An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair.^[1] English has two affricate phonemes, /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/, often spelled ch and j, respectively.

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The English sounds spelled "ch" and "j" (broadly transcribed as [t͡ʃ] and [d͡ʒ] in the IPA), German and Italian z [t͡s] and Italian z [d͡z] are typical affricates, and sounds like these are fairly common in the world's languages, as are other affricates with similar sounds, such as those in Polish and Chinese. However, voiced affricates other than [d͡ʒ] are relatively uncommon. For several places of articulation they are not attested at all.

Much less common are labiodental affricates, such as [p͡f] in German and Izi, or velar affricates, such as [k͡x] in Tswana (written kg) or in High Alemannic Swiss German dialects. Worldwide, relatively few languages have affricates in these positions even though the corresponding stop consonants, [p] and [k], are common or virtually universal. Also less common are alveolar affricates where the fricative release is lateral, such as the [t͡ɬ] sound found in Nahuatl and Navajo. Some other Athabaskan languages, such as Dene Suline, have unaspirated, aspirated, and ejective series of affricates whose release may be dental, alveolar, postalveolar, or lateral: [t̪͡θ], [t̪͡θʰ], [t̪͡θʼ], [t͡s], [t͡sʰ], [t͡sʼ], [t͡ʃ], [t͡ʃʰ], [t͡ʃʼ], [t͡ɬ], [t͡ɬʰ], and [t͡ɬʼ].

Affricates are transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet by a combination of two letters, one for the stop element and the other for the fricative element. In order to show that these are parts of a single consonant, a tie bar is generally used. The tie bar appears most commonly above the two letters, but may be placed under them if it fits better there, or simply because it is more legible.^[2] Thus:

⟨p͡f, t͡s d͡z, t͡ɬ d͡ɮ, t͡ʃ d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ d͡ʑ, ʈ͡ʂ ɖ͡ʐ , k͡x⟩

or

⟨p͜f, t͜s d͜z, t͜ɬ d͜ɮ, t͜ʃ d͜ʒ, t͜ɕ d͜ʑ, ʈ͜ʂ ɖ͜ʐ , k͜x⟩.

A less common notation indicates the release of the affricate with a superscript:

⟨pᶠ, tˢ dᶻ, t𐞛 d𐞞, tᶴ dᶾ, tᶝ dᶽ, tᶳ dᶼ, kˣ⟩

This is derived from the IPA convention of indicating other releases with a superscript. However, this convention is more typically used for a fricated release that is too brief to be considered a true affricate.

Though they are no longer standard IPA, ligatures are available in Unicode for the sibilant affricates:

⟨ʦ ʣ, ʨ ʥ, ʧ ʤ, 𝼜 𝼙, ꭧ ꭦ⟩.^{[note 1]}

Any of these notations can be used to distinguish an affricate from a sequence of a stop plus a fricative, which is contrastive in languages such as Polish. However, in languages where there is no such distinction, such as English, the tie bars are commonly dropped.

In other phonetic transcription systems, such as the Americanist system, affricates may be transcribed with single letters. The affricates [t͡s], [d͡z], [t͡ʃ], [d͡ʒ], [t͡ɬ], [d͡ɮ] are transcribed respectively as ⟨c⟩ or ⟨¢⟩; ⟨j⟩, ⟨ƶ⟩, or (older) ⟨ʒ⟩; ⟨c⟩ or ⟨č⟩; ⟨ǰ⟩, ⟨ǧ⟩, or (older) ⟨ǯ⟩; ⟨ƛ⟩; and ⟨λ⟩ or ⟨dl⟩. Within the IPA, [tʃ] and [dʒ] are sometimes transcribed with the symbols for the palatal stops, ⟨c⟩ and ⟨ɟ⟩.

In some languages, affricates contrast phonemically with stop–fricative sequences:

• Polish affricate /ʈ͡ʂ/ in czysta 'clean (f.)' versus stop–fricative /tʂ/ in trzysta 'three hundred'.^[3]
• Klallam affricate /t͡s/ in k'ʷə́nc 'look at me' versus stop–fricative /ts/ in k'ʷə́nts 'he looks at it'.

The exact phonetic difference varies between languages. In stop–fricative sequences, the stop has a release burst before the fricative starts; but in affricates, the fricative element is the release. Phonologically, stop–fricative sequences may have a syllable boundary between the two segments, but not necessarily.

In English, /ts/ and /dz/ (nuts, nods) are considered phonemically stop–fricative sequences. They often contain a morpheme boundary (for example, nuts = nut + s). The English affricate phonemes /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/ do not generally contain morpheme boundaries.

The phonemic distinction in English between the affricate /t͡ʃ/ and the stop–fricative sequence /t.ʃ/ (found across syllable boundaries) can be observed by minimal pairs such as the following:

• worst shin /wɜː(ɹ)st.ʃɪn/ → [wɜː(ɹ)sʔʃɪn]
• worse chin /wɜː(ɹ)s.t͡ʃɪn/ → [wɜː(ɹ)st͡ʃɪn]

In some accents of English, the /t/ in 'worst shin' debuccalizes to a glottal stop before /ʃ/.

Stop–fricatives can be distinguished acoustically from affricates by the rise time of the frication noise, which is shorter for affricates. (Howell & Rosen 1983, ^{[full citation needed]} Johnson 2003, ^{[full citation needed]} Mitani et al. 2006 ^{[full citation needed]}).

In the case of coronals, the symbols ⟨t, d⟩ are normally used for the stop portion of the affricate regardless of place. For example, [t͡ʂ] is commonly seen for [ʈ͡ʂ].

The exemplar languages are ones that have been reported to have these sounds, but in several cases, they may need confirmation.

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In phonology, affricates tend to behave similarly to stops, taking part in phonological patterns that fricatives do not. Kehrein (2002) analyzes phonetic affricates as phonological stops.^[15] A sibilant or lateral (and presumably trilled) stop can be realized phonetically only as an affricate and so might be analyzed phonemically as a sibilant or lateral stop. In that analysis, affricates other than sibilants and laterals are a phonetic mechanism for distinguishing stops at similar places of articulation (like more than one labial, coronal, or dorsal place). For example, Chipewyan has laminal dental [t̪͡θ] vs. apical alveolar [t]; other languages may contrast velar [k] with palatal [c͡ç] and uvular [q͡χ]. Affricates may also be a strategy to increase the phonetic contrast between aspirated or ejective and tenuis consonants.

According to Kehrein (2002), no language contrasts a non-sibilant, non-lateral affricate with a stop at the same place of articulation and with the same phonation and airstream mechanism, such as /t̪/ and /t̪θ/ or /k/ and /kx/.

In feature-based phonology, affricates are distinguished from stops by the feature [+delayed release].^[16]

Affrication (sometimes called affricatization) is a sound change by which a consonant, usually a stop or fricative, changes into an affricate. Examples include:

• Proto-Germanic /k/ > Modern English /t͡ʃ/, as in chin (cf. German Kinn: Anglo-Frisian palatalization)
• Proto-Semitic /ɡ/ > Standard Arabic /d͡ʒ/ in all positions, as in جمل /d͡ʒamal/ (camel) (cf. Aramaic: גמלא (gamlā'), Amharic: ግመል (gəmäl), and Hebrew: גמל (gamal)).
• Early Modern English /tj, dj/ > /t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ/ (yod-coalescence)
• /p, t, k/ > /pf, t͡s, kx/ in the High German consonant shift
• [t] > [t͡s, t͡ʃ] before [ɯᵝ, i] respectively in 16th-century Japanese^[17]
• [r] > [d͡ʒ, d͡ʑ] word-initially in Udmurt^[18]
• Polish /tʲ, dʲ/ > /t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ/

In rare instances, a fricative–stop contour may occur. This is the case in dialects of Scottish Gaelic that have velar frication [ˣ] where other dialects have pre-aspiration. For example, in the Harris dialect there is seachd [ʃaˣkʰ] 'seven' and ochd [ɔˣkʰ] 'eight' (or [ʃax͜kʰ], [ɔx͜kʰ]).^[19] These have been proposed to be called suffricates. Awngi has 2 suffricates /s͡t/ and /ʃ͡t/ according to some analyses.^[20]

• Apical consonant
• Hush consonant
• Laminal consonant
• Index of phonetics articles