Ejective consonant - Citizendia

Manners of articulation
Obstruent
Stop
Affricate
Fricative
Sibilant
Sonorant
Nasal
Flaps/Tap
Trill
Approximant
Liquid
Vowel
Semivowel
Lateral
Airstreams
Ejective
Implosive
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This page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. In Linguistics ( Articulatory phonetics) manner of articulation describes how the tongue lips and other speech organs are involved in making a sound make In Phonetics, articulation may be divided into two large classes obstruents and Sonorants An obstruent is a Consonant sound formed by A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Affricate Consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or) but release as a fricative (such as or or occasionally into Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together A sibilant is a type of Fricative or Affricate Consonant, made by directing a jet of air through a narrow channel in the Vocal tract towards In Phonetics and Phonology, a sonorant is a Speech sound that is produced without turbulent airflow in the Vocal tract. A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the In Phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of Consonantal sound which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (such as the In Phonetics, a trill is a Consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the Place of articulation. Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants Liquid consonants, or liquids, are Approximant Consonants that are not classified as Semivowels (glides because they do not correspond phonetically In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract Semivowels — also known as glides or non-syllabic vowels —are Vowels that form Diphthongs with full syllabic vowels Laterals are "L"-like Consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both Implosive consonants are stops (rarely Affricates with a mixed Glottalic ingressive and Pulmonic egressive Airstream mechanism. Clicks are speech sounds such as English tsk! tsk! used to express disapproval or the tchick! used to spur on a horse Phonetics (from the Greek φωνή ( phonê) "sound" or "voice" is the study of the physical sounds of human speech The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic [Help]
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In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic Phonetics (from the Greek φωνή ( phonê) "sound" or "voice" is the study of the physical sounds of human speech Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless In Articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a Speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper Vocal tract, the upper vocal The glottis is defined as the combination of the Vocal folds and the space in between the folds (the Rima glottidis) In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated or tenuis consonants. Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them Description Voiceless consonants are produced with the Vocal cords open and voiced consonants are produced when the vocal folds are fractionally closed See also Grassmann's law Spiritus asper Spiritus lenis Additionally, some languages have sonorants with creaky voice that pattern with ejectives while other languages have ejectives that pattern with implosives — this has led to phonologists positing a phonological class of glottalized consonants (see glottalic consonant and below for further discussion). A glottalic consonant is a Consonant produced with some important contribution (a movement a closure of the Glottis (the opening that leads from the nose and mouth

1 Description
2 Occurrence in languages
3 Types of Ejectives
4 IPA transcription
5 References
6 Sample list of ejective consonants
7 See also

Description

In producing an ejective, the glottis is raised while the forward articulation (a [k] in the case of [k’]) is held, raising air pressure in the mouth, so when the [k] is released, there is a noticeable burst of air. The Adam's apple may be seen moving when the sound is pronounced. In the languages where they are more obvious, ejectives are often described as sounding like "spat" consonants; but ejectives are often quite weak and, in some contexts, and in some languages, are easy to mistake for unaspirated plosives. These weakly ejective articulations are sometimes called intermediates in older American linguistic literature and are notated with different phonetic symbols: [C!] = strongly ejective, [C’] = weakly ejective. Strong and weak ejectives have not been found to be contrastive in any known language.

In strict, technical terms, ejectives are glottalic egressive consonants. In Phonetics, the airstream mechanism is the method by which airflow is created in the vocal tract The most common ejective is [k’], as it is easy to raise the necessary pressure within the small oral cavity used to pronounce a [k]. In proportion to the frequency of uvular consonants, [q’] is even more common, as would be expected from the very small oral cavity used to pronounce a [q]. Uvulars are Consonants articulated with the back of the Tongue against or near the uvula, that is further back in the mouth than Velar consonants The voiceless uvular plosive is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages It is pronounced like, except that the tongue makes contact not [p’], on the other hand, is quite rare. This is the opposite pattern to what is found in the implosive consonants, in which the bilabial is common and the velar is rare (Joseph Greenberg 1970). Implosive consonants are stops (rarely Affricates with a mixed Glottalic ingressive and Pulmonic egressive Airstream mechanism. Joseph Harold Greenberg (May 28 1915 – May 7 2001 was a prominent and controversial linguist and Africanist anthropologist known for his work in both typology Ejective fricatives are rare for presumably the same reason: with the air escaping from the mouth while the pressure is being raised, like inflating a leaky bicycle tire, it's harder to make the resulting sound as salient as a [k’].

Occurrence in languages

Ejectives that phonemically contrast with pulmonic consonants occur in about 15% of languages around the world. They are extremely common in northwest North America, and frequently occur throughout the western parts of both North and South America. They are also common in eastern and southern Africa. In Eurasia, the Caucasus form an island of ejective languages. The Caucasus ( also referred to as North Caucasus) is a geopolitical region located between Europe Asia & Middle East Elsewhere they are rare.

Language families which distinguish ejective consonants include all three Caucasian families (Abkhaz-Adyghe, Nakho-Dagestanian and Kartvelian (Georgian)); the Athabaskan, Siouan and Salishan families of North America, along with the many diverse families of the Pacific Northwest from central California to British Columbia; the Mayan family and Aymara; the Afro-Asiatic family (notably most of the Cushitic and Omotic languages, Hausa and South Semitic languages like Amharic and Tigrinya) and a few Nilo-Saharan languages; and the Khoisan family of southern Africa. The Northwest Caucasian languages, also called Pontic, Circassian, or Abkhaz-Adyghe, are a group of languages spoken in the Caucasus region The Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Caspian, Nakho-Dagestanian, or Dagestanian, are a family of Languages The South Caucasian languages (also known as Ibero-Caucasian or Kartvelian) are spoken primarily in Georgia, with smaller groups of speakers in Turkey Georgian (ka ქართული ენა kartuli ena) is the Official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus. Athabaskan or Athabascan (also Athapascan, Athapaskan, Athabasca Indians or Athapaskes) is the name of a large group of closely The Siouan (aka Siouan proper, Western Siouan) languages are a Native American Language family of North America, and the This article is about the Salish/Salishan language For the Tacoma Washington neighborhood see Salishan Tacoma Washington. California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. British Columbia (ˌbrɪtɨʃ kəˈlʌmbiə ( BC) ( (la Colombie-Britannique C Aymara ( Aymar aru) is an Aymaran language spoken by the Aymara people of the Andes. The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a Language family with about 375 languages ( SIL estimate and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken in the Horn of Africa. The Omotic languages are spoken in southwestern Ethiopia. They are often regarded as belonging to the Afro-Asiatic languages. Hausa is the Chadic language with the largest number of speakers spoken as a first Language by about 24 million people and as a second language by about 15 South Semitic is one of the three macro-classifications in Semitic linguistics the other two being East Semitic (e Amharic (አማርኛ amarəñña) is a Semitic language spoken in North Central Ethiopia by the Amhara. Tigrinya ( Ge'ez: ትግርኛ tigriññā) also spelled Tigrigna, Tigrina, less commonly Tigrinian, Tigrinyan, is The Nilo-Saharan languages are a hypothetical group of African languages spoken mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers (hence the term The Khoisan languages (also Khoesaan languages) are the indigenous languages of southern and eastern Africa; in southern Africa their speakers are the Khoi Among the scattered languages with ejectives elsewhere are Itelmen of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages and Yapese of the Austronesian family. Itelmen, formerly also known as Kamchadal, is a language belonging to the Chukotko-Kamchatkan family traditionally spoken in the Kamchatka Peninsula The Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages are a language family of northeastern Siberia. Yapese is a language spoken by 6600 people on the island of Yap ( Federated States of Micronesia) According to the glottalic theory, the Proto-Indo-European language had a series of ejectives, although no attested Indo-European language retains these sounds; nevertheless, ejectives are found in the Indo-European Ossetic and some dialects of Armenian; both have acquired ejectives under the influence of the nearby Caucasian language families. The glottalic theory holds that Proto-Indo-European had ejective stops, p’ t’ k’ but not the murmured ones bʱ dʱ gʱ Ossetic or Ossetian (Ирон ӕвзаг Iron ævzag or Иронау Ironau) also sometimes called Ossete, is an Iranian The Armenian language (hy հայերեն լեզու hajɛɹɛn lɛzu —, conventional short form) is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian

It had once been predicted that both ejectives and implosives would not be found in the same language, but this is now shown to be incorrect, both being found phonemically at plural points of articulation in at least the Nilo-Saharan languages Gumuz, Me'en, and Twampa. Gumuz (also spelled "Gumaz" is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken by the Gumuz people who live along the border of Ethiopia and Sudan Me'en (also Mekan Mie'en Mieken Meqan Men is a Nilo-Saharan language ( Eastern Sudanic, Surmic) spoken in Ethiopia by the Me'en people In addition, a number of East Cushitic languages have a series of ejective consonants and a single implosive, a voiced retroflex stop. In Phonetics, retroflex consonants are Consonant sounds used in some Languages (They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants

Types of Ejectives

The vast majority of ejective consonants noted in the world's languages consists of stops or affricates, and all ejective consonants are obstruents. A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Affricate Consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or) but release as a fricative (such as or or occasionally into In Phonetics, articulation may be divided into two large classes obstruents and Sonorants An obstruent is a Consonant sound formed by [k’] is the most common ejective, and [q’] is common among languages which have uvulars, [t’] less so, and [p’] is uncommon. Uvulars are Consonants articulated with the back of the Tongue against or near the uvula, that is further back in the mouth than Velar consonants Among affricates, [ts’], [tʃ’], [tɬ’] are all quite common, and [kx’] is not unusual (at least among the Khoisan languages), especially considering that plain [kx] is not a common sound. The Khoisan languages (also Khoesaan languages) are the indigenous languages of southern and eastern Africa; in southern Africa their speakers are the Khoi

A few languages utilise ejective fricatives: in some dialects of Hausa, the standard affricate [ts’] is a fricative [s’]; Ubykh (Northwest Caucasian) has an ejective lateral fricative [ɬ’]; and the related Kabardian also has ejective labiodental and alveolopalatal fricatives, [f’], [ʃ’], and [ɬ’]. Hausa is the Chadic language with the largest number of speakers spoken as a first Language by about 24 million people and as a second language by about 15 Ubykh or Ubyx is a Language of the Northwestern Caucasian group, spoken by the Ubykh people up until the early 1990s The Kabardian language is closely related to the Adyghe language (see Adyghe people) both members of the Northwest Caucasian language family mainly Tlingit is an extreme case, with ejective alveolar, lateral, velar, and uvular fricatives, [s’], [ɬ’], [x’], [xʷ’], [χ’], [χʷ’]; it may be the only language with the latter. The Tlingit language (ˈklɪŋkɪt in English Lingít ɬɪŋkɪ́t in Tlingit is spoken by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Upper Necaxa Totonac is unusual and perhaps unique in that it has ejective fricatives (alveolar, lateral, and postalveolar [s’], [ʃ’], [ɬ’]) but completely lacks ejective stops or affricates (Beck 2006). The Totonacan Languages are a family of closely-related languages spoken by approximately 200000 Totonac and Tepehua people in the states of Other languages with ejective fricatives are Yuchi, which in some sources is analyzed as having [ɸ’], [s’], [ʃ’], and [ɬ’] (note this is not the analysis of the Wikipedia article), Acoma Keres, with [ʂ’] and [ɕ’], and Lakota, with [s’], [ʃ’], and [x’]. The Yuchi language is the language of the Yuchi people living in the southeastern United States, including eastern Tennessee western Carolinas northern Keresan (kəˈriːsən also Keres (/ˈkɛrəs/ is a group of seven related Lects spoken by Pueblo peoples in New Mexico, U Lakota (also Lakhota, Teton, Teton Sioux) is the largest of the three languages of the Sioux, of the Siouan family Amharic is interpreted by many as having an ejective fricative [s'], at least historically, but it has been also analyzed as now being a sociolinguistic variant (Takkele Taddese 1992). Amharic (አማርኛ amarəñña) is a Semitic language spoken in North Central Ethiopia by the Amhara.

Strangely, although an ejective retroflex stop is easy to make and quite distinctive in sound, it is very rare. Retroflex ejective stops and affricates, [ʈ’, ʈʂ’], are reported from Yawelmani and other Yokuts languages, as well as Tolowa_language; however, and the retroflex ejective affricate is also found allophonically in most Northwest Caucasian languages. Yawelmani (also Yowlumni) is an extinct variety of the Valley Yokuts language (of the Yokutsan family formerly spoken in southern Yokutsan (also known as Yokuts and Mariposan) is an endangered Language family spoken in the interior of Northern and Central California The Tolowa are a tribe of Native Americans who traditionally lived in the Smith River basin and vicinity in northwestern California and southwestern The Northwest Caucasian languages, also called Pontic, Circassian, or Abkhaz-Adyghe, are a group of languages spoken in the Caucasus region

Ejective sonorants do not occur. In Phonetics and Phonology, a sonorant is a Speech sound that is produced without turbulent airflow in the Vocal tract. When sonorants are written with an apostrophe, as if they were ejective, they actually involve a different airstream mechanism: they are glottalized consonants and vowels, where glottalization interrupts an otherwise normal pulmonic airstream, somewhat like English uh-uh (either vocalic or nasal) pronounced as a single sound. A glottalic consonant is a Consonant produced with some important contribution (a movement a closure of the Glottis (the opening that leads from the nose and mouth

IPA transcription

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, ejectives are indicated by writing a stop consonant with a "modifier letter apostrophe" (ʼ). The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Note that a reversed apostrophe is sometimes used to represent aspiration, as in Armenian [p‘ t‘ k‘]; this usage is obsolete in the IPA. The Armenian language (hy հայերեն լեզու hajɛɹɛn lɛzu —, conventional short form) is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian

References

Beck, David. 2006. "The emergence of ejective fricatives in Upper Necaxa Totonac. " University of Alberta Working Papers in Linguistics 1, 1-18.
Campbell, Lyle. 1973. "On Glottalic Consonants. " International Journal of American Linguistics 39, 44-46.
Greenberg, Joseph H. 1970. "Some generalizations concerning glottalic consonants, especially implosives. " International Journal of American Linguistics 36, 123-145.
Lindsey, Geoffrey, Katrina Hayward, Andrew Haruna. 1992. "Hausa Glottalic Consonants: A Laryngographic Study. " Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 55, 511-527.
Takkele Taddese. 1992. Are s’ and t’ variants of an Amharic variable? A sociolinguistic analysis. Journal of Ethiopian Languages and Literature 2:104-21.
Wright, Richard, Sharon Hargus, and Katharine Davis. 2002. "On the categorization of ejectives: data from Witsuwit'en. " Journal of the International Phonetic Association 32: 43-77.

Sample list of ejective consonants

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[p’] (info)
[t’] (info)
[k’] (info)
[q’] (info)
[s’] (info)

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