Voiceless retroflex affricate

Retracted
t̠͡ʂ
ꭧ
IPA number	105 (136)
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʈ​͡​ʂ
Unicode (hex)	U+0288 U+0361 U+0282
X-SAMPA	ts`
Image

The 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 ⟨t̠͡ʂ⟩, sometimes simplified to ⟨tʂ⟩ or ⟨ꭧ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is ts`. The symbol ⟨ʈ͡ʂ⟩ may also be used but ʈ prototypically refers to a subapical sound, yet ⟨t̠͡ʂ⟩ is almost never reported to be subapical in any languages, thus a plain ⟨ʈ͡ʂ⟩ may not indicate a more accurate articulation than ⟨tʂ⟩ does.

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.

Features

Features of the 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 contact can be apical (pointed) or 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 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.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		чъыгы	[t͡ʂəɣə]ⓘ	'tree'
Asturian	Some dialects	ḷḷobu	[ʈ͡ʂoβu]	'wolf'	Corresponds to standard /ʎ/.
Belarusian		пачатак	[paʈ͡ʂatak]	'the beginning'	Laminal. See Belarusian phonology
Chinese	Mandarin	中文 / Zhōngwén	[ʈ̺͡ʂ̺ʊŋ˥ u̯ən˧˥]ⓘ	'Chinese language'	Apical. Contrasts with aspirated form. See Mandarin phonology
Khanty	Eastern dialects	ҷӓңҷ	[ʈ͡ʂaɳʈ͡ʂ]	'knee'	Corresponds to a voiceless retroflex fricative /ʂ/ in the northern dialects.
	Southern dialects
Mapudungun		trafoy	[ʈ͡ʂa.ˈfoj]	'it got broken'	Contrasts with a voiceless postalveolar affricate: chafoy [t͡ʃa.ˈfoj] 'he/she coughed'
Northern Qiang		zhes	[ʈ͡ʂəs]	'day before yesterday'	Contrasts with aspirated and voiced forms.
Polish	Standard	czas	[ˈʈ͡ʂäs̪]ⓘ	'time'	Laminal. Transcribed /t͡ʃ/ by most Polish scholars. See Polish phonology
	Southeastern Cuyavian dialects	cena	[ˈʈ͡ʂɛn̪ä]	'price'	Some speakers. It is a result of hypercorrecting the more popular merger of /ʈ͡ʂ/ and /t͡s/ into [t͡s].
	Suwałki dialect
Quechua	Cajamarca–Cañaris	chupa	[ʈ͡ʂupə]	'tail'
Russian		лу́чше / luchshe	[ˈɫut͡ʂʂə]ⓘ	'better'
Serbo-Croatian		чеп / čep	[ʈ͡ʂe̞p]	'cork'	Apical. It may be palato-alveolar instead, depending on the dialect. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Silesian		szczopek	[ʂʈ͡ʂopɛk]	'pike'
Slovak		čakať	[ˈʈ͡ʂäkäc]	'to wait'	Laminal.
Torwali		ڇووو	[ʈ͡ʂuwu]	'to sew'	Contrasts with aspirated form.
Vietnamese		trà	[ʈ͡ʂaː˨˩]	'tea'	Some speakers.
Yi		ꍈ / zha	[ʈ͡ʂa˧]	'a bit'	Contrasts with aspirated form.

Voiceless retroflex non-sibilant affricate

Voiceless retroflex non-sibilant affricate
t̠͡ɻ̝̊

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 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 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.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Malagasy					Also described as regular plosive, trilled affricate and sibilant affricate.

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

References

• García Arias, Xosé Lluis (2003), Gramática Histórica de la Lengua Asturiana, Oviedo: Academia de la Llingua Asturiana, pp. 34–36, ISBN 84-8168-341-8
• Hamann, Silke (2004), "Retroflex fricatives in Slavic languages" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 53–67, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001604, S2CID 2224095, archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-04-14, retrieved 2015-04-09
• Hanulíková, Adriana; Hamann, Silke (2010), "Slovak" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 40 (3): 373–378, doi:10.1017/S0025100310000162
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191
• Ladefoged, Peter; Wu, Zongji (1984), "Places of Articulation: An Investigation of Pekingese Fricatives and Affricates", Journal of Phonetics, 11 (3): 267–278, doi:10.1016/S0095-4470(19)30883-6
• Lunsford, Wayne A. (2001), "An overview of linguistic structures in Torwali, a language of Northern Pakistan" (PDF), M.A. Thesis, University of Texas at Arlington
• Landau, Ernestina; Lončarića, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66–69, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0

External links

• List of languages with [ʈʂ] on PHOIBLE