Voiced upper-pharyngeal plosive
| Voiced upper-pharyngeal plosive | |
|---|---|
| 𝼂 | |
| ɢ̠ | |
| Encoding | |
| Entity (decimal) | 𝼂 |
| Unicode (hex) | U+1DF02 |
A voiced upper-pharyngeal plosive or stop is a rare consonant.
According to laryngoscopic studies, pharyngeal and epiglottal consonants are both pronounced in the pharynx, being separated into the upper and lower regions, respectively.[1] This has led some phoneticians such as John Esling to propose the merging of epiglottal consonants into the pharyngeal column in the International Phonetic Alphabet chart.[2] If the distinction is maintained between pharyngeal and epiglottal consonants in place of articulation due to their position within the pharynx, then ⟨ʡ⟩ remains a lower-pharyngeal plosive (without a voicing distinction), while the pair ⟨ꞯ⟩ and ⟨𝼂⟩ are provided by the extIPA for voiceless and voiced upper-pharyngeal plosives, respectively.[3][4]
No language is known to have a phonemic upper pharyngeal plosive. The Nǁng language (Nǀuu) is claimed to have an upper pharyngeal place of articulation among its click consonants. Clicks in Nǁng have a rear closure that is said to vary between uvular to upper pharyngeal, depending on the click type.[5] However, if the place were truly pharyngeal, these articulations could not occur as nasal clicks, which they do.
Otherwise, upper pharyngeal plosives are only known from disordered speech. The extIPA provides the letter ⟨𝼂⟩ (a turned small capital G), equivalent to IPA ⟨ɢ̠⟩ (a retracted ⟨ɢ⟩), to transcribe such a sound.
Features
[edit | edit source]Features of a voiced upper-pharyngeal stop:
- Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is a plosive.
- Its place of articulation is upper pharyngeal, which means it is articulated with the tongue root against the back of the throat (the pharynx) and then retracting the root of the tongue to the mid to high part of the pharynx.
- Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
- It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
- It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
- Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.
See also
[edit | edit source]References
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- ^ Duckworth et al. (1990) Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet for the transcription of atypical speech. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 4: 4 p. 275
- ^ Miller, Amanda L., Johanna Brugman, Bonny Sands, Levi Namaseb, Mats Exter, and Chris Collins. 2009a. 'Differences in airstream and posterior place of articulation among Nǀuu clicks.' Journal of the International Phonetic Association 39(2): 132.
