Voiceless retroflex affricate

A voiceless retroflex sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʈ͡ʂ⟩, sometimes simplified to ⟨tʂ⟩ or ⟨ꭧ⟩. Its apical variant is ⟨ʈ̺͡ʂ̺⟩ and laminal variant ⟨ʈ̻͡ʂ̻⟩.

Voiceless retroflex affricate
ʈʂ
tʂ
ꭧ
IPA number	105 (136)
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʈ​͡​ʂ
Unicode (hex)	U+0288 U+0361 U+0282
X-SAMPA	ts`
Image

Features

Features of a voiceless retroflex 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 retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical subapical articulation, the tongue can be apical (pointed) or, in some fricatives, laminal (flat).
• 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 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.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

The affricate occurs in a number of languages:

• Asturian: Speakers of the western dialects of this language use it instead of the voiced palatal fricative, writing ḷḷ instead of ll.
• Slavic languages: Polish, Belarusian, Old Czech, Serbo-Croatian; some speakers of Russian may use it instead of the voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate.
• a number of Northwest Caucasian languages have retroflex affricates that contrast in secondary articulations like labialization.
• Mandarin and other Sinitic languages.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		аҽада	[at͡ʂʰada]ⓘ	'donkey'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe		чъыгы	[t͡ʂəɣə]ⓘ	'tree'	See Adyghe phonology
Asturian	Some dialects[1][2]	ḷḷobu	[t̠͡ʂoβu]	'wolf'	Corresponds to standard /ʎ/.
Belarusian		пачатак	[pat̠͡ʂatak]	'the beginning'	Laminal. See Belarusian phonology
Chinese	Mandarin[3]	中文 / Zhōngwén	[ʈ̺͡ʂ̺ʊŋ˥ u̯ən˧˥]ⓘ	'Chinese language'	Apical.[4] Contrasts with aspirated form. See Mandarin phonology
Hmong	White Hmong	𖬒𖬶𖬯𖬵 / txov	[tso˨˦]	'lion' or 'tiger'
Khanty	Eastern dialects	ҷӓңҷ	[t̠͡ʂaɳt̠͡ʂ]	'knee'	Corresponds to a voiceless retroflex fricative /ʂ/ in the northern dialects.
	Southern dialects
Mapudungun		trafoy	[t̠͡ʂa.ˈfoj]	'it got broken'	Contrasts with a voiceless postalveolar affricate: chafoy [t͡ʃa.ˈfoj] 'he/she coughed'
Northern Qiang		zhes	[t̠͡ʂəs]	'day before yesterday'	Contrasts with aspirated and voiced forms.
Polish	Standard[5][6]	czas	[ˈt̠͡ʂäs̪]ⓘ	'time'	Laminal. Transcribed /t͡ʃ/ by most Polish scholars. See Polish phonology
	Southeastern Cuyavian dialects[7]	cena	[ˈt̠͡ʂɛn̪ä]	'price'	Some speakers. It is a result of hypercorrecting the more popular merger of /t̠͡ʂ/ and /t͡s/ into [t͡s].
	Suwałki dialect[8]
Quechua	Cajamarca–Cañaris	chupa	[t̠͡ʂupə]	'tail'
Russian		лу́чше / luchshe	[ˈɫut͡ʂʂə]ⓘ	'better'
Serbo-Croatian[9]		чеп / čep	[t̠͡ʂe̞p]	'cork'	Apical. It may be palato-alveolar instead, depending on the dialect. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Silesian		szczopek	[ʂt̠͡ʂopɛk]	'pike'
Slovak[10]		čakať	[ˈt̠͡ʂäkäc]	'to wait'	Laminal.
Torwali[11]		ڇووو	[t̠͡ʂuwu]	'to sew'	Contrasts with aspirated form.
Vietnamese		trà	[t̠͡ʂaː˨˩]	'tea'	Some speakers.
Yi		ꍈ / zha	[t̠͡ʂa˧]	'a bit'	Contrasts with aspirated form.

See also

• Index of phonetics articles