Stoppʼⓘtʼⓘʈʼⓘcʼⓘkʼⓘqʼⓘ
Fricativefʼⓘsʼⓘʂʼⓘɕʼⓘxʼⓘχʼⓘ
ɸʼⓘθʼⓘʃʼⓘ
Affricatet̪θʼⓘtsʼⓘʈʂʼⓘt̠ʃʼⓘkxʼⓘqχʼⓘ
Lateralɬʼⓘtɬʼⓘc𝼆ʼⓘk𝼄ʼⓘ

In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. Some languages have glottalized sonorants that pattern with ejectives phonologically, and others have ejectives that pattern with implosives; this has led phonologists to posit an overarching phonological class of glottalic consonants.

Description

In producing an ejective, the stylohyoid muscle and digastric muscle contract, causing the hyoid bone and the connected glottis to rise, 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. The Adam's apple may 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. These weakly ejective articulations are sometimes called intermediates in 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 be contrastive in any natural language.

In strict, technical terms, ejectives are glottalic egressive consonants. 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 same place of articulation. In proportion to the frequency of uvular consonants, [qʼ] is even more common, as would be expected from the very small oral cavity used to pronounce a voiceless uvular stop.[citation needed] [pʼ], on the other hand, is quite rare. That is the opposite pattern to what is found in the implosive consonants, in which the bilabial is common and the velar is rare.

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

Consonants described as ejectives occur in about 20% of the world's languages. Ejectives that 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 the Caucasus which forms an island of ejective languages. They are also found frequently in the East African Rift and the South African Plateau (see Geography of Africa). In the Americas, they are extremely common in the North American Cordillera. They also frequently occur throughout the Andes and Maya Mountains. Elsewhere, they are rare. Phonetically, however, they are quite common, occurring even in English.

Language families that distinguish ejective consonants include:

According to the glottalic theory, the Proto-Indo-European language had a series of ejectives (or, in some versions, implosives), but no extant Indo-European language has retained them. Ejectives are found today in Ossetian and some Armenian dialects only because of influence of the nearby Northeast Caucasian and/or Kartvelian language families.

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 in Nilo-Saharan languages (Gumuz, Me'en, and T'wampa), Mayan language (Yucatec), and the Oto-Manguean Mazahua. Nguni languages, such as Zulu have an implosive b alongside a series of allophonically ejective stops. Dahalo of Kenya, has ejectives, implosives, and click consonants.

Non-contrastively, ejectives are found in many varieties of English, usually replacing word-final fortis plosives in utterance-final or emphatic contexts.

Types

Almost all ejective consonants in the world's languages are stops or affricates, and all ejective consonants are obstruents. [kʼ] is the most common ejective, and [qʼ] is common among languages with uvulars, [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 the Khoisan languages, where it is the ejective equivalent of /k/).

Attested ejective consonants(excluding ejective clicks and secondary articulations)
BilabialLabio- dentalDentalAlveolarLabial- alveolarPost- alveolarRetroflexAlveolo- palatalPalatalVelarUvular
Stopplainpʼt̪ʼtʼt͡pʼʈʼcʼkʼqʼ
voicedɡ͡kʼɢ͡qʼ
Affricateplainp̪fʼt̪θʼtsʼtʃʼʈʂʼtɕʼkxʼqχʼ
voicedd͡tsʼd͡tʃʼɡ͡kxʼɢ͡qχʼ
Fricativeɸʼfʼθʼsʼʃʼʂʼɕʼxʼχʼ
Lateralaffricatetɬʼc𝼆ʼk𝼄ʼ
Lateralfricativeɬʼ

A few languages have ejective fricatives. In some dialects of Hausa, the standard affricate [tsʼ] is a fricative [sʼ]; Ubykh (Northwest Caucasian, now extinct) had an ejective lateral fricative [ɬʼ]; and the related Kabardian also has ejective labiodental and alveolopalatal fricatives, [fʼ],[ʃʼ],and[ɬʼ]. Tlingit is an extreme case, with ejective alveolar, lateral, velar, and uvular fricatives, [sʼ],[ɬʼ],[xʼ],[xʷʼ],[χʼ],[χʷʼ]. Upper Necaxa Totonac is 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 are Yuchi, 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] and Lakota, with [sʼ],[ʃʼ],and[xʼ] .[citation needed] Amharic is 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 from Yawelmani and other Yokuts languages, Tolowa, and Gwich'in.

Because the glottal closure required to form an ejective makes voicing impossible, the allophonic voicing of ejective phonemes causes them to lose their glottalization; this occurs in Blin (modal voice) and Kabardian (creaky voice). A similar historical sound change also occurred in Veinakh and Lezgic in the Caucasus, and it has been postulated by the glottalic theory for Indo-European. Some Khoisan languages have voiced ejective stops and voiced ejective clicks; however, they actually contain mixed voicing, and the ejective release is voiceless.

Ejective trills are not attested in any language, even allophonically. An ejective [rʼ] would necessarily be voiceless, 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.[full citation needed][full citation needed] (An apostrophe is commonly seen with r, l and nasals, but that is Americanist phonetic notation for a glottalized consonant and does not indicate an ejective.)

Other ejective sonorants are 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 are glottalized consonants and vowels whose glottalization partially or fully interrupts an otherwise normal voiced pulmonic airstream, somewhat like English uh-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.

Yeyi has a set of prenasalized ejectives, /ⁿtʼ, ᵑkʼ, ⁿtsʼ/.

Orthography

In the International 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 in Armenian linguistics ⟨pʻtʻkʻ⟩; this usage is obsolete in the IPA. In other transcription traditions (such as many romanisations of Russian, where it is transliterating the soft sign), the apostrophe represents palatalization: ⟨pʼ⟩ = IPA ⟨pʲ⟩. In some Americanist 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 alphabets using the Latin script, an IPA-like apostrophe for ejective consonants is common. However, there are other conventions. In Hausa, the hooked letter ƙ is used for /kʼ/. In Zulu and Xhosa, whose ejection is variable between speakers, plain consonant letters are used: p t k ts tsh kr for /pʼtʼkʼtsʼtʃʼkxʼ/. In some conventions for Haida and Hadza, double letters are used: tt kk qq ttl tts for /tʼkʼqʼtɬʼtsʼ/ (Haida) and zz jj dl gg for /tsʼtʃʼc𝼆ʼkxʼ/ (Hadza).

List

Stops

Affricates

Fricatives

Clicks

  • Simple ejective clicks [kʘʼ],[kǀʼ],[kǁʼ],[kǃʼ],[kǂʼ] (all five in ǂ'Amkoe; alveolar/lateral/dental in isiXhosa)
  • Labialized ejective clicks [ǀʷʼ], [ǁʷʼ], [ǃʷʼ] (in isiXhosa)
  • Prenasalized ejective clicks [ŋǀʼ], [ŋǁʼ], [ŋǃʼ] (phonemically in isiXhosa, spelled nkc/nkx/nkq)
  • Prenasalized labialized ejective clicks [ŋǀʷʼ], [ŋǁʷʼ], [ŋǃʷʼ] (in isiXhosa, spelled nkcw/nkxw/nkqw)
  • Ejective-contour clicks

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

Hypothesis

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 a spurious correlation.

See also

Notes

Bibliography

  • 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. JSTOR
  • Chirikba, V.A. Aspects of Phonological Typology. Moscow, 1991 (in Russian).
  • Everett, Caleb (2013), "Evidence for Direct Geographic Influences on Linguistic Sounds: The Case of Ejectives", PLOS One, 8 (6) e65275, Bibcode:, doi:, PMC, PMID
  • Fallon, Paul. 2002. The Synchronic and Diachronic Phonology of Ejectives. Routledge. ISBN0-415-93800-7, ISBN978-0-415-93800-6.
  • Hogan, John T. (1976-07-01). "An Analysis of the Temporal Features of Ejective Consonants". Phonetica. 33 (4). Walter de Gruyter GmbH: 275–284. doi:. ISSN. S2CID.
  • Greenberg, Joseph H. (1970), "Some generalizations concerning glottalic consonants, especially implosives.", International Journal of American Linguistics, 36 (2): 123–145, doi:, S2CID
  • Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (Seconded.), Blackwell, ISBN0-631-21411-9
  • Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN0-631-19815-6.
  • Lewis, Martin W.; Pereltsvaig, Asya (17 June 2013). . GeoCurrents. Archived from on 17 April 2014.
  • Liberman, Mark (14 June 2013). . Language Log.
  • Lindau, Mona (1984). "Phonetic differences in glottalic consonants". Journal of Phonetics. 12 (2). Elsevier BV: 147–155. doi:. ISSN.
  • Lindsey, Geoffrey; Hayward, Katrina; Haruna, Andrew (1992). "Hausa Glottalic Consonants: A Laryngographic Study". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 55 (3): 511–527. doi:. S2CID.
  • Taddese, Takkele (1992). "Are sʼ and tʼ variants of an Amharic variable? A sociolinguistic analysis". Journal of Ethiopian Languages and Literature. 2: 104–21.
  • Wier, Thomas (19 June 2013). . Diversity Linguistics Comment.
  • Wright, Richard; Hargus, Sharon; Davis, Katharine (2002). "On the categorization of ejectives: data from Witsuwit'en". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 32: 43–77. doi:. S2CID.

External links

  • of languages with ejectives (blue and purple)