Voiceless postalveolar affricate

The voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant affricate or voiceless domed postalveolar sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with ⟨t͡ʃ ⟩, ⟨t͜ʃ ⟩ ⟨tʃ ⟩ (formerly the ligature ⟨ʧ ⟩), or, in broad transcription, ⟨c⟩. This affricate has a dedicated symbol U+02A7 ʧ LATIN SMALL LETTER TESH DIGRAPH, which has been retired by the International Phonetic Association but is still used. The alternative commonly used in American tradition is ⟨č⟩. It is familiar to English speakers as the "ch" sound in "chip".

Voiceless postalveolar affricate
tʃ
ʧ
IPA Number	103 134
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	t​͡​ʃ
Unicode (hex)	U+0074 U+0361 U+0283
X-SAMPA	tS or t_rS
Image

Historically, this sound often derives from a former voiceless velar stop /k/ (as in English church; also in Gulf Arabic, Slavic languages, Indo-Iranian languages and Romance languages), or a voiceless dental stop /t/ by way of palatalization, especially next to a front vowel (as in English nature; also in Amharic, Portuguese, some accents of Egyptian, etc.).

Features

Features of the voiceless domed postalveolar 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 palato-alveolar, that is, domed (partially palatalized) postalveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the front of the tongue bunched up ("domed") at the palate.
• 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		чэмы/čamë/چەمہـ	[t͡ʃamə]ⓘ	'cow'	Some dialects contrast labialized and non-labialized forms.
Albanian		çelur	[t͡ʃɛluɾ]	'opened'
Aleut	Atkan dialect	chamĝul	[t͡ʃɑmʁul]	'to wash'
Amharic		አንቺ/anči	[ant͡ʃi]	'you'
Arabic[1]	Central Palestinian	مكتبة (Normally unwritten)/mačtabe	[ˈmat͡ʃt̪abe]	'library'	Corresponds to [k] in Standard Arabic and other varieties. See Arabic phonology
	Iraqi	چتاب/čitaab	[t͡ʃɪˈt̪ɑːb]	'book'
	Jordanian	كتاب (Normally unwritten)/čitaab	[t͡ʃɪˈt̪aːb]
Aragonese		chuego	[ˈt͡ʃueɣo]	'game'
Armenian	Eastern[2]	ճնճղուկ/čënčquk	[t͡ʃənt͡ʃʁuk]ⓘ	'sparrow'
Assyrian		ܟ̰ܝܡܐ/č’yama	[t͡ʃˤjɑmɑ]	'to shut'	Found in native terminology. Widespread usage in all dialect varieties. Developed from an original /tˤ/.
Asturian		Chipre	[ˈt͡ʃipɾe]	'Cyprus'	Mostly found in loanwords, if possible, usually replaced by x [ʃ].
Azerbaijani		Əkinçi/اکینچی	[æcint͡ʃʰi]	'the ploughman'
Bengali		চশমা/čošma	[t͡ʃɔʃma]	'spectacles'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Bengali phonology
Basque		txalupa	[t͡ʃalupa]	'boat'
Bulgarian		чучулига/čučuliga	[t͡ʃʊt͡ʃuˈliɡɐ]	'lark'	See Bulgarian phonology
Catalan		cotxe	[ˈkɔ.t͡ʃə]	'car'	See Catalan phonology.
Central Alaskan Yup'ik		nacaq	[ˈnat͡ʃaq]	'parka hood'
Choctaw		hakchioma	[hakt͡ʃioma]	'tobacco'
Coptic	Bohairic dialect	ϭⲟϩ/čoh	[t͡ʃʰɔh]	'touch'
Czech		morče	[ˈmo̞rt͡ʃɛ]	'guinea pig'	See Czech phonology
Dhivehi		ޗަކަސް / čakas	[t͡ʃakas]	'mud'	Relatively rare, usually occurs in loanwords / onomatoepic words
Dutch		Tjongejonge	[t͡ʃɔŋəjɔŋə]	'jeez'	An exclamation of (mild) annoyance, surprise, wonder or amazement.[3] Pronunciation is region dependent.
English		beach	[biːt͡ʃ]	'beach'	Slightly labialized [tʃʷ]. See English phonology
Esperanto		ĉar	[t͡ʃar]	'because'	See Esperanto phonology
Estonian		tšello	[ˈtʃelˑo]	'cello'	Rare, occurs only in loanwords. see Estonian phonology
Faroese		gera	[t͡ʃeːɹa]	'to do'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Faroese phonology
Finnish		Tšekki	[ˈt̪ʃe̞kːi]	'Czechia'	Rare, occurs only in loanwords. See Finnish phonology
French	Standard	caoutchouc	[kaut͡ʃu]	'rubber'	Relatively rare; occurs mostly in loanwords. See French phonology
	Acadian	tiens	[t͡ʃɛ̃]	'(I/you) keep'	Allophone of /k/ and /tj/ before a front vowel.
Galician		cheo	[ˈt͡ʃeo]	'full'	Galician-Portuguese /t͡ʃ/ is conserved in Galician and merged with /ʃ/ in most Portuguese dialects. See Galician phonology
Georgian[4]		ჩიხი/čixi	[t͡ʃixi]	'impasse'
German	Standard[5]	Tschüss	[t͡ʃʏs]	'bye'	Laminal or apico-laminal and strongly labialized.[5] See Standard German phonology
Greek	Cypriot	τσ̌άι/čai	[t͡ʃɑːiː]	'tea'
Hausa		ciwo/ثِيوُاْ	[t͡ʃíː.wòː]	'disease, pain'
Hebrew		תשובה/čuva	[t͡ʃuˈva]	'answer'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani	Hindi	चाय/čáy	[t͡ʃɑːj]	'tea'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Hindustani phonology
	Urdu	چائے/çáy
Haitian Creole		match	[mat͡ʃ]	'sports match'
Hungarian		gyümölcslé	[ˈɟymølt͡ʃleː]	'fruit juice'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian[6]		ciao	[ˈt͡ʃaːo]	'hi'	See Italian phonology
Javanese		cedhak/ꦕꦼꦣꦏ꧀/چۤڎَاك	[t͡ʃəɖaʔ]	'near'
Kʼicheʼ		K'iche'	[kʼiˈt͡ʃeʔ]	'Kʼicheʼ''	Contrasts with ejective form
Kabardian		чэнж/čanž/چەنژ	[t͡ʃanʒ]ⓘ	'shallow'
Kashubian[7]		czësto	[t͡ʃəstɔ]	'cleanly'
Kurdish		hirç/هرچ	[hɪɾt͡ʃ]	'bear'
Ladino		kolcha/קולגﬞה	[ˈkolt͡ʃa]	'quilt'
Macedonian		чека/čeka	[t͡ʃɛka]	'wait'	See Macedonian phonology
Malay	Standard	cuci/چوچي	[t͡ʃut͡ʃi]	'to wash'	See Malay phonology
	Indonesian				Palatal [c] according to some analyses. See Malay phonology
Maltese		bliċ	[blit͡ʃ]	'bleach'
Manx		çhiarn	[ˈt͡ʃaːrn]	'lord'
Marathi		चहा/čahá	[t͡ʃəhaː]	'tea'	Contrasts with aspirated form. Allophone of /tɕ / and /ts/.See Marathi phonology
Mongolian	Khalkha dialect	наргиж/nargič ᠨᠠᠷᠭᠢᠵ	[ˈnargit͡ʃ]	'laugh'
Nahuatl		āyōtōchtli	[aːjoːˈtoːt͡ʃt͡ɬi]	'armadillo'
Norwegian	Some dialects	kjøkken	[t͡ʃøkːen]	'kitchen'	See Norwegian phonology
Nunggubuyu[8]		jaro	[t͡ʃaɾo]	'needle'
Occitan		chuc	[ˈt͡ʃyk]	'juice'	See Occitan phonology
Odia		ଚକ/caka	[t͡ʃɔkɔ]	'wheel'	Contrasts with aspirated form.
Persian		چوب/чӯб/çub	[t͡ʃʰuːb]	'wood'	See Persian phonology
Polish	Gmina Istebna	ciemny	[ˈt͡ʃɛmn̪ɘ]	'dark'	/ʈ͡ʂ/ and /t͡ɕ/ merge into [t͡ʃ] in these dialects. In standard Polish, /t͡ʃ/ is commonly used to transcribe what actually is a laminal voiceless retroflex affricate.
	Lubawa dialect[9]
	Malbork dialect[9]
	Ostróda dialect[9]
	Warmia dialect[9]
Portuguese	Most northern and some central Portuguese dialects	chamar	[t͡ʃɐˈmaɾ]	'to call'	Archaic realization of etymological ⟨ch⟩. Its use is diminishing due to influence of the standard language, being replaced by [ʃ].
	Most Brazilian dialects[10]	presente	[pɾe̞ˈzẽ̞t͡ʃi]	'present'	Allophone of /t/ before /i, ĩ/ (including when [i, ĩ, j] is not actually produced) and other instances of [i] (e.g. epenthesis), marginal sound otherwise. See Portuguese phonology
	Most dialects	tchau	[ˈt͡ʃaw]	'bye'	In Standard European Portuguese it occurs only in recent loanwords.
Punjabi		ਚੌਲ/ چول/čol	[t͡ʃɔːl]	'rice'
Quechua		chunka	[t͡ʃʊŋka]	'ten'
Romani		ćiriklo	[t͡ʃiriˈklo]	'bird'	Contrasts with aspirated form.
Romanian		cer	[ˈt͡ʃe̞r]	'sky'	See Romanian phonology
Rotuman[11]		joni	[ˈt͡ʃɔni]	'to flee'
Scottish Gaelic		slàinte	[ˈsl̪ˠaːnʲt͡ʃə]	'health'	Southern dialects only; standard pronunciation is [tʲ]. See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatian	Some speakers	čokoláda чоколада	[t͡ʃo̞ko̞ˈɫǎ̠ːd̪a̠]	'chocolate'	In varieties that do not distinguish /ʈ͡ʂ/ from /t͡ɕ/.
Silesian	Gmina Istebna[12]	szpańelsko	[t̠͡ʃpaɲɛskɔ]	'Spanish'	These dialects merge /ʈ͡ʂ/ and /t͡ɕ/ into [t͡ʃ].
	Jablunkov[12]		[t̠͡ʃpaɲɛlskɔ]
Slovak		číslo	[t͡ʃiːslo]	'number'	See Slovak phonology
Slovene		koča	[ˈkòːt͡ʃáː]	'cottage'
Spanish[13]		chocolate	[t͡ʃo̞ko̞ˈlät̪e̞]ⓘ	'chocolate'	See Spanish phonology
Swahili		jicho	[ʄit͡ʃo]/جِيچٗ	'eye'
Swedish	Finland	tjugo	[t͡ʃʉːɡʉ]	'twenty'	See Swedish phonology
	Some rural Swedish dialects	kärlek	[t͡ʃæːɭeːk]	'love'
Tagalog		tsuper	[t͡ʃʊˈpɛɾ]	'driver'	See Tagalog phonology
Tlingit		jinkaat	[ˈt͡ʃinkʰaːtʰ]	'ten'
Turkish		çok	[t͡ʃok]	'very'	See Turkish phonology
Tyap		cat	[t͡ʃad]	'love'
Ubykh		Çəbƹəja/čëbžëya	[t͡ʃəbʒəja]	'pepper'	See Ubykh phonology
Ukrainian[14]		чотири/čotyry	[t͡ʃo̞ˈtɪrɪ]	'four'	See Ukrainian phonology
Uzbek		choʻl/çúl/چۉل	[t͡ʃɵl]	'desert'
Welsh		tsips	[t͡ʃɪps]	'chips'	Occurs in loanwords. See Welsh phonology
Yiddish		טשאַטשקע/čačke	[t͡ʃat͡ʃkɛ]	'knick-knack'	See Yiddish phonology
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[15]	chane	[t͡ʃanɘ]

Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Polish, Catalan, and Thai have a voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate /t͡ɕ/; this is technically postalveolar but it is less precise to use /t͡ʃ/.

Related characters

There are several Unicode characters based on the tesh digraph (ʧ):

• U+107AE 𐞮 MODIFIER LETTER SMALL TESH DIGRAPH is an IPA superscript letter^[16]
• U+1DF17 𝼗 LATIN SMALL LETTER TESH DIGRAPH WITH PALATAL HOOK is used in phonetic transcription^[17][18]
• U+1DF1C 𝼜 LATIN SMALL LETTER TESH DIGRAPH WITH RETROFLEX HOOK has been used in phonetic descriptions of Polish^[19]

Voiceless postalveolar non-sibilant affricate

Voiceless postalveolar non-sibilant affricate
t̠ɹ̠̊˔
tɹ̝̊˗
Audio sample
source · help

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 postalveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge.
• 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
English	Australian[20]	tree	[t̠͡ɹ̠̊˔ʷɪi̯]	'tree'	Phonetic realization of the stressed, syllable-initial sequence /tr/.[20][21][22] In General American and Received Pronunciation, the less common alternative is alveolar [tɹ̝̊].[21] See Australian English phonology and English phonology
	General American[21][22]
	Received Pronunciation[21][22]

Notes

1. Watson (2002:17)
2. Dum-Tragut (2009:13)
3. "Tjongejonge". 2 April 2019.
4. Shosted & Chikovani (2006:255)
5. Mangold (2005:51–52)
6. Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004:117)
7. Jerzy Treder. "Fonetyka i fonologia". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
8. Ladefoged (2005:158)
9. Dubisz, Karaś & Kolis (1995:62)
10. Barbosa & Albano (2004:228)
11. Blevins (1994:492)
12. Dąbrowska (2004:?)
13. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:255)
14. Danyenko & Vakulenko (1995), p. 4.
15. Merrill (2008:108)
16. Miller, Kirk; Ashby, Michael (2020-11-08). "L2/20-252R: Unicode request for IPA modifier-letters (a), pulmonic" (PDF).
17. Miller, Kirk (2020-07-11). "L2/20-125R: Unicode request for expected IPA retroflex letters and similar letters with hooks" (PDF).
18. Anderson, Deborah (2020-12-07). "L2/21-021: Reference doc numbers for L2/20-266R "Consolidated code chart of proposed phonetic characters" and IPA etc. code point and name changes" (PDF).
19. Miller, Kirk; Everson, Michael (2021-01-03). "L2/21-004: Unicode request for dezh with retroflex hook" (PDF).
20. Cox & Fletcher (2017), p. 144.
21. Cruttenden (2014), pp. 177, 186–188, 192.
22. Wells (2008).

References

• Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004). "Brazilian Portuguese". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 34 (2): 227–232. doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756.
• Blevins, Juliette (1994). "The Bimoraic Foot in Rotuman Phonology and Morphology". Oceanic Linguistics. 33 (2): 491–516. doi:10.2307/3623138. JSTOR 3623138.
• Cox, Felicity; Fletcher, Janet (2017) [First published 2012]. Australian English Pronunciation and Transcription (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-316-63926-9.
• Cruttenden, Alan (2014). Gimson's Pronunciation of English (8th ed.). Routledge. ISBN 9781444183092.
• Dąbrowska, Anna (2004). Język polski. Wrocław: wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie. ISBN 83-7384-063-X.
• Dubisz, Stanisław; Karaś, Halina; Kolis, Nijola (1995). Dialekty i gwary polskie. Warsaw: Wiedza Powszechna. ISBN 83-2140989-X.
• Danyenko, Andrii; Vakulenko, Serhii (1995). Ukrainian. Lincom Europa. ISBN 9783929075083.
• Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009). Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 9789027238146.
• Ladefoged, Peter (2005). Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.). Blackwell.
• Mangold, Max (2005) [First published 1962]. Das Aussprachewörterbuch (6th ed.). Mannheim: Dudenverlag. ISBN 978-3-411-04066-7.
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003). "Castilian Spanish". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 33 (2): 255–259. doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373.
• Merrill, Elizabeth (2008). "Tilquiapan Zapotec" (PDF). Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 38 (1): 107–114. doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344.
• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004). "Italian". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 34 (1): 117–121. doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628.
• Shosted, Ryan K.; Chikovani, Vakhtang (2006). "Standard Georgian" (PDF). Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 36 (2): 255–264. doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659.
• Watson, Janet (2002). The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Wells, John C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Longman. ISBN 9781405881180.

External links

• List of languages with [t̠ʃ] on PHOIBLE