# Aspiration of Voiceless Affricate in English Tags: english, aspiration, affricates - Score: 5 - Views: 1501 - Answers: 2 - Answered: yes - Asked by: Ash199 (59 rep) - Asked: 2019-04-27 - Edited: 2023-11-23 - Site: linguistics ## Question My question is about the voiceless affricate /tʃ/ ( CHair, maTCH, baTCH, strucTure) as it is used in ENGLISH: English has two affricates: the /tʃ/ in "chair" and the /dʒ/ in "jar". The /tʃ/ is a voiceless affricate. My question is, since this is voiceless, does it follow the same rules of aspiration as voiceless stops in English? That is, like /p/, /t/, /k/? /p/, /t/ and /k/ are usually aspirated when at the beginning of a word(except when preceded by s in the same syllable) and at the onset of a stressed syllable. Does the same hold true for /tʃ/? So the /tʃ/ sound in "chair" is aspirated whereas in "catch", it is not? Or is it, but a little less in magnitude? ## Answers ### Answer by user6726 (score: 5) The affricate /tʃ/ does not behave differently from the stops /p t k/ w.r.t. aspiration. The relevant contexts for aspiration are bit more complicated and are best stated in terms of foot-initial (aspirated) vs. foot-non-initial positions