A pulmonic consonant is a
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...
produced by air pressure from the lungs, as opposed to
ejective,
implosive and
click consonants.
Most languages have only pulmonic consonants. Ian Maddieson, in his survey of 566 languages,
[Ian Maddieson (2008) "Presence of Uncommon Consonants". In: Martin Haspelmath & Matthew S. Dryer & David Gil & Bernard Comrie (eds.) ''The World Atlas of Language Structures Online.'' Munich: Max Planck Digital Library, chapter 19. Available online at http://wals.info/feature/19. Accessed on 18 January 2011] found that only 152 had ejectives, implosives, or clicks (or two or three of these types) – that is, 73% of the world's extant languages have only pulmonic consonants. See
glottalic consonants and
click consonants for more information on the distribution of nonpulmonic consonants.
Chart
See also
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Ejective consonant
In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a Airstream mechanism#Glottalic initiation, glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with Aspirat ...
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Implosive consonant
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Click consonant
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Airstream mechanism
References
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