Voiceless retroflex affricate

IPA Unicode 0xAB67

Voiceless retroflex affricate

The voiceless retroflex affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. This sound is characterized by its articulation, involving a complete closure followed by a restricted airflow, producing a turbulent sound. The closure is made with the tongue tip curled back towards the palate, which distinguishes it from other affricates in terms of its place of articulation. This sound does not exist in English, but it is found in various languages around the world, including some dialects of Mandarin Chinese, where it is represented by the pinyin letters "ch". It is symbolized in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) as ⟨ʈ͡ʂ⟩.

Articulation

The voiceless retroflex affricate is articulated with the following features:

• Its manner of articulation is affricate, which means the sound is produced by first stopping the airflow completely, then releasing it through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
• The place of articulation is retroflex, meaning the tongue is curled back to make contact with the palate.
• It is a voiceless consonant, which means that the vocal cords do not vibrate during the articulation of the sound.

Occurrence

This sound is found in various languages and dialects around the world. For example:

• In Mandarin Chinese, the voiceless retroflex affricate is represented by the pinyin letters "ch" and occurs in words such as "chī" (吃), meaning "to eat".
• Some Indo-Aryan languages, such as Hindi, also feature this sound, where it is represented by the letter "च".

See also

• Affricate consonant
• Retroflex consonant
• Voiceless consonant
• List of phonetic topics