Affricate

An affricate is a consonant sound that begins as a stop (plosive) and releases as a fricative. This means the airflow is completely blocked initially, similar to sounds like /p/ or /t/, but the release is gradual and turbulent, like sounds such as /f/ or /s/. The sound therefore has two distinct phases. Affricates differ from consonant clusters, such as /ts/, as they represent a single phoneme (unit of sound), a single sound in the sound system of a language. They are typically represented with two symbols, one for the stop and one for the fricative, joined by a tie bar over the top.

Affricate meaning with examples

• The English words "chase" and "church" both begin with the affricate /tʃ/. The tongue initially blocks airflow (like a /t/), and the sound is then released with a fricative quality (similar to /ʃ/). Understanding this helps pronunciation.
• Learning to distinguish affricates like /dʒ/ (as in "judge") from similar sounds can be tricky for second language learners, as native speakers often blend them so fast. Practicing isolation is helpful.
• In some dialects, the affricate /t͡s/ (represented by the symbol ʦ) can occur, for example in some varieties of German, as in the word 'Zeit' (time). It requires coordination to create.
• The palato-alveolar affricate /tʃ/ like 'chair', is one of the most common affricates. The tongue contacts the alveolar ridge and the hard palate during the process, and the air slowly escapes.
• Linguists study the acoustic properties of affricates to understand how languages encode information about different types of sounds and phonetics. A sound can have a wide range of properties.