affricate

An affricate is a type of consonant that begins with a complete closure of the vocal tract (like a stop) and is released into a fricative, producing a single, complex sound. In phonetic notation it is often written with a tie bar to show the combined articulation, as in t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, t͡s, and d͡z.

Articulatorily, affricates share two phases: a brief stop closure that momentarily stops airflow, followed by a narrow constriction that creates friction as the air is released. This gives affricates a characteristic burst followed by sustained frication. They are typically described by place of articulation (alveolar, postalveolar, palato-alveolar, alveolo-palatal, etc.) and by voicing (voiceless or voiced). The most common contrasts are between voiceless [t͡s], [t͡ʃ] and their voiced counterparts [d͡z], [d͡ʒ].

Examples in languages include the voiceless palato-alveolar [t͡ʃ] as in chair and the voiced [d͡ʒ] as in judge in English. German employs voiceless [t͡s] and voiced [d͡z] in certain words. Other languages use affricates with different places of articulation, including alveolar, retroflex, or alveolo-palatal varieties.

Phonologically, affricates are often treated as single phonemes rather than sequences of a stop plus a fricative, although some analyses describe historical origins as clusters that were simplified. They are widely distributed cross-linguistically and play a key role in many language inventories, contributing to contrasts that stops and fricatives alone cannot provide.