The uvular ejective is a type of

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced w ...

al sound, used in some spoken

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...

s. The symbol in the

International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...

that represents this sound is .

Features

Features of the uvular ejective:

Occurrence

''One ejective''
A single plain uvular ejective is found in almost all

Northeast Caucasian languages The Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Nakh-Daghestani or ''Vainakh-Daghestani'', is a family of languages spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia and in Northern Azerbaijan as well as in ...

, all

South Caucasian languages The Kartvelian languages (; ka, ქართველური ენები, tr; also known as South Caucasian, Kartvelic, and Iberian languagesBoeder (2002), p. 3) are a language family indigenous to the South Caucasus and spoken primari ...

, and some

Athabaskan languages Athabaskan (also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large family of indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, Pacific C ...

, as well as

Itelmen The Itelmens ( Itelmen: Итәнмән, russian: Ительмены) are an indigenous ethnic group of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. The Itelmen language is distantly related to Chukchi and Koryak, forming the Chukotko-Kamchatkan langu ...

, Quechua and Aymara. *Itelmen, where it is written ӄ': ӄ'ил'хч ''to depart''. * Georgian, where it is written ყ: ტყავი ''skin'', ''pelt''. Unlike its

velar Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (known also as the velum). Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive a ...

counterpart, it does not contrast with voiced or

voiceless uvular stop The voiceless uvular plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is pronounced like a voiceless velar plosive , except that the tongue makes contact not on the soft palate but on the uvula. The symbol in th ...

s; the voiceless uvular stop of Old Georgian has merged with the voiceless velar fricative in modern Georgian. Some scholars view this Georgian phoneme as being rather an uvular ejective fricative . *

Tahltan The Tahltan or Nahani are a First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group who live in northern British Columbia around Telegraph Creek, Dease Lake, and Iskut. The Tahltan constitute the fourth division of the ''Nahane' ...

: ''door''. ''Two ejectives''
Most

Salishan languages The Salishan (also Salish) languages are a family of languages of the Pacific Northwest in North America (the Canadian province of British Columbia and the American states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana). They are characterised by a ...

, the

Tlingit language The Tlingit language ( ; ''Lingít'' ) is spoken by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada and is a branch of the Na-Dene language family. Extensive effort is being put into revitalization programs in Southeast Alaska to re ...

, and Adyghe and Kabardian (

Northwest Caucasian The Northwest Caucasian languages, also called West Caucasian, Abkhazo-Adyghean, Abkhazo-Circassian, Circassic, or sometimes ''Pontic languages'' (from the historical region of Pontus, in contrast to ''Caspian languages'' for the Northeast Cau ...

) demonstrate a two-way contrast between labialised and plain uvular ejectives. * Klallam: wəq̕ə́q̕ ''frog'', sq̕ʷúŋi(ʔ) ''head''. * Lezgian, where the two are written кь and кьв: кьакьан ''tall'', ''high'', кьвех ''groin''. * North Straits Salish, where the two are written K and K̴ in the Saanich orthography: Saanich KEYOṮEN ''slug'', ''snail'', SK̴EḰĆES ''red huckleberry''. The

Akhvakh language The Akhvakh language (also spelled ''Axvax, Akhwakh'') is a Northeast Caucasian language from the Avar–Andic branch. Ethnologue lists 6500 speakers, but Magomedova and Abulaeva (2007) list 20,000 speakers of the language. Akhvakh has several ...

appears to have a contrast between lax and tense uvular ejectives: ''soup'', ''broth'' (lax) vs. ''cock's comb'' (tense). ''Three ejectives'' * Abkhaz contrasts plain, palatalised and labialised uvular ejectives, written ҟ ҟь ҟə: аҟаҧшь ''red'', -ҵəҟьа ''really'', ''indeed'' (a verbal suffix), Аҟәа '' Sukhum''. As with Georgian, Abkhaz has no non-ejective uvular stops; the historically present uvular aspirates have merged with their corresponding fricatives, although the aspirates are preserved in Abaza. ''Five ejectives'' *The plain uvular ejective is one of the most common consonants in Ubykh, due to its presence in the past tense suffix . But in addition to palatalised, labialised and plain uvular ejectives, Ubykh also possesses a pharyngealised version and a concurrently labialised ''and'' pharyngealised version, making a total of five: ''he said it'', ''small and round'', ''to seize'', ''to chew'', ''cavern''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Uvular Ejective Uvular consonants Ejectives Oral consonants Central consonants

Features

Occurrence

See also

References

External links