What are the ejective sounds?

What are the ejective sounds?

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.

What languages use ejective consonants?

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 …

Is it possible for a click to be ejective?

Ejective clicks may be: Ejective-contour clicks, consonants that transition from a click to an ejective sound. Ejective oral non-contour glottalized clicks.

What are non pulmonic consonants?

Non-pulmonic sounds include clicks, ejectives, and implosives. They are all types of stop consonants, but they differ in the source and the direction of their airstreams. In creating clicks and implosives, the air direction is ingressive – that is, going into the vocal tract.

Why are there no voiced ejectives?

Because the vocal folds are closed until the end of the sound, ejectives are always voiceless. (For similar reasons, ejectives can never be nasal.)

Why is a voiced ejective impossible?

It is impossible to have a voiced ejective sound because ejective requires vocal folds to be closed. Breathy and creaky means there is voicing. It is impossible to have voiceless breathy/creaky sound. It is also impossible to have a sound that is creaky and breathy at the same time.

How does one produce an Ejective?

Ejective sounds are made using the ejective airstream mechanism….For example, an ejective [t’] is made by:

  1. making an alveolar closure and closing the vocal folds. (This traps air between the two closures.)
  2. raising the larynx in the throat.
  3. releasing the alveolar closure.
  4. finally opening the vocal folds again.

Are clicks voiced?

Voiced and nasal clicks have a simultaneous pulmonic egressive airstream. Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation. It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.

How do you spell tongue clicking?

“Tongue clap” is correct; tsk, click and clap are all in this category.

What is the most common ejective consonant?

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.

What is the most common ejective in English?

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.

How many languages in the world have equivalent ejectives?

Ejectives occur in about 20% of the world’s languages. Ejectives that phonemically contrast with pulmonic consonants occur in about 15% of languages around the world.

Where do ejection languages occur?

The occurrence of ejectives often correlates to languages in mountainous regions such as the North American Cordillera where ejectives are extremely common. They frequently occur throughout the Andes and Maya Mountains.

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