გაკვეთილი 7 (Lesson 7) — Affricates Part 1
Introduction
Affricates combine a stop with a fricative - they start with closure and release into friction. Think of English "ch" in "church" - that's an affricate!
Characters
Fricative vs Affricate
| Type | Example | Description |
|---|
| Fricative | შ | Continuous airflow (shhhh) |
| Affricate | ც, ჩ | Stop + fricative combined |
Practice Words
| Georgian | Romanization | Meaning |
|---|
| შენ | shen | you |
| ცა | tsa | sky |
| ჩემი | chemi | my/mine |
| შვილი | shvili | child |
| ცივი | tsivi | cold |
The Affricate Series
Like stops, affricates come in three types:
| Type | ts-sound | ch-sound |
|---|
| Voiced | ძ | ჯ |
| Aspirated | ც | ჩ |
| Ejective | წ | ჭ |
Key Points
- შ is just a fricative (like "sh"), not an affricate
- ც = ts (aspirated), ჩ = ch (aspirated)
- These are aspirated - they have a puff of air
- ჩემი (my) and შენი (your) are very common words