |
| Brazilian Portuguese | presidente | [pɾeziˈdẽtʃi] | 'president' | ||
| Punjabi | example needed | -- | -- | ||
| Romanian | cer | [tʃe̞r] | 'sky' | See Romanian phonology | |
| Rotuman | example needed | -- | -- | ||
| Scottish Gaelic | slàinte | [slaːntʃə] | '?' | ||
| Serbian | Чоколада/čokoláda | [tʃɔkɔˈlaːda] | 'chocolate' | ||
| Slovak | kľúč | [klʲuːtʃ] | 'key' | ||
| Spanish | chafar | [tʃ̪aˈfar] | 'to flatten' | See Spanish phonology | |
| Turkish | uçak | [utʃak] | 'airplane' | ||
| Ubykh | [tʃəbʒəja] | 'pepper' | See Ubykh phonology | ||
| Ukrainian | чи | ʧɪ | 'Is' (in questions), 'either', 'or' | See Ukrainian phonology | |
Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and Thai have a Voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate /ʨ/; this is technically postalveolar but it is less precise to use /tʃ/.
