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The production of an affricate is similar to that of a plosive: there is a closing stage, a compression stage, and a release stage. But, whereas in the case of a plosive the release is sudden, for an affricate it is gradual.
In English there are two affricates: voiceless /tʃ/ and voiced /dʒ/. In a sense the affricates are just a combination of the plosive /t/ or /d/ with the fricative /ʃ/ or /ʒ/.
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/tʃ/ and /dʒ/
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/tʃ/
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/dʒ/ |
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DESCRIPTION:
During the articulation of this affricate, there is a certain amount of protrusion and rounding of lips.
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DESCRIPTION:
/dʒ/ contains the same features as /tʃ/, the only difference is that in this case the vocal cords vibrate.
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SPELLING:
| ch |
chair, achieve, orchard, march, church |
| tch |
butcher, watch, catch |
| t + eous (pronounced /tʃəs/) |
righteous |
| t + ion (pronounced /tʃən/) when t is preceded by s |
question, suggestion |
| t + ure (pronounced /tʃə/) |
picture, nature, culture, furniture (But mature is pronounced without /tʃ/: /mə'tjʊə/.) |
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SPELLING:
| j |
jump, ajar, injure, rejoice |
| g |
germ, engine, village, George |
| dg |
budget, ledger, bridge, porridge |
| gg |
suggest |
| de |
grandeur |
| di |
soldier |
| dj |
adjoin, adjacent |
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Allophones of /tʃ/
No important variants of /tʃ/ occur.
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Allophones of /dʒ/
There are no important variants of /dʒ/. Nevertheless, in the matter of voicing, the following three allophones of /dʒ/ occur:
(i) Partially devoiced /dʒ/: /dʒ/ is partially devoiced when it occurs initially in a word as in jam, gin, joke.
(ii) Voiceless /dʒ/: /dʒ/ is voiceless when it occurs finally in a word as in large, age, huge.
(iii) Fully voiced /dʒ/: The fully voiced /dʒ/ occurs only intervocalically, or only between voiced sounds, as in adjust, margin, major.
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OCCURRENCE: /tʃ/ occurs in all the three positions in a word.
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OCCURRENCE: /dʒ/ occurs in all the three positions in a word.
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Adapted from: J. Sethi and P. V: Dhamija, A course in phonetics and spoken English
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