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, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...
al sound, used in some
spoken language
Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...
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 standard written representation ...
that represents this sound is .
Features
Features of the uvular ejective:
Occurrence
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, or sometimes Caspian languages (from the Caspian Sea, in contrast to ''Pontic languages'' for the Northwest Caucasian languages), is a langu ...
, all
South Caucasian languages
The Kartvelian languages ( ; ka, ქართველური ენები, tr; also known as South Caucasian or Kartvelic languages Boeder (2002), p. 3) are a language family indigenous to the South Caucasus and spoken primarily in Geor ...
, and some
Athabaskan languages
Athabaskan ( ; also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large branch of the Na-Dene languages, Na-Dene language family of North America, located in western North America in three areal language ...
, as well as
Itelmen,
Quechua and
Aymara.
Most
Salishan languages
The Salishan languages ( ), also known as the Salish languages ( ), are a Language family, family of languages found in the Pacific Northwest in North America, namely the Canadian province of British Columbia and the American states of Washingt ...
, the
Tlingit language
The Tlingit language ( ; ' ) is an Indigenous language of the northwestern coast of North America, which is spoken by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada and is a branch of the Na-Dene language family. Extensive effor ...
, and
Adyghe and
Kabardian (
Northwest Caucasian) demonstrate a two-way contrast between
labialised and plain uvular ejectives.
The
Akhvakh language appears to have a contrast between
lax and tense uvular ejectives: (lax) vs. (tense).
Abkhaz contrasts plain, palatalised and labialised uvular ejectives, written , e.g., , , . 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.
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: , , , , .
Examples
See also
*
List of phonetics topics
A
* Acoustic phonetics
* Active articulator
* Affricate
* Airstream mechanism
* Alexander John Ellis
* Alexander Melville Bell
* Alfred C. Gimson
* Allophone
* Alveolar approximant ()
* Alveolar click ()
* Alveolar consonant
* Alveolar e ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uvular Ejective
Uvular consonants
Ejectives
Oral consonants
Central consonants