The present study investigated perceptual cues for the word‐final fricative‐affricate contrast, e.g., as indish‐ditch. When the closure interval between vowel and fricative indishis increased, listeners perceiveditch. The duration of closure interval necessary for the perception of the affricative varies as a function of both friction rise time and friction duration. Thus, duration of closure interval, duration of friction, and friction rise time can be traded off in the perception of an affricate. The phonetic equivalence of these acoustically dissimilar cues can be readily accounted for on the view that they are the distributed acoustic consequences of the gestures that distinguishdishfromditch. To suggest this, of course, is to suggest a link in speech between perception and production. [Work supported by NICHD.]