Affricates

Affricates

Overview:

An affricate is a complex consonant that blends a stop (plosive) and a fricative into one sound unit. During production of an affricate, the articulators first form a complete blockage of airflow (as for a stop consonant), then the blockage is released gradually, creating a sustained friction noise (as for a fricative) at the same place of articulation. This coordination makes affricates acoustically and articulatorily distinct from a mere sequence of a stop followed by a fricative. Affricates are found in many languages and pose particular challenges in speech development and disorders, since accurate production requires precise timing between the stop and fricative components.

Sources:

Peter Roach. English Phonetics and Phonology Glossary. Cambridge University Press, (2009).

Peter Ladefoged and Ian Maddieson. The Sounds of the World’s Languages. Oxford: Blackwell, (1996).

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