Rara #12

Legacy number: 12

 Number  12
 Phenomenon  the full gamut of (voiceless) palato-alveolar, alveolar, bilabial, and (dialectally) velar affricates (see Image)
 Found in  German (Germanic, IE)
 Domain  phonology — phoneme inventory
 Type  nonesuch
 Keywords  affricates, alveolar, palato-alveolar, bilabial, velar
 Source  any grammar of German
 Violates  not yet in UA

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Discussion
Notes
In terms of plain numbers, it is not uncommon for languages to have more affricates than four, owing to the exploitation of contrasts especially of voicing and aspiration or more rarely of ejectivity; also, there are inventories with palatal(ized), or retroflex, or lateral affricates (Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996: 90-91, 204-209). Labial affricates as such seem quite rare (a voiceless and voiced labiodental affricate is attested, for instance, in Beembe (Bantu, Niger-Congo). Rarer still, and perhaps unique to German, are affricates in all three place ranges, dental/alveolar, labial, and velar/uvular. Ladefoged, Peter & Ian Maddieson (1996). The Sounds of the World?s Languages. Oxford: Blackwell.
Comment
Frans Plank · 21 Sep 2006
In terms of plain numbers, it is not uncommon for languages to have more affricates than four, owing to the exploitation of contrasts especially of voicing and aspiration or more rarely of ejectivity; also, there are inventories with palatal(ized), or retroflex, or lateral affricates (Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996: 90-91, 204-209). Labial affricates as such seem quite rare (a voiceless and voiced labiodental affricate is attested, for instance, in Beembe (Bantu, Niger-Congo). Rarer still, and perhaps unique to German, are affricates in all three place ranges, dental/alveolar, labial, and velar/uvular.

Ladefoged, Peter & Ian Maddieson (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell.