Glottalic consonant

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In phonetics, a glottalic consonant is a consonant produced with some important contribution (movement or closure) of the glottis.

Glottalic sounds may involve motion of the larynx upward or downward, as the initiator of an egressive or ingressive glottalic airstream mechanism respectively. An egressive glottalic airstream produces ejective consonants, while an ingressive glottalic airstream produces implosive consonants. Ejectives are almost always voiceless stops (plosives) or affricates, while implosives are almost always voiced stops.

However, when a sound is said to be glottalized, this is often not what is meant. Rather, glottalization usually means that a normal pulmonic airstream is partially or completely interrupted by closure of the glottis. Sonorants (including vowels) may be glottalized in this fashion. There are three ways this can be represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet: (a) with an apostrophe; (b) with a superscript glottal stop; or (c) with an under-tilde. For example, the Yapese word for sick with a glottalized m could be transcribed [mʼaar], [mˀaar] or [m̰aar]. (In some conventions, the apostrophe is placed above the letter.) When an obstruent is glottalized but still uses a pulmonic airstream, it may be written ⟨ˀp⟩, ⟨ˀt⟩, ⟨ˀts⟩, ⟨ˀtʃ⟩, ⟨ˀʈ⟩, ⟨ˀc⟩, ⟨ˀk⟩, ⟨ˀkʷ⟩, ⟨ˀq⟩ etc.^[1]

The constriction of the larynx and surrounding tissues when pronouncing a glottalized resonant may cause the larynx to rise (usually) or occasionally to fall. However, this is not normally interpreted as an ejective or implosive airstream mechanism, but rather individual variation in the glottalization.^[2]

A language may have more than one kind of glottalic consonant. However, a language that has one kind is not particularly likely to have others. For example, languages in the Americas which have both ejectives and glottalized sonorants may reflect an areal feature rather than an inherent feature common to the sounds in question. Since none of the three types are very common, languages containing more than one type are relatively rare.^[3]