Voiceless alveolar affricate

The voiceless alveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is t͡s (formerly ʦ), and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is ts. The voiceless alveolar affricate occurs in such languages as German, Latvian, Russian, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, among many others. International auxiliary languages, such as Esperanto, Ido and Interlingua also include this sound.

IPA – number	103 (132)
IPA – text	t͡s
IPA – image
Entity	ʦ
X-SAMPA	ts
Kirshenbaum	ts
Sound sample (help·info)

Features

Features of the voiceless alveolar affricate:

• Its manner of articulation is sibilant affricate, which means it is produced by first stopping the airflow entirely, then directing it through a groove in the tongue and over the sharp edge of the teeth, causing high-frequency turbulence.
• Its place of articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
• Its phonation type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the center of the tongue, rather than the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		хьаца	[χaˈt͡sa]	'hornbeam'	See Abkhaz phonology
Ainu		チュク	[t͡suk̚]	'autumn'
Albanian		cimbidh	[t͡simbið]	'tongs'
Asturian		cibieḷḷa	[θibiɛt͡sa]	'stick'
Catalan[1]		tots	[tot͡s]	'everybody'	See Catalan phonology
Cherokee		ᏣᎳᎩ/tsa-la-gi	[t͡salaɡi]	'Cherokee'
Chinese	Cantonese	妻/cai1	[t͡sʰɐi˥˥]	'wife'	See Standard Cantonese
	Mandarin	早餐/zǎocān	[t͡sɑʊ˨˩ t͡sʰan˥˥]	'breakfast'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Standard Mandarin
Croatian		cilj	[t͡siːʎ]	'target'
Czech		co	[t͡so]	'what'	See Czech phonology
Esperanto		ceceo	[t͡seˈt͡seo]	'tsetse fly'	See Esperanto phonology
French	Quebec	petit	[pəˈt͡si]	'small'	See Quebec French phonology
Georgian[2]		კაცი	[kʼɑt͡si]	'man'
German		zehn	[t͡seːn]	'ten'	See German phonology
Greek		κορίτσι	[ko̞ˈrit͡si]	'girl'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew		צבע	[ˈt͡seva]	'color'	See Hebrew phonology
Hungarian		cica	[ˈt͡sit͡sa]	'kitten'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian[3]		grazia	[ˈɡrat̪͡s̪ja]	'grace'	The letter <z> may also represent /dz/. See Italian phonology
Japanese		つなみ/tsunami	[t͡sɯnamʲi]	'tsunami'	See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		цы	[t͡sʰɪ]	'hair'
Kabyle		iḥeşşeḇ	[iħət͡st͡səβ]	'he counts'
Kiowa		[t͡séː]		'short'
Latvian		cik	[t͡sik]	'how many'
Maltese		zokk	[t͡sokk]	'(tree) trunk'
Nez Perce		cíickan	[ˈt͡siːt͡skan]	'blanket'
Pashto		څلور	[t͡saˈlor]	'four'
Polish[4]		co	[t͡sɔ] (help·info)	'what'	See Polish phonology
Romanian		preţ	[pret͡s]	'price'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		царь	[t͡sarʲ]	'Tsar'	See Russian phonology
Sardinian	Campidanese	petza	[ˈpɛt͡sa]	'meat'
Serbian		цвет/cvet	[t͡svet]	'flower
Slovak		cudzí	[t͡sudziː]	'foreign'
Tanacross		dzeen	[t͡seːn]	'day'

See also

• List of phonetics topics

References

Bibliography

• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103-107
• Recasens, Daniel & Aina Espinosa (2007), "An electropalatographic and acoustic study of affricates and fricatives in two Catalan dialects", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37 (2): 143-172
• Shosted, Ryan K. & Chikovani Vakhtang (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255-264
• Rogers, Derek & Luciana d'Arcangeli (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117-121