Template:Short description Template:IPA non-pulmonic consonants Template:IPA notice Implosive consonants are a group of stop consonants (and possibly also some affricates) with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> 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%<ref>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.</ref> 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: Template:Angbr IPA.
ArticulationEdit
During the occlusion of the stop, pulling the glottis downward rarefies the air in the vocal tract. The stop is then released. In languages whose implosives are particularly salient, that may result in air rushing into the mouth before it flows out again with the next vowel. To take in air sharply in that way is to implode a sound.<ref>"Implode" (2. [with obj.] [phonetic terminology]: utter or pronounce (a consonant) with a sharp intake of air.) New Oxford American Dictionary 3rd ed., 2010</ref>
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 sonorants or obstruents depending on the language.
George N. Clements (2002) actually proposes that implosives are phonologically neither obstruents nor sonorants.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The vast majority of implosive consonants are voiced, 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.Template:Citation needed
TypesEdit
Implosives are most often voiced stops, occasionally voiceless stops. Individual tokens of glottalized sonorants (nasals, trills, laterals, etc.) may also be pronounced with a lowering of the glottis by some individuals, occasionally to the extent that they are noticeably implosive, but no language is known where implosion is a general characteristic of such sounds.<ref>Esling, John H.; Moisik, Scott R.; Benner, Allison; Crevier-Buchman, Lise (2019). Voice Quality: The Laryngeal Articulator Model. Cambridge University Press.</ref>
Voiced implosivesEdit
The attested voiced implosive stops are the following:
- voiced bilabial implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- voiced alveolar implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- voiced retroflex implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}} (letter is 'implicit' in the IPA)
- voiced palatal implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- voiced velar implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- voiced uvular implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- voiced labial–velar implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
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 {{#invoke:IPA|main}} vs implosive stop {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.<ref name="Swahhili">Contini-Morava, Ellen. 1997. Swahili Phonology. In Kaye, Alan S. (ed.), Phonologies of Asia and Africa 2, 841–860. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns.</ref> Similarly, implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}} has been reported from Roglai, but it has also been analyzed as {{#invoke:IPA|main}},<ref>Lee Ernest. 1966. Proto-Chamic phonologic word and vocabulary. PhD dissertation, Indiana University at Bloomington.</ref> and the implosive affricates reported from Gitxsan turn out to be lenis ejectives that are sometimes perceived as voiced.<ref>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.</ref>
Voiceless implosivesEdit
Consonants variously called "voiceless implosives," "implosives with glottal closure,"<ref name="SOWL">Template:SOWL</ref> or "reverse ejectives" involve a slightly different airstream mechanism, purely glottalic ingressive.<ref name=":0" /> The glottis is closed so no pulmonic airstream is possible. The IPA once dedicated symbols Template:Angbr IPA to such sounds. These were withdrawn in 1993 and replaced with a voiceless diacritic, Template:Angbr IPA, though Template:Angbr IPA remain in Serer orthography. Some authors disagree with the analysis implied by the IPA voiceless diacritic and retain the dedicated voiceless letters, or, occasionally, transcribe them instead as ingressive ejectives Template:Angbr IPA. The IPA had also suggested the possibility of a superscript left pointer, Template:Angbr IPA, which might also be used for fricatives, but it was not approved by the membership.
The attested voiceless implosive stops are:
- voiceless bilabial implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- voiceless alveolar implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- voiceless retroflex implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- voiceless palatal implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- voiceless velar implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}} (may be paraphonemic in English)
- voiceless uvular implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- voiceless labial–velar implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Labial– velar |
Uvular | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link |
| Voiced | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link | Template:IPA link |
OccurrenceEdit
In the world's languages, the occurrence of implosives shows a strong cline from front to back points of articulation. Bilabial {{#invoke:IPA|main}} is the most common implosive. It is very rarely lacking in the inventory of languages which have implosive stops. On the other hand, implosives with a back articulation (such as velar {{#invoke:IPA|main}}) occur much less frequently; apart from a few exceptions, the presence of the velar implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}} goes along with the presence of implosives further forward.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> One of the few languages with a farther back implosive (specifically the alveolar one {{#invoke:IPA|main}}), and without the bilabial implosive, is Yali, a Dani language spoken on the Indonesian side of New Guinea.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
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 and Sindhi 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, intervocalic bilabial stops may be realised as the implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}} or {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
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 to Thai to many Bantu languages, including Swahili.
Sindhi and Saraiki have an unusually large number of contrastive implosives, with {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.<ref name="SOWL"/><ref>Swahili has a similar {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, without contrasting with voiced pulmonic stops, unlike in Sindhi.</ref> Although Sindhi has a dental–retroflex distinction in its plosives, with {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, the contrast is neutralized in the implosives. A contrastive retroflex implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}} may also occur in Ngad'a, a language spoken in Flores, Indonesia,<ref>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</ref> and occurs in Wadiyara Koli, a language spoken in India and Pakistan where it contrasts with the voiced alveolar implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.<ref name="Zubair">Template:Cite thesis</ref>
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 in Nigeria (Template:IPAslink Template:IPAslink), Krongo in Sudan, the Uzere dialect of Isoko, the closely related Lendu and Ngiti languages in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Serer in Senegal ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}), and some dialects of the Poqomchi’ and Quiche languages in Guatemala ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}). Owere Igbo has a seven-way contrast among bilabial stops, {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, and its alveolar stops are similar. The voiceless velar implosive Template:IPAblink occurs marginally in Uspantek<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and {{#invoke:IPA|main}} occurs in Mam, Kaqchikel, and Uspantek.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Lendu has been claimed to have voiceless {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, but they may actually be creaky-voiced implosives.<ref name="SOWL" /> The voiceless labial–velar implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}} also may occur in Central Igbo.<ref name=":02">Bickford & Floyd (2006) Articulatory Phonetics</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref>
Some English speakers use a voiceless velar implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}} to imitate the "glug-glug" sound of liquid being poured from a bottle, but others use a voiced implosive {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.<ref>Pike, Phonetics, 1943:40</ref>
ReferencesEdit
BibliographyEdit
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