affrication

Meaning

The phonetic process by which a stop consonant becomes an affricate, typically occurring when a stop is followed by a high front vowel or a glide.

Examples

• In many English dialects, the affrication of the 't' sound before 'r' is a common feature of natural speech.
• The historical affrication of certain consonants in Old English led to the development of the 'ch' and 'j' sounds we use today.