UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA EXPERIMENTAL LIBERTADOR

INSTITUTO PEDAGOGICO DE CARACAS

DEPARTAMENTO DE IDIOMAS MODERNOS
PROGRAMA INGLÉS
CÁTEDRA DE FONÉTICA Y FONOLOGÍA

Affricates

Designed by Glasmiry Bello

 Affricates

Celce-Murcia, (1996) “In the production of these sounds, air

pressure is first built up. Rather than being released freely as in
the production of a stop, the air is released through a narrow
passageway like a fricative. (p. 44)
 Production of Affricates

• The velum is raised and the air-stream coming from the lungs is
completely blocked, since the speaker brings together two articulators
to form a complete closure.

• The articulators separate slowly, leaving a narrow space between

them (i.e. they open slightly and do not separate all at once)

• The air escapes through the passage producing friction.

 Classification of Affricates

SOUND PLACE OF VOICING FORCE OF

ARTICULATION ARTCULATION
Palato-alveolar
/ tʃ / Voiceless Fortis
(alveopalatal)
Palato-alveolar
/ dʒ / Voiced Lenis
(alveopalatal)

(tongue blade with alveolar ridge, and front raised or

domed to hard palate)
Moving articulator: tongue blade
Passive articulator: area immediately behind
alveolar ridge
 Voiceless alveo-palatal affricate / tʃ /

The air coming from the lungs passes

through the vocal folds producing an
audible vibration; then, the airflow finds a
complete obstruction made by the contact
of the tip/blade of the tongue and the
alveo-palatal region. After that, both
articulators separate slowly producing a
narrow passage. Suddenly, the airflow is
forced to go out through the narrow
passage producing a kind of turbulence or
friction during the release of the air.
 Voiced alveo-palatal affricate /dʒ/

The air coming from the lungs passes

through the vocal folds producing an
audible vibration; then, the airflow finds a
complete obstruction made by the contact
of the tip/blade of the tongue and the
alveo-palatal region. After that, both
articulators separate slowly producing a
narrow passage. Suddenly, the airflow is
forced to go out through the narrow
passage producing a kind of turbulence or
friction during the release of the air.
Alveo-palatal affricate allophones

/ tʃ/ = [tʃ]

And

/dʒ/ = [dʒ]
Positional occurrence

Phoneme Word- Word- Word-final

initial medial
/ tʃ / Chair Teaches Touch

/ dʒ / Juice Pages Wage

Grapheme-Phoneme correspondence
affricatives
Phoneme Letter Most common orthographic representations &
(s) examples
- The ‘ch’ regularly represents /tʃ/; e.g. child, achieve,
bench.
- The ‘tch’ also occurs medially and finally as the written
representation of / tʃ /; e.g. pitcher, catch.
- In medial position, ‘t’ after ‘s’ and before an i(silent) +
ch
/ tʃ / vowel sequence is often pronounced / tʃ /; e.g.
t
question.
- Medially ‘t’ followed by an unstressed letter ‘u’ often
sounds / tʃ /; e.g. actual.
- In words ending in ‘t+ure’, a regular pronunciation for ‘t’
is /tʃ /; e.g.: future.
Grapheme-Phoneme correspondence
affricatives

- Word and syllable initial, ‘j’ is pronounced /dʒ/; e.g.

joy, pajamas.
- Word medially before an unstressed ‘u’ vowel
j
d spelling, ‘d’ is often realized as / dʒ /; e.g. modular,
/ dʒ / dg
graduate.
g (less
frequently) - The diagraph ‘dg’ before e, i, or y represents /dʒ/;
e.g. judge.
- Before a suffix ‘g’ is pronounced /dʒ /; e.g.:
contagious.
- When followed by e or i, ‘gg’ may sound / dʒ /; e.g.
suggest.