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Implosive consonants are a group of (and possibly also some ) with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. That is, the airstream is controlled by moving the glottis downward in addition to expelling air from the lungs. Therefore, unlike the purely glottalic ejective consonants, implosives can be modified by phonation. Contrastive implosives are found in approximately 13%Maddieson, Ian. 2008. Glottalized Consonants. In: Haspelmath, Martin & Dryer, Matthew S. & Gil, David & Comrie, Bernard (eds.) The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Munich: Max Planck Digital Library, chapter 7. Accessed on 2008-03-28 via Wals info. of the world's languages.
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, implosives are indicated by modifying the top of a letter (voiced stop) with a rightward-facing hook: bilabial , alveolar , retroflex (this letter is 'implicit' in the IPA), palatal , velar and uvular .
However, probably more typically, there is no movement of air at all, which contrasts with the burst of the pulmonary plosives. This is the case with many of the Kru languages, for example. That means that implosives are phonetically sonorants (not obstruents) as the concept of sonorant is usually defined. However, implosives can phonologically pattern as both; that is, they may be phonological or depending on the language.
George N. Clements (2002) actually proposes that implosives are phonologically neither obstruents nor sonorants.
The vast majority of implosive consonants are voiced consonant, so the glottis is only partially closed. Because the airflow required for voicing reduces the vacuum being created in the mouth, implosives are easiest to make with a large oral cavity.
| + Attested implosive consonantsBickford & Floyd (2006) Articulatory Phonetics, Table 28.1, augmented by sources at the articles on individual consonants (excluding secondary phonations and articulations) |
A labial–alveolar implosive has also been described.Bickford & Floyd (2006) Articulatory Phonetics, Table 33.1
There are no IPA symbols for implosive fricatives, and no confirmed cases of implosive fricatives or affricates. Implosive affricates are occasionally reported, but further investigation typically reveals that such sounds are either stops or not implosive. For example, the Swahili j has an implosive allophone, but the distinction is pulmonic affricate vs implosive stop .Contini-Morava, Ellen. 1997. Swahili Phonology. In Kaye, Alan S. (ed.), Phonologies of Asia and Africa 2, 841–860. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. Similarly, implosive has been reported from Roglai language, but it has also been analyzed as ,Lee Ernest. 1966. Proto-Chamic phonologic word and vocabulary. PhD dissertation, Indiana University at Bloomington. and the implosive affricates reported from Gitxsan language turn out to be lenis ejectives that are sometimes perceived as voiced.Gitxsan "does not have voiced implosive stops; rather, it has lax glottalized stops that display a creaky voice quality at the margin of the vowel in pretonic (and syllable-final) environments." — Bruce Rigsby & John Ingram (1990) "Obstruent Voicing and Glottalic Obstruents in Gitksan". International Journal of American Linguistics, vol. 56, no. 2, pp. 251–263.
The attested voiceless implosive stops are:
Implosives are widespread among the languages of Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia and are found in a few languages of the Amazon Basin. They are rarely reported elsewhere but occur in scattered languages such as the Mayan languages in North America, and Saraiki language and Sindhi language in the Indian subcontinent. They appear to be entirely absent as phonemes from Europe and northern Asia and from Australia, even from the Australian ceremonial language Damin, which uses every other possible airstream mechanism besides percussives. However, Alpher (1977) reports that the Nhangu language of Australia may actually contain implosives, though more research is needed to determine the true nature of these sounds. Implosives may occasionally occur phonetically in some European languages: For instance, in some northern dialects of Ingrian language, intervocalic bilabial stops may be realised as the implosive or .
Fully voiced stops are slightly implosive in a number of other languages, but this is not often described explicitly if there is no contrast with modal-voiced plosives. This situation occurs from Maidu language to Thai language to many Bantu languages, including Swahili language.
Sindhi language and Saraiki language have an unusually large number of contrastive implosives, with .Swahili has a similar , without contrasting with voiced pulmonic stops, unlike in Sindhi. Although Sindhi has a dental–retroflex distinction in its plosives, with , the contrast is neutralized in the implosives. A contrastive retroflex implosive may also occur in Ngadha language, a language spoken in Flores, Indonesia,Djawanai, Stephanus. (1977). A description of the basic phonology of Nga'da and the treatment of borrowings. NUSA linguistic studies in Indonesian and languages in Indonesia, 5, 10-18 and occurs in Wadiyara Koli, a language spoken in India and Pakistan which in total has .
More examples can be found in the articles on individual implosives.
Voiceless implosives are quite rare, but are found in languages as varied as the Owere dialect of Igbo language in Nigeria ( ), Krongo language in Sudan, the Uzere dialect of Isoko language, the closely related Lendu language and Ngiti language languages in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Serer language in Senegal (), and some dialects of the Poqomchi’ and in Guatemala (). Owere Igbo has a seven-way contrast among bilabial stops, , and its alveolar stops are similar. The voiceless velar implosive occurs marginally in Uspantek and occurs in Mam language, Kaqchikel, and Uspantek. Lendu language has been claimed to have voiceless , but they may actually be Creaky voice implosives. The voiceless labial–velar implosive also may occur in Central Igbo.Bickford & Floyd (2006) Articulatory Phonetics
Some English speakers use a voiceless velar implosive to imitate the "glug-glug" sound of liquid being poured from a bottle, but others use a voiced implosive .Pike, Phonetics, 1943:40
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