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The realization of palato-alveolar affricates in Italian varies regionally. While affricates have undergone deaffrication in Tuscan and southern varieties (/ˈt͡ʃeː.na/ → [ˈʃeː.na]), northern varieties are traditionally described as retaining the affricate. We provide acoustic and articulatory (EMA) evidence of an incipient lenition process in non-deaffricating varieties. This process is stress-conditioned as it is blocked in post-tonic affricates. Five of fifteen speakers deaffricated far-from-stress affricates in nonce words, as indicated by higher RMS amplitude and energy during the closure, while post-tonic affricates were preserved. Ten speakers did not exhibit stress-conditioned deaffrication. Both groups showed a longer acoustic closure duration, caused by delayed articulatory target achievement in post-tonic position. We discuss the phonological implications of these findings and their potential role in sound change.