Voiceless alveolar affricate

The voiceless alveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ʦ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is ts. The voiceless alveolar affricate occurs in such languages as German, Russian, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, among many others.

Features of this consonant:

• Its manner of articulation is affricate, which means it is produced by stopping air flow entirely, followed by merely constricting it through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
• Its place of articulation is alveolar which means it is articulated with the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge.
• Its phonation type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the center of the tongue, rather than the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.