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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 . Some languages have glottalized sonorants with creaky voice that pattern with ejectives phonologically, and other languages have ejectives that pattern with implosives, which has led to phonologists positing a phonological class of glottalic consonants, which includes ejectives.
In strict, technical terms, ejectives are glottalic egressive consonants. The most common ejective is even if it is more difficult to produce than other ejectives like or because the auditory distinction between and is greater than with other ejectives and voiceless consonants of the same place of articulation. In proportion to the frequency of , is even more common, as would be expected from the very small oral cavity used to pronounce a voiceless uvular stop. , 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 .
Language families that distinguish ejective consonants include:
It had once been predicted that ejectives and implosives would not be found in the same language but both have been found phonemically at several points of articulation in Nilo-Saharan languages (Gumuz language, Me'en, and T'wampa), Mayan language (Yucatec language), and the Oto-Manguean Mazahua language. Nguni languages, such as Zulu language have an implosive b alongside a series of allophonically ejective stops. Dahalo language of Kenya, has ejectives, implosives, and click consonants.
Non-contrastively, ejectives are found in many varieties of English language, usually replacing word-final fortis plosives in utterance-final or emphatic contexts. (1971). 9780273016816, Pitman. ISBN 9780273016816 (1982). 9780521297196, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521297196 (2026). 9780340958773, Hodder Education. ISBN 9780340958773
| +Attested ejective consonantsBickford & Floyd (2006) Articulatory Phonetics, Table 25.1, augmented by sources at the articles on individual consonants (excluding ejective clicks and secondary articulations) |
A few languages have ejective fricatives. In some dialects of Hausa language, the standard affricate is a fricative ; Ubykh language (Northwest Caucasian, now extinct) had an ejective lateral fricative ; and the related Kabardian also has ejective labiodental and alveolopalatal fricatives, . Tlingit language is an extreme case, with ejective alveolar, lateral, velar, and uvular fricatives, . Upper Necaxa Totonac is unusual and perhaps unique in that it has ejective fricatives (alveolar, lateral, and postalveolar ) but lacks any ejective stop or affricate (Beck 2006). Other languages with ejective fricatives are Yuchi language, which some sources analyze as having (but not the analysis of the Wikipedia article), Keres dialects, with , and Lakota language, with . Amharic is interpreted by many as having an ejective fricative , at least historically, but it has been also analyzed as now being a sociolinguistic variant (Takkele Taddese 1992).
An ejective retroflex stop is rare. It has been reported from Yawelmani and other Yokuts languages, Tolowa language, and Gwich'in.
Because the complete closing of the glottis required to form an ejective makes voicing impossible, the allophonic voicing of ejective phonemes causes them to lose their glottalization; this occurs in Blin language (modal voice) and Kabardian (creaky voice). A similar historical sound change also occurred in Veinakh and Lezgic languages 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.
s are not attested in any language, even allophonically. An ejective would necessarily be voiceless,John Esling (2010) "Phonetic Notation", in Hardcastle, Laver & Gibbon (eds) The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences, 2nd ed., p 700. but the vibration of the trill, combined with a lack of the intense voiceless airflow of , gives an impression like that of voicing. Similarly, ejective nasals such as (also necessarily voiceless) are possible.Barker, M. A. R. (1963a).Heselwood (2013: 148) (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 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.Esling, John H.; Moisik, Scott R.; Benner, Allison; Crevier-Buchman, Lise (2019). Voice Quality: The Laryngeal Articulator Model. Cambridge University Press.
Yeyi language has a set of prenasalized ejectives like /ⁿtʼ, ᵑkʼ, ⁿtsʼ/.
In alphabets using the Latin script, an IPA-like apostrophe for ejective consonants is common. However, there are other conventions. In Hausa language, the hooked letter ƙ is used for . In Zulu language and Xhosa language, whose ejection is variable between speakers, plain consonant letters are used: p t k ts tsh kr for . In some conventions for Haida language and Hadza language, double letters are used: tt kk qq ttl tts for (Haida) and zz jj dl gg for (Hadza).
Orthography
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, ejectives are indicated with a "modifier letter apostrophe" , as in this article. A reversed apostrophe is sometimes used to represent light aspiration, as in Armenian linguistics ; 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: = IPA . In some Americanist traditions, an apostrophe indicates weak ejection and an exclamation mark strong ejection: . In the IPA, the distinction might be written , 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.
List
Stops
Affricates
Fricatives
Clicks
Hypothesis
A pattern can be observed wherein ejectives correlate geographically with mountainous regions. 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
External links
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