Affricates are speech sounds that begin as stops and release as fricatives. This means that they start with a complete blockage of airflow, followed by a gradual release that creates a turbulent sound. In English, common examples of affricates include the sounds represented by the letters ch in "church" and j in "judge." Affricates are classified as consonants and are produced by obstructing the airflow in the vocal tract. They are found in many languages around the world, not just English. Understanding affricates is important for linguistics and phonetics, as they illustrate how different sounds can be formed in human speech.