An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal).
Also less common are alveolar affricates where the fricative release is lateral, such as the [t͡ɬ] sound found in Nahuatl and Navajo.
Some other Athabaskan languages, such as Dene Suline, have unaspirated, aspirated, and ejective series of affricates whose release may be dental, alveolar, postalveolar, or lateral: [t̪͡θ], [t̪͡θʰ], [t̪͡θʼ], [t͡s], [t͡sʰ], [t͡sʼ], [t͡ʃ], [t͡ʃʰ], [t͡ʃʼ], [t͡ɬ], [t͡ɬʰ], and [t͡ɬʼ].
However, in languages where there is no such distinction, such as English or Turkish, a simple sequence of letters is commonly used, with no overt indication that they form an affricate.
Mandarin j (pinyin)Polish ć, ciSerbo-Croatian ć/ћThai จ Vietnamese ch The Northwest Caucasian languages Abkhaz and Ubykh both contrast sibilant affricates at four places of articulation: alveolar, postalveolar, alveolo-palatal and retroflex.
When a language has only one type of affricate, it is usually a sibilant; this is the case in e.g. Arabic ([d̠ʒ]), most dialects of Spanish ([t̠ʃ]), and Thai ([tɕ]).
[28] The coronal and dorsal places of articulation attested as ejectives as well: [tθʼ, tsʼ, tɬʼ, tʃʼ, tɕʼ, tʂʼ, c𝼆ʼ, kxʼ, k𝼄ʼ, qχʼ].
Several Khoisan languages such as Taa are reported to have voiced ejective affricates, but these are actually pre-voiced: [dtsʼ, dtʃʼ].
Affricates are also commonly aspirated: [ɱp̪fʰ, tθʰ, tsʰ, tɬʰ, tʃʰ, tɕʰ, tʂʰ], murmured: [ɱb̪vʱ, dðʱ, dzʱ, dɮʱ, dʒʱ, dʑʱ, dʐʱ], and prenasalized: [ⁿdz, ⁿtsʰ, ᶯɖʐ, ᶯʈʂʰ] (as in Hmong).
For example, Chipewyan has laminal dental [t̪͡θ] vs. apical alveolar [t]; other languages may contrast velar [k] with palatal [c͡ç] and uvular [q͡χ].
According to Kehrein (2002), no language contrasts a non-sibilant, non-lateral affricate with a stop at the same place of articulation and with the same phonation and airstream mechanism, such as /t̪/ and /t̪θ/ or /k/ and /kx/.
[33] Richard Wiese argues this is the case for word-initial fricative-plosive sequences in German, and coined the term suffricate for such contours.