A voiceless palatal implosive is a rare
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 wit ...
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 met ...
s. The symbol in the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...
that represents this sound is or . A dedicated IPA letter, , was withdrawn in 1993.
Features
Features of the voiceless palatal implosive:
Occurrence
A rare and evidently unstable sound, is attested from the
Serer language
Serer, often broken into differing regional dialects such as Serer-Sine and Serer saloum, is a language of the kingdoms of Sine and Saloum branch of Niger–Congo spoken by 1.2 million people in Senegal and 30,000 in the Gambia as of 2009. It i ...
of Senegal, and the dedicated letter is given for the language's Arabic script orthography, as well as for its Latin script orthography, also found in
Ngiti
The Ngiti , or South Lendu, is an ethnolinguistic group located in the Ituri Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ngiti speakers call their language ''Ndruna''. In 1991, the Ngiti numbered 100,000 located in the Irumu territory sout ...
and
Lendu
The Lendu language is a Central Sudanic language spoken by the Balendru, an ethno-linguistic agriculturalist group residing in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo in the area west and northwest of Lake Albert, specifically the Ituri Region ...
.
See also
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Voiced palatal implosive
The voiced palatal implosive 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 J\_<. Typographically, the IP ...
References
External links
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{{IPA navigation
Palatal consonants
Implosives
Voiceless oral consonants