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Ejective consonant

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This article containsphonetic transcriptionsin theInternational Phonetic Alphabet(IPA).For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA.For the distinction between[ ],/ /and ⟨⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Inphonetics,ejective consonantsare usuallyvoicelessconsonantsthat are pronounced with aglottalic egressive airstream.In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast withaspirated,voiced andtenuis consonants.Some languages have glottalizedsonorantswithcreaky voicethat pattern with ejectives phonologically, and other languages have ejectives that pattern withimplosives,which has led to phonologists positing a phonological class ofglottalic consonants,which includes ejectives.

Description[edit]

In producing an ejective, thestylohyoid muscleanddigastric musclecontract, causing thehyoid boneand the connected glottis to raise, and the forward articulation (at the velum in the case of[kʼ]) is held, raising air pressure greatly in the mouth so when the oral articulators separate, there is a dramatic burst of air.[1]TheAdam's applemay be seen moving when the sound is pronounced. In the languages in which they are more obvious, ejectives are often described as sounding like “spat” consonants, but ejectives are often quite weak. In some contexts and in some languages, they are easy to mistake for tenuis or even voiced stops.[2]These weakly ejective articulations are sometimes calledintermediatesin older American linguistic literature and are notated with different phonetic symbols: ⟨C!⟩ = strongly ejective, ⟨Cʼ⟩ = weakly ejective. Strong and weak ejectives have not been found to becontrastivein any natural language.

In strict, technical terms, ejectives areglottalic egressiveconsonants. The most common ejective is[kʼ]even if it is more difficult to produce than other ejectives like[tʼ]or[pʼ]because the auditory distinction between[kʼ]and[k]is greater than with other ejectives and voiceless consonants of the sameplace of articulation.[3]In proportion to the frequency ofuvular consonants,[qʼ]is even more common, as would be expected from the very small oral cavity used to pronounce avoiceless uvular stop.[citation needed][pʼ],on the other hand, is quite rare. That is the opposite pattern to what is found in theimplosive consonants,in which the bilabial is common and the velar is rare.[4]

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 is harder to distinguish the resulting sound as salient as a[kʼ].

Occurrence[edit]

Ejectives occur in about 20% of the world's languages.[3]Ejectives that phonemically contrast with pulmonic consonants occur in about 15% of languages around the world. The occurrence of ejectives often correlates to languages in mountainous regions such as theCaucasuswhich forms an island of ejective languages. They are also found frequently in theEast African Riftand the South African Plateau (seeGeography of Africa). In the Americas, they are extremely common in theNorth American Cordillera.They also frequently occur throughout theAndesandMaya Mountains.Elsewhere, they are rare.

Language families that distinguish ejective consonants include:

According to theglottalic theory,theProto-Indo-European languagehad a series of ejectives (or, in some versions,implosives), but no extant Indo-European language has retained them.[a]Ejectives are found today inOssetianand someArmeniandialects only because of influence of the nearbyNortheast Caucasianand/orKartvelian languagefamilies.

It had once been predicted that ejectives and implosives would not be found in the same language[citation needed]but both have been found phonemically at several points of articulation inNilo-Saharan languages(Gumuz,Me'en,andT'wampa),Mayan language(Yucatec),Salishan(Lushootseed), and theOto-MangueanMazahua.Nguni languages,such asZuluhave an implosivebalongside a series of allophonically ejective stops.DahaloofKenya,has ejectives, implosives, andclick consonants.

Non-contrastively, ejectives are found in many varieties of British English, usually replacing word-final fortis plosives in utterance-final or emphatic contexts.[5][6][7]

Types[edit]

Almost all ejective consonants in the world's languages arestopsoraffricates,and all ejective consonants areobstruents.[kʼ]is the most common ejective, and[qʼ]is common among languages withuvulars,[tʼ]less so, and[pʼ]is uncommon. Among affricates,[tsʼ],[tʃʼ],[tɬʼ]are all quite common, and[kxʼ]and[ʈʂʼ]are not unusual ([kxʼ]is particularly common among theKhoisan languages,where it is the ejective equivalent of/k/).

Attested ejective consonants[8]
(excludingejective clicksand secondary articulations)
Bilabial Labio-
dental 		Linguo-
labial 		Dental Alveolar Labial-
alveolar 		Post-
alveolar 		Retroflex Alveolo-
palatal 		Palatal Velar Labial–
velar 		Uvular Epi-
glottal
Stop
(voiced) 		pʼ t̪ʼ tʼ t͡pʼ[b] ʈʼ cʼ kʼ
ɡ͡kʼ(ɡʼ) 		qʼ
ɢ͡qʼ(ɢʼ) 		ʡʼ
Affricate
(voiced) 		p̪fʼ t̪θʼ tsʼ
d͡tsʼ(dzʼ) 		tʃʼ
d͡tʃʼ(dʒʼ) 		ʈʂʼ tɕʼ kxʼ
ɡ͡kxʼ(ɡɣʼ) 		qχʼ
ɢ͡qχʼ(ɢʁʼ)
Fricative ɸʼ fʼ θʼ sʼ ʃʼ ʂʼ ɕʼ xʼ χʼ
Lateralaffricate tɬʼ c𝼆ʼ(cʎ̝̊ʼ) k𝼄ʼ(kʟ̝̊ʼ)
Lateralfricative ɬʼ
Trill (theoretical)
Nasal (theoretical)

A few languages have ejective fricatives. In some dialects ofHausa,the standard affricate[tsʼ]is a fricative[sʼ];Ubykh(Northwest Caucasian, now extinct) had an ejective lateral fricative[ɬʼ];and the relatedKabardianalso has ejective labiodental and alveolopalatal fricatives,[fʼ],[ʃʼ],and[ɬʼ].Tlingitis an extreme case, with ejective alveolar, lateral, velar, and uvular fricatives,[sʼ],[ɬʼ],[xʼ],[xʷʼ],[χʼ],[χʷʼ];it may be the only language with the last type.Upper Necaxa Totonacis unusual and perhaps unique in that it has ejective fricatives (alveolar, lateral, and postalveolar[sʼ],[ʃʼ],[ɬʼ]) but lacks any ejective stop or affricate (Beck 2006). Other languages with ejective fricatives areYuchi,which some sources analyze as having[ɸʼ],[sʼ],[ʃʼ],and[ɬʼ](but not the analysis of the Wikipedia article),Keres dialects,with[sʼ],[ʂʼ]and[ɕʼ],[citation needed]andLakota,with[sʼ],[ʃʼ],and[xʼ].[citation needed]Amharicis interpreted by many as having an ejective fricative[sʼ],at least historically, but it has been also analyzed as now being a sociolinguistic variant (Takkele Taddese 1992).

An ejective retroflex stop[ʈʼ]is rare. It has been reported fromYawelmaniand otherYokuts languages,Tolowa,andGwich'in.

Because the complete closing of the glottis required to form an ejective makes voicing impossible, the allophonic voicing of ejective phonemes causes them to lose their glottalization; this occurs inBlin(modal voice) andKabardian(creaky voice). A similar historical sound change also occurred inVeinakhandLezgicin the Caucasus, and it has been postulated by theglottalic theoryfor Indo-European.[2]SomeKhoisan languageshave voiced ejective stops andvoiced ejective clicks;however, they actually containmixed voicing,and the ejective release is voiceless.

Ejective trills aren't attested in any language, even allophonically. An ejective[rʼ]would necessarily be voiceless,[9]but the vibration of the trill, combined with a lack of the intense voiceless airflow of[r̥],gives an impression like that of voicing. Similarly, ejective nasals such as[mʼ,nʼ,ŋʼ](also necessarily voiceless) are possible.[10][full citation needed][11][full citation needed](An apostrophe is commonly seen withr,land nasals, but that isAmericanist phonetic notationfor aglottalized consonantand does not indicate an ejective.)

Other ejectivesonorantsare not known to occur. When sonorants are transcribed with an apostrophe in the literature as if they were ejective, they actually involve a different airstream mechanism: they areglottalizedconsonants and vowels whose glottalization partially or fully interrupts an otherwise normal voiced pulmonic airstream, somewhat like Englishuh-uh(either vocalic or nasal) pronounced as a single sound. Often the constriction of the larynx causes it to rise in the vocal tract, but this is individual variation and not the initiator of the airflow. Such sounds generally remain voiced.[12]

Yeyihas a set of prenasalized ejectives like /ⁿtʼ, ᵑkʼ, ⁿtsʼ/.

Orthography[edit]

In theInternational Phonetic Alphabet,ejectives are indicated with a "modifier letter apostrophe"⟨ʼ⟩,as in this article. A reversed apostrophe is sometimes used to represent light aspiration, as inArmenianlinguistics ⟨pʼ tʼ kʼ⟩; this usage is obsolete in the IPA. In other transcription traditions (such as manyromanisations of Russian,where it is transliterating thesoft sign), the apostrophe representspalatalization:⟨pʼ⟩ = IPA ⟨pʲ⟩. In someAmericanist traditions,an apostrophe indicates weak ejection and an exclamation mark strong ejection: ⟨k̓, k!⟩. In the IPA, the distinction might be written ⟨kʼ, kʼʼ⟩, but it seems that no language distinguishes degrees of ejection. Transcriptions of the Caucasian languages often utilize combining dots above or below a letter to indicate an ejective.

In Alpha bets using the Latin script, an IPA-like apostrophe for ejective consonants is common. However, there are other conventions. InHausa,the hooked letterƙis used for/kʼ/.InZuluandXhosa,whose ejection is variable between speakers, plain consonant letters are used:p t k ts tsh krfor/pʼtʼkʼtsʼtʃʼkxʼ/.In some conventions forHaidaandHadza,double letters are used:tt kk qq ttl ttsfor/tʼkʼqʼtɬʼtsʼ/(Haida) andzz jj dl ggfor/tsʼtʃʼc𝼆ʼkxʼ/(Hadza).

List[edit]

Stops[edit]

Affricates[edit]

Fricatives[edit]

Clicks[edit]

[ʘqʼǀqʼǁqʼǃqʼǂqʼ]
[ʘ̬qʼǀ̬qʼǁ̬qʼǃ̬qʼǂ̬qʼ]
[ʘqχʼǀqχʼǁqχʼǃqχʼǂqχʼ~ʘkxʼǀkxʼǁkxʼǃkxʼǂkxʼ~ʘk𝼄ʼǀk𝼄ʼǁk𝼄ʼǃk𝼄ʼǂk𝼄ʼ
[ʘ̬qχʼǀ̬qχʼǁ̬qχʼǃ̬qχʼǂ̬qχʼ~ʘ̬kxʼǀ̬kxʼǁ̬kxʼǃ̬kxʼǂ̬kxʼ~ʘ̬k𝼄ʼǀ̬k𝼄ʼǁ̬k𝼄ʼǃ̬k𝼄ʼǂ̬k𝼄ʼ

The Mountain Hypothesis[edit]

A pattern can be observed wherein ejectives correlate geographically with mountainous regions.Everett (2013)argues that the geographic correlation between languages with ejectives and mountainous terrains is because of decreased air pressure making ejectives easier to produce, as well as the way ejectives help to reduce water vapor loss. The argument has been criticized as being based on aspurious correlation.[13][14][15]

See also[edit]


Notes[edit]

  1. ^ThewesternandNorthwestern Indic languageslikeSindhihaveimplosives.
  2. ^InUbykh;in free variation with[tʷʼ];also found in Abkhaz in free variation with[tʷʼ].

References[edit]

  1. ^Ladefoged (2005:147–148)
  2. ^abFallon, 2002.The synchronic and diachronic phonology of ejectives
  3. ^abLadefoged (2005:148)
  4. ^Greenberg (1970:?)
  5. ^Wells, J.C.; Colson, G. (1971).Practical Phonetics.Pitman. p. 3.ISBN9780273016816.
  6. ^Wells, John Christopher (1982).Accents of English (vol. 1).Cambridge University Press. p. 261.ISBN0521297192.
  7. ^Cruttenden, Alan (2008).Gimson's Pronunciation of English(7th ed.). Hodder Education. p. 167.ISBN978-0340958773.
  8. ^Bickford & Floyd (2006)Articulatory Phonetics,Table 25.1, augmented by sources at the articles on individual consonants
  9. ^John Esling (2010) "Phonetic Notation", in Hardcastle, Laver & Gibbon (eds)The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences,2nd ed., p 700.
  10. ^Barker, M. A. R. (1963a).
  11. ^Heselwood (2013: 148)
  12. ^Esling, John H.; Moisik, Scott R.; Benner, Allison; Crevier-Buchman, Lise (2019). Voice Quality: The Laryngeal Articulator Model. Cambridge University Press.
  13. ^Liberman (2013).
  14. ^Lewis & Pereltsvaig (2013).
  15. ^Wier (2013).

Bibliography[edit]

External links[edit]

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