Voiceless retroflex affricate
ʈʂ
tʂ
IPA Number	105 (136)
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʈ​͡​ʂ
Unicode (hex)	U+0288 U+0361 U+0282
X-SAMPA	ts`
Image

The voiceless retroflex sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʈ͡ʂ⟩, sometimes simplified to ⟨tʂ⟩ or ⟨ꭧ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is ⟨ts`⟩.

The affricate occurs in a number of languages:

• Asturian: Speakers of the western dialects of this language use it instead of the voiced palatal fricative, writing ḷḷ instead of ll.
• Slavic languages: Polish, Belarusian, Old Czech, Serbo-Croatian; some speakers of Russian may use it instead of the voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate.
• a number of Northwest Caucasian languages have retroflex affricates that contrast in secondary articulations like labialization.
• Mandarin and other Sinitic languages.

Features

Features of the voiceless retroflex affricate:

• Its manner of articulation is sibilant affricate, which means it is produced by first stopping the air flow entirely, then directing it with the tongue to the sharp edge of the teeth, causing high-frequency turbulence.
• Its place of articulation is retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical subapical articulation, the tongue contact can be apical (pointed) or laminal (flat).
• Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		чъыгы	[t͡ʂəɣə] (help·info)	'tree'
Asturian	Some dialects[1][2]	ḷḷobu	[ʈ͡ʂoβu]	'wolf'	Corresponds to standard /ʎ/.
Belarusian		пачатак	[paʈ͡ʂatak]	'the beginning'	Laminal. See Belarusian phonology
Chinese	Mandarin[3]	中文 / Zhōngwén	[ʈ̺͡ʂ̺ʊŋ˥ u̯ən˧˥] (help·info)	'Chinese language'	Apical.[4] Contrasts with aspirated form. See Mandarin phonology
Khanty	Eastern dialects	ҷӓңҷ	[ʈ͡ʂaɳʈ͡ʂ]	'knee'	Corresponds to a voiceless retroflex fricative /ʂ/ in the northern dialects.
	Southern dialects
Mapudungun		trafoy	[ʈ͡ʂa.ˈfoj]	'it got broken'	Contrasts with a voiceless postalveolar affricate: chafoy [t͡ʃa.ˈfoj] 'he/she coughed'
Northern Qiang		zhes	[ʈ͡ʂəs]	'day before yesterday'	Contrasts with aspirated and voiced forms.
Polish	Standard[5][6]	czas	[ˈʈ͡ʂäs̪] (help·info)	'time'	Laminal. Transcribed /t͡ʃ/ by most Polish scholars. See Polish phonology
	Southeastern Cuyavian dialects[7]	cena	[ˈʈ͡ʂɛn̪ä]	'price'	Some speakers. It is a result of hypercorrecting the more popular merger of /ʈ͡ʂ/ and /t͡s/ into [t͡s].
	Suwałki dialect[8]
Quechua	Cajamarca–Cañaris	chupa	[ʈ͡ʂupə]	'tail'
Russian		лу́чше / luchshe	[ˈɫut͡ʂʂə] (help·info)	'better'
Serbo-Croatian[9]		чеп / čep	[ʈ͡ʂe̞p]	'cork'	Apical. It may be palato-alveolar instead, depending on the dialect. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Silesian		szczopek	[ʂʈ͡ʂopɛk]	'pike'
Slovak[10]		čakať	[ˈʈ͡ʂäkäc]	'to wait'	Laminal.
Torwali[11]		ڇووو	[ʈ͡ʂuwu]	'to sew'	Contrasts with aspirated form.
Vietnamese		trà	[ʈ͡ʂaː˨˩]	'tea'	Some speakers.
Yi		ꍈ / zha	[ʈ͡ʂa˧]	'a bit'	Contrasts with aspirated form.