Functional substitution of a non-africate with an africate obstruent in the oral practice of French and Bulgarian languages

The present study examines some cases of functional substitution of non-affricate with affricate obstruents in the oral practice of the French language, some of its diatopic and diastratic variations, as well as the manifestation of this process in the Bulgarian language. The study finds that the affrication concerns only the plosive obstruents ([t], [d], [k], [g]) in the French language, while the affrication in the Bulgarian language is observed both with plosive ([t], [d]) and fricative obstruents ([c], [з], [ш], [ж]). The terms ‚direct‘ and ‚indirect affrication‘ are introduced. The study analyzes the phonetic causes of the substitution process under consideration.