Voiceless alveolar affricate

A voiceless alveolar affricate is a type of affricate consonant pronounced with the tip or blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (gum line) just behind the teeth. This refers to a class of sounds, not a single sound. There are several types with significant perceptual differences:

• The voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate [t͡s] is the most common type and has an abrupt hissing sound, as the ts in English cats.
• The voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant affricate [t͡s̺], also called apico-alveolar or grave, has a weak hushing sound reminiscent of retroflex affricates. It is found e.g. in Basque, where it contrasts with a more conventional non-retracted laminal alveolar affricate.
• The voiceless alveolar non-sibilant affricate [t͡θ̠] or [t͡θ͇], using the alveolar diacritic from the Extended IPA, is somewhat similar to the th in some pronunciations of English eighth. It is found as a regional realization of the sequence /tr/ in some Sicilian dialects of Standard Italian.
• The voiceless alveolar lateral affricate [t͡ɬ] is found in certain languages, such as Cherokee, Icelandic and Nahuatl.

Voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate

Voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate
ts
IPA number	103 132
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʦ
Unicode (hex)	U+02A6
X-SAMPA	ts
Kirshenbaum	ts

The voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with ⟨t͡s⟩ or ⟨t͜s⟩ (formerly with ⟨ʦ⟩ or ⟨ƾ⟩). The voiceless alveolar affricate occurs in many Indo-European languages, such as German, Pashto, Russian and most other Slavic languages such as Polish and Serbo-Croatian; also, among many others, in Georgian, in Japanese, in Mandarin Chinese, and in Cantonese. Some international auxiliary languages, such as Esperanto, Ido and Interlingua also include this sound.

IPA: Pulmonic consonants [edit]
Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Laryngeal Manner ↓ Bi­labial Lab-den. Ling-lab. Den. Alv. Pst-alv. Retro. Pal. Vel. Uvul. Pharyn. Glottal Nasal m̥ m ɱ n̼ n̪ n̥ n n̠ ɳ̊ ɳ ɲ̊ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ Stop p b p̪ b̪ t̼ d̼ t̪ d̪ t d t̠ d̠ ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Sibilant affricate t̪s̪ d̪z̪ ts dz t̠ʃ d̠ʒ ʈʂ ɖʐ t̠ɕ d̠ʑ Non-sibilant affricate pɸ bβ p̪f b̪v t̪θ d̪ð tɹ̝̊ dɹ̝ t̠ɹ̠̊˔ d̠ɹ̠˔ cç ɟʝ kx ɡɣ qχ ɢʁ ʡʜ ʡʢ ʔh Sibilant fricative s̪ z̪ s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ Non-sibilant fricative ɸ β f v θ̼ ð̼ θ ð θ̠ ð̠ ɹ̠̊˔ ɹ̠˔ ɻ̊˔ ɻ˔ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ h ɦ Approximant β̥˕ ɸ̬˕ ʋ̥ ʋ θ̞ ð̞ ɹ̥ ɹ ɹ̠ ɻ̊ ɻ j̊ j ɰ̊ ɰ ʁ̞ ʕ̞ ʔ̞ Tap/flap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ̼ ɾ̪ ɾ̥ ɾ ɾ̠ ɽ̊ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̆ Trill ʙ̥ ʙ r̼ r̪ r̥ r r̠ ɽr̥ ɽr ʀ̥ ʀ ʜ ʢ Lateral affricate tɬ dɮ ʈɭ̊˔ ɖɭ˔ cʎ̝̊ ɟʎ̝ kʟ̝̊ ɡʟ̝ Lateral fricative ɬ̪ ɮ̪ ɬ ɮ ɭ̊˔ ɭ˔ ʎ̝̊ ʎ̝ ʟ̝̊ ʟ̝ Lateral approximant l̪ l̥ l l̠ ɭ̊ ɭ ʎ̥ ʎ ʟ̥ ʟ ʟ̠ Lateral tap/flap ɺ ɭ̆ ʎ̆ ʟ̆
Symbols to the right in a cell are voiced, to the left are voiceless. Shaded areas denote articulations judged to be impossible.