What is affrications?

An affrication is a linguistic phenomenon that occurs when a sound is produced by a combination of two distinct sounds. Specifically, an affrication is created when an unvoiced fricative sound (such as /f/, /s/, or /sh/) is immediately followed by a stop consonant (such as /p/, /t/, or /k/).

The resulting sound is a single, complex consonant that begins with a fricative sound and ends with a plosive sound. Examples of this include the sounds /tʃ/ (as in "cheese"), /dʒ/ (as in "judge"), and /ts/ (as in "cats").

Affrications are present in many languages, including English, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese. They are often used as phonetic contrasts, meaning that the presence or absence of an affrication can change the meaning of a word. For example, in English, the word "chip" (/tʃɪp/) means something different from the word "sip" (/sɪp/), even though the only difference between them is the presence of the affrication.