Affricates /ʧ/ and /ʤ/

 

/ʧ/ and /ʤ/ are the only affricates in English. An affricate is a phoneme which combines a plosive (or stop) with an immediately following fricative. In other words, an affricate begins like a stop, but ends like a fricative. So, to create /ʧ/, air is briefly prevented from leaving the vocal tract when the tip of the tongue presses against the back tooth ridge while the sides of the tongue press against the upper side teeth. In this way all air is blocked. Then the tongue pulls back to create friction, creating turbulence. /ʤ/ is voiced and is the counterpart to the unvoiced /ʧ/. So to say /dʒ/, additionally, voice the vocal cord. The voiceless affricate ‘ch’ is pronounced twice in the word ‘church’, and the voiced affricate ‘j’ is pronounced twice in the word ‘judge’.

/ʧ/, /ʤ/ minimal pairs

chain Jane

char jar

charred jarred

Chas jazz

cheer jeer

cheese G’s

cherry Jerry

chess Jess

chest jest

chested jested

Chester jester

chew Jew

chill Jill

chin gin

chip gyp

chive jive

choice Joyce

choke joke

choker joker

chug jug

chump jump

chunk junk

chunky junkie

etching edging

batch badge

beseech besiege

catch cadge

cinch singe

etch edge

H age

hotchpotch hodgepodge

Larch large

leach liege

leech liege

lunch lunge

March Marge

perch purge

perched purged

retch (or wretch) Reg

rich ridge

search surge

searches surges

splotch splodge

These are sentences with /ʧ/, /ʤ/ sounds.

The judge went to church, not to jail.

The catcher was joking with the pitcher.

John is chasing the pigeons away from the hedge.

The children were jumping and playing catch.

The Jeep is not cheap.

We moved the strange furniture to the garage. 

Sometimes they cheer; sometimes they jeer.

I wasn’t sure whether he was joking or choking.

She ate her jello while playing the cello.

They’re Jane’s chains.

/ʒ/, /ʤ/ minimal pairs 

Very few word pairs exist for the /ʒ/ and /ʤ/ distinction; 

lesion legion

version virgin

pleasure pledger

/ʃ/, tʃ/ minimal pairs 

shan't chant 

sheet cheat 

share chair 

sherry cherry 

shoe chew 

shat chat 

she's cheese 

shooed chewed 

shatter chatter 

shilling chilling 

shop chop 

sheaf chief 

shin chin 

shopper chopper 

shear cheer 

ship chip 

shore chore 

sheep cheap 

shit chit 

shuck chuck

shore chore

washer watcher

bash batch

Bosch botch

bush butch

cache catch

cash catch

chic cheek

crush crutch

dish ditch

hash hatch

hush hutch

lash latch

leash leach

leash leech

marsh march

mash match

racial Rachel

wash watch

/ʤ/, /z/ minimal pairs

/ʤ/ is an explosive sound that is the voiced version of /ʧ/. It is impossible to extend /ʤ/ for very long. /z/ is a smooth fricative sound that is the voiced version of /s/. /z/ can be extended as long as you like.

page pays

cage Ks

siege sees

stage stays

wage ways

barge bars

change chains

charge chars

forge fours

fridge frizz

Jew zoo

siege Cs

binge bins

rage raise

rage rays

siege seize

strange strains

tinge tins

budge buzz

fudge fuzz

gauge gaze

jest zest

jig zig

purge purrs

singe sins