Palatal lateral ejective affricate

The palatal lateral ejective affricate is a rare type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨c͡ʎ̝̊ʼ⟩.

It is a rare sound, found in Dahalo, a Cushitic language of Kenya, and in Hadza, a language isolate of Tanzania. In Dahalo, /c͡ʎ̥̝ʼ/ contrasts with alveolar /tɬʼ/, and in Hadza it contrasts with velar [k͡ʟ̝̊ʼ], an allophone of /kʼ/.

Features

Features of the palatal lateral ejective affricate:

• Its manner of articulation is affricate, which means it is produced by first stopping the airflow entirely, then allowing air flow through a constricted channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.

• Its place of articulation is palatal, which means it is articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised to the hard palate.

• 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 lateral consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream over the sides of the tongue, rather than down the middle.

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

Occurrence

The Hadza sound has been transcribed as [t͡ʎ̥̝ʼ], but alveolar contact of the tongue is not distinctive.

Notes

References