Epiglottal ejective

The epiglottal or pharyngeal ejective is a rare type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʡʼ⟩.

Features

Features of the pharyngeal ejective:

• Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is a stop.

• Its place of articulation is epiglottal, which means it is articulated with the aryepiglottic folds against the epiglottis.

• Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.

• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.

• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.

• The airstream mechanism is ejective (glottalic egressive), which means the air is forced out by pumping the glottis upward.

Occurrence

A pharyngeal ejective has been reported in Dargwa, a Northeast Caucasian language.

See also

• List of phonetics topics