Voiceless retroflex affricate

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The voiceless retroflex affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound are [ʈ͡ʂ], sometimes simplified to [tʂ], and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is ts\. The affricate occurs in a number of languages; Mandarin Chinese contrasts an aspirated and non-aspirated form (ch and zh respectively), a number of Northwest Caucasian languages have retroflex affricates that contrast in secondary articulations like labialization.

Contents 1 Features 2 Occurrence 3 References 4 Bibliography

[edit] Features

Features of the voiceless retroflex 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 retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up, but more generally means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized.
• Its phonation type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibration 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.

[edit] Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Chinese	Mandarin[1]	中文/Zhōngwén	[ʈ͡ʂʊŋ˥ uən˧˥]	'Chinese'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Standard Mandarin
Polish[2][3]		czas	[ʈ͡ʂas] (help·info)	'time'	See Polish phonology
Ukrainian		чотири	[t͡ʂo̞ˈtɪrɪ]	'four'	See Ukrainian phonology

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Hamann, Silke (2004), "Retroflex fricatives in Slavic languages", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 53-67, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001604 
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103-107 
• Ladefoged, Peter; Wu, Zongji (1984), "Places of Articulation: An Investigation of Pekingese Fricatives and Affricates", Journal of Phonetics 11: 267-278 

v • d • e Consonants List · Table Pulmonics Bila​bial Labio​d. Den​tal Alv. Post. Retro​fl. Pal​a​tal Ve​lar Uvu​lar Pha​ryn. Epi​glot​t. Glot​tal Non-pulmonics and other symbols [edit • talk] Nasals m ɱ n̪ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ  Clicks  ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ Plosives p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ  Impl.  ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ Fricatives ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ  Eject.  pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ sʼ Approxim. ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ  Affr.  p̪͡f t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ t͡ɕ d͡ʑ ʈ͡ʂ ɖ͡ʐ t͡ɬ d͡ɮ Trills ʙ r • ʀ • Other laterals  ɺ • ɫ Flaps / taps ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ ɽ • • Co-art. fricatives  ɕ ʑ ɧ Lateral Fric. ɬ ɮ • • • Co-art. approxim.  ʍ w ɥ Lateral Appr. l ɭ ʎ ʟ Co-articulated stops  k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m This table contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible. See also IPA · Vowels