ABSTRACT
The complex behaviour of affricates in Basque with respect to a number of phonological rules justifies a detailed study of their phonological structure. 1 In this chapter I will present such a study. I will argue that affricates bear both the features [−cont] and [+cont], which permits their grouping with stops for the purposes of some phonological processes and with the sibilant fricatives for some other rules. A common assumption is that the stop and continuant phases of an affricate are phonologically ordered. This view is expressed in an articulated and reasoned manner in Sagey (1986). Sagey argues that a consequence of the ordering of features in the affricates is that they will show ‘edge effects’; that is, they will be seen as stops for processes in which the trigger or target is to the left of the affricate (the [−cont] side) and as fricatives by rules involving the right, [+cont], side of the affricate.
