Alveolar ejective affricate

"t͡sʼ" redirects here; not to be confused with t͡s.

An alveolar ejective affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨t͡sʼ⟩ or ⟨t͜sʼ⟩.

Alveolar ejective affricate
tsʼ
ʦʼ
Audio sample
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Encoding
X-SAMPA	ts_>

Features

Features of an alveolar ejective 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 un-voiced, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
• It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
• 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 ejective (glottalic egressive), which means the air is forced out by pumping the glottis upward.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abaza		хъацIа/qac'a	[qat͡sʼa]	'man'
Adyghe		папцӀэ/pápc'a	[pʰaːpt͡sʼa]ⓘ	'sharp'
Amharic		ፀጉር/cegur	[ʦʼəgur]	'hair'
Armenian	Yerevan dialect	ծառ/caŕ	[t͡sʼɑr]	'tree'	Corresponds to tenuis [t͡s⁼] in other Eastern dialects.
Avar		мацӀ/mac'	[mat͡sʼ]	'language'
Chechen		цIе/c'e/ ڗە	[t͡sʼe]	'name'
Georgian[1]		წელი/c'eli	[t͡sʼeli]	'year'
Hadza		zzapale	[t͡sʼapaɾe]	'digging stick'
Haida		ttsanskkaagid	[t͡sʼanskʼaːkit]	'beams'
Hausa		tsoro	[t͡sʼoro]	'fear'
Kabardian		цӀэ / çe / ڗە	[t͡sʼa]ⓘ	'name'
Lak		цIа / ċа / ڗا	[t͡sʼa]	'name'[2]
Laz	Atina-Artasheni dialect	წუნა/ǯuna	[t͡sʼunɑ]	'pain' or 'ache'
	Vitse dialect	წკუნა/ǯǩuna	[t͡sʼk’unɑ]
Lushootseed		c̓uʔkʷs	[t͡sʼoʔkʷs]	'seven'
Nuxálk		xłp̓x̣ʷłtłpłłskʷc̓	[xɬpʼχʷɬtʰɬpʰɬːskwht͡sʼ]	'he had had in his possession a bunchberry plant'
Ossetian	Iron	цъæх/c'ah	[t͡sʼəχ]	'blue' or 'green'
Q'eqchi'		tzʼiʼ	[t͡sʼiʔ]	'dog'
Tlingit		tsʼankwaat	[t͡sʼankʷʰaːtʰ]	'spider'

See also

• Index of phonetics articles