Affricate

Notation

Affricates are transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet by a combination of two letters, one for the stop element and the other for the fricative element. In order to clarify that these form a single consonant, a tie bar may be used. The tie bar appears most commonly above the two letters, but may be placed under them if it fits better there, or simply because it is more legible. Thus:

⟨⟩

or

⟨⟩.

A less common notation indicates the release of the affricate with a superscript:

⟨⟩

This is derived from the IPA convention of indicating other releases with a superscript. However, this convention is more typically used for a fricated release that is too brief to be considered a true affricate.

Though they are no longer standard IPA, ligatures are available in Unicode for the sibilant affricates, which remain in common use:

⟨⟩.

The remaining coronal affricates were added to Unicode 18.0 in 2026:

⟨𝼤 𝼟, 𝼢 𝼠, 𝼣 𝼡, 𝼬 𝼫⟩ for [t͜θ] [d͜ð], [t͜ɬ] [d͡ɮ], [t͡ꞎ] [d͡𝼅], [t͜ʆ] [d͡ʓ].

Ligatures ⟨⟩ for the non-coronal affricates have also been used.

Any of these notations can be used to distinguish an affricate from a sequence of plosive plus fricative, which is contrastive in languages such as Polish. However, in languages where there is no such distinction within a syllable, such as English or Turkish, a simple sequence of letters such as ⟨⟩ is commonly used, with no overt indication that they form an affricate. In such cases the syllable boundary may be written to distinguish the plosive-fricative sequence in petshop from the similar affricate in ketchup .

In other phonetic transcription systems, such as the Americanist system, affricates may be transcribed with single letters. The affricate may be transcribed as ⟨c⟩ or ⟨ȼ⟩; as ⟨ʒ⟩, ⟨ƶ⟩ or ⟨j⟩; as ⟨c⟩ or ⟨č⟩; as ⟨ǰ⟩, ⟨ǧ⟩ or ⟨ǯ⟩; as ⟨ƛ⟩; and as ⟨λ⟩.

Single letters may also be used with phonemic transcription in IPA: and are sometimes transcribed with the symbols for the palatal stops, ⟨⟩ and ⟨⟩, for example in the IPA Handbook.

Contrast with stop–fricative sequences

In some languages, affricates contrast phonemically with stop–fricative sequences at the same place of articulation:

• Polish affricate in czysta 'clean (f.)' versus stop–fricative in trzysta 'three hundred'; or affricate in dżem 'jam' versus stop–fricative in drzem 'snooze (2nd person singular imperative)';
• Klallam affricate in k'ʷə́nc 'look at me' versus stop–fricative in k'ʷə́nts 'he looks at it'.

The exact phonetic difference varies between languages. In stop–fricative sequences, the stop has a release burst before the fricative starts (which in the case of Klallam is aspirated ), but in affricates, the fricative element is the release. Stop–fricatives can be distinguished acoustically from affricates by the rise time of the frication noise, which is shorter for affricates.

In English, and (nuts, nods) are stop–fricative sequences. They most often contain a morpheme boundary (for example, nuts = nut + s), though there are exceptions such as waltz and adze. The affricates and , on the other hand, do not allow morpheme boundaries. The phonemic distinction in English between the affricate and the stop–fricative sequence (found across syllable boundaries) can be observed by minimal pairs such as the following:

• worst ship →
• worse chip →

The in 'worst ship' may be elided: , but that of chip is not.

Geminate affricates

When affricates are geminated, it is usually the duration of the plosive closure that is lengthened, not that of the frication. For example, in most languages is pronounced , not *. This is the case with Italian and Japanese. However, Polish has been reported to be more variable, with phonological gemination through rearticulation of the affricate, lengthening of the plosive closure or – less commonly – lengthening of the fricative release, so that may be realized as , or .

List of affricates

In the case of coronals, the symbols ⟨⟩ are normally used for the stop portion of the affricate regardless of place. For example, ⟨⟩ is commonly seen for ⟨⟩, ⟨⟩ for ⟨⟩ and ⟨⟩ for ⟨⟩.

The exemplar languages are ones that have been reported to have these sounds, but in several cases, they may need confirmation.

Sibilant affricates

The Northwest Caucasian languages Abkhaz and Ubykh both contrast sibilant affricates at four places of articulation: alveolar, postalveolar, alveolo-palatal and retroflex. They also distinguish voiceless, voiced, and ejective affricates at each of these.

When a language has only one type of affricate, it is usually a sibilant; this is the case in e.g. Arabic (), most dialects of Spanish (), and Thai ().

Non-sibilant affricates

Lateral affricates

Trilled affricates

Itene, Oro Win, Sangtam, and Wari' have a dental stop with bilabial trilled release .

Heterorganic affricates

Although most affricates are homorganic, Navajo and Chiricahua Apache have a heterorganic alveolar-velar affricate . Itene, Oro Win, Sangtam, and Wari' have a voiceless dental bilabially trilled affricate (see Trilled affricate). Blackfoot has and . Other heterorganic affricates are reported for Northern Sotho and other Bantu languages such as Phuthi, which has alveolar–labiodental affricates and , and Sesotho, which has bilabial–palatoalveolar affricates and . Djeoromitxi has and .

Phonation, coarticulation and other variants

The coronal and dorsal places of articulation attested as ejectives as well: . Several Khoisan languages such as Taa are reported to have voiced ejective affricates, but these are actually pre-voiced: . Affricates are also commonly aspirated: , murmured: , and prenasalized: (as in Hmong). Labialized, palatalized, velarized, and pharyngealized affricates are also common. Affricates may also have phonemic length, that is, affected by a chroneme, as in Italian and Karelian.

Phonological representation

In phonology, affricates tend to behave similarly to stops, taking part in phonological patterns that fricatives do not. Kehrein (2002) analyzes phonetic affricates as phonological stops. A sibilant or lateral (and presumably trilled) stop can be realized phonetically only as an affricate and so might be analyzed phonemically as a sibilant or lateral stop. In that analysis, affricates other than sibilants and laterals are a phonetic mechanism for distinguishing stops at similar places of articulation (like more than one labial, coronal, or dorsal place). For example, Chipewyan has laminal dental vs. apical alveolar ; other languages may contrast velar with palatal and uvular . Affricates may also be a strategy to increase the phonetic contrast between aspirated or ejective and tenuis consonants.

According to Kehrein (2002), no language contrasts a non-sibilant, non-lateral affricate with a stop at the same place of articulation and with the same phonation and airstream mechanism, such as and or and .

In feature-based phonology, affricates are distinguished from stops by the feature [+delayed release].

Affrication

Affrication (sometimes called affricatization) is a sound change by which a consonant, usually a stop or fricative, changes into an affricate. Examples include:

• Proto-Germanic > Modern English , as in chin (cf. German: Kinn: Anglo-Frisian palatalization)
• Proto-Semitic > Standard Arabic in all positions, as in جمل (jamal) 'camel' (cf. Aramaic: גמלא (gamlā'), Amharic: ግመል (gəmäl), and Hebrew: גמל (gamal)).
• Early Modern English > (yod-coalescence)
• > in the High German consonant shift and partially also in Cockney and Scouse
• > before respectively in 16th-century Japanese
• > word-initially in Udmurt
• Polish >
• Brazilian Portuguese > before in most regions
• Quebec French and are affricated to and before , , , in most regions

Pre-affrication

In rare instances, a fricative–stop contour may occur. This is the case in dialects of Scottish Gaelic that have velar frication where other dialects have pre-aspiration. For example, in the Harris dialect there is seachd 'seven' and ochd 'eight' (or , ). Richard Wiese argues this is the case for word-initial fricative-plosive sequences in German, and coined the term suffricate for such contours. Awngi has 2 suffricates and according to some analyses.