Voiceless alveolar affricate

Voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate
t͡s
t͜s
IPA number	103 132
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʦ
Unicode (hex)	U+02A6
X-SAMPA	ts
Kirshenbaum	ts
Sound
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The 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⟩). The voiceless alveolar affricate occurs in many Indo-European languages, such as German, Pashto, Russian and other Slavic languages such as Polish and Serbo-Croatian; in Georgian, in Japanese, in Mandarin Chinese, and in Cantonese, among many others. International auxiliary languages, such as Esperanto, Ido and Interlingua also include this sound.

Voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate

Features

Features of the 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 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

The following sections are named after the fricative component.

Dentalized laminal alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		цуакъэ	[t͡sʷaːqa]	'shoes'
Armenian	Eastern	ցանց	[t̻͡s̪ʰan̪t̻͡s̪ʰ]	'net'	Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms
Basque		hotz	[o̞t̻͡s̪]	'cold'	Contrasts with a sibilant affricate with an apical fricative component.
Belarusian		цеканне	[ˈt̻͡s̪ekän̪ʲe]	'tsekanye'	Contrasts with palatalized form. See Belarusian phonology
Bulgarian		цена	[t̻͡s̪ɛˈn̪a]	'price'
Chechen		церг	[t̻͡s̪erg]	'tooth'
Chinese	Mandarin	早餐/zǎocān	[t̻͡s̪ɑʊ˨˩ t̻͡s̪ʰan˥]	'breakfast'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Mandarin phonology
Czech		co	[t̻͡s̪o̝]	'what'	See Czech phonology
Hungarian		cica	[ˈt̻͡s̪it̻͡s̪ɒ]	'kitten'	See Hungarian phonology
Kashubian
Kazakh					Only in loanwords from Russian
Kyrgyz					Only in loanwords from Russian. See Kyrgyz phonology
Latvian		cena	[ˈt̻͡s̪en̪ä]	'price'	See Latvian phonology
Macedonian		цвет	[t̻͡s̪ve̞t̪]	'flower'	See Macedonian phonology
Polish		co	[t̻͡s̪ɔ]	'what'	See Polish phonology
Romanian		preț	[pre̞t̻͡s̪]	'price'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		царь	[t̻͡s̪ärʲ]	'Tsar'	See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian		циљ / cilj	[t̻͡s̪îːʎ]	'target'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak		cudzí	[ˈt̻͡s̪ud̪͡z̪iː]	'foreign'
Slovene		cvet	[t̻͡s̪ʋéːt̪]	'bloom'	See Slovene phonology
Spanish	Mexican	exterior	[e̞t̻͡s̪t̪e̞ˈɾjo̞r]	'exterior'
Ukrainian		цей	[t̻͡s̪ɛj]	'this one'	See Ukrainian phonology
Upper Sorbian		cybla	[ˈt̻͡s̪ɪblä]	'onion'
Uzbek

Non-retracted alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		хьаца	[χaˈtsa]	'hornbeam'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe		цэ	[t͡sa]	'tooth'
Ainu		チュㇰ	[t͡suk̚]	'autumn'
Arabic	Najdi	ك‍يف	[t͡saif]	'how'	Corresponds to /k/ in other dialects
Albanian		cimbidh	[t͡simbið]	'tongs'
Asturian	Some dialects	otso	[ot͡so]	'eight'	Corresponds to standard /t͡ʃ/
Azerbaijani	Some Western dialects	çay/چای	[t͡sɑj]	'tea'	Corresponds to /t͡ʃ/ in other dialects
Basque		hots	[ot̻͡s̺]	'sound'	The fricative component is apical. Contrasts with a laminal affricate with a dentalized fricative component.
Berber	Kabyle	iḥeşşeḇ	[iħət͡sːəβ]	'he counts'
Catalan		potser	[puˈtt̻͡s̺e]	'maybe'	The fricative component is apical. See Catalan phonology
Central Alaskan Yup'ik		cetaman	[t͡səˈtaman]	'four'	Allophone of /t͡ʃ/ before schwa
Cherokee		ᏣᎳᎩ/tsa-la-gi	[t͡salaɡi]	'Cherokee'
Chinese	Cantonese	擠/zai1	[t͡sɐi˥]	'squeeze'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Cantonese phonology
Danish	Standard	to	[ˈt̻͡s̺oːˀ]	'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
Dutch	Groningen	mat	[ˈmat͡sʰ]	'rug'	Aspirated; common allophone of /t/. Doesn't occur in onsets of stressed syllables. See Dutch phonology
	Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect		[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
	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		ceceo	[t͡seˈt͡seo]	'tsetse fly'	See Esperanto phonology
French	Quebec	petit	[pət͡si]	'small'	Allophone of /t/ before /i/ and /y/. See Quebec French phonology
Georgian		კაცი	[kʼɑt͡si]	'man'
Greek		κορίτσι/korítsi	[ko̞ˈɾit͡si]	'girl'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew		צבע	[ˈt͡se̞vä]	'color'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Japanese		つなみ/tsunami	[t͡su͍namʲi]	'tsunami'	See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		цы	[t͡sə]	'hair'
Khowar		څیڅیق	[t͡sit͡seq]	'children'
Kiowa		chḗ	[t͡séː]	'short'
Low German	Gronings dialect	zet	[ˈz̠ɛt͡sʰ]	'put' (past participle)	Aspirated; common allophone of /t/. Doesn't occur in onsets of stressed syllables.
Luxembourgish		Zuch	[t͡suχ]	'train'	See Luxembourgish phonology
Marathi		चव	[t͡səv]	'taste'	See Marathi phonology; depending on the word, the letter च may also be pronounced as /tʃə/
Maltese		zokk	[t͡sokː]	'(tree) trunk'
Nez Perce		cíickan	[ˈt͡siːt͡skan]	'blanket'
Pashto		څه	[t͡sə]	'what'
Portuguese	European	parte sem vida	[ˈpaɾt͡sẽj ˈviðə]	'lifeless part'	Allophone of /t/ before /i, ĩ/, or assimilation due to the deletion of /i ~ ɨ ~ e/. Increasingly used in Brazil.
	Brazilian	participação	[pɐχt͡sipɐˈsɜ̃w]	'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
Sardinian	Campidanese	petza	[ˈpɛt͡sa]	'meat'
Spanish	Madrid	ancha	[ˈänʲt͡sʲä]	'wide (sg. fem.)'	Palatalized; with an apical fricative component. It corresponds to [t͡ʃ] in standard Spanish. See Spanish phonology
Tanacross		dzeen	[t͡seːn]	'day'
West Frisian		tsiis	[t͡siːs]	'cheese'
Yi		ꊪ zy/	[t͡sɪ˧]	'to plant'	Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms

Variable

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
German	Standard	Zweck	[t͡sv̥ɛk]	'purpose'	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
Spanish	Chilean	ancha	[ˈänt͡sä]	'wide (sg. fem.)'	The fricative component varies between dentalized laminal and alveolar. It corresponds to [t͡ʃ] in standard Spanish. See Spanish phonology

Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant affricate

Voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative
t͡θ̠
t͡θ͇
t͡ɹ̝̊

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 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
English	General American	tree	[t͡ɹ̝̊ʷiː]	'tree'	Phonetic realization of the sequence /tr/; more commonly postalveolar [t̠͡ɹ̠̊˔]. See English phonology
	Received Pronunciation
Italian	Sicily	straniero	[st͡θ̠äˈnjɛɾo]	'foreign'	Apical. Regional realization of the sequence /tr/; may be a sequence [tθ̠] or [tð̠] instead. See Italian phonology

See also

• Voiceless dental affricate
• List of phonetics topics

Bibliography

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