Epiglottal plosive

The epiglottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is >\.

Features

Features of the epiglottal plosive:
* Its manner of articulation is plosive or stop, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract.
* Its place of articulation is epiglottal which means it is articulated with the epiglottis against the back of the pharynx
*It has no defined phonation type, although it is typically voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. Voiced epiglottal "stops" tend toward being epiglottal flaps.
* It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
* Because it is not pronounced with the tongue, the central-lateral distinction is meaningless.
* The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

Found in

Epiglottal stops are found in the languages of the Caucasus, some of the Semitic languages, and in the American Pacific Northwest. The Cushitic language Dahalo contrasts simple and geminate epiglottal stops, though between vowels the simple stop tends to have incomplete closure and might be better identified as a flap.

;Dahalo epiglottals: floor: pierce

See also

* List of phonetics topics