Retroflex ejective stop

❧

Wikipedia

Retroflex ejective stop
ʈʼ
Audio sample
Encoding
X-SAMPAt`_>

A retroflex ejective is a rare consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʈʼ⟩.

Features

Features of a retroflex ejective 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 retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical subapical articulation, the tongue can be apical (pointed) or, in some fricatives, laminal (flat).
  • Its phonation is un-voiced, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
  • It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
  • It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
  • The airstream mechanism is ejective (glottalic egressive), which means the air is forced out by pumping the glottis upward.

Occurrence

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
English Indian beet[biːʈʼ] 'beet' This sound usually occurs at the end of a phrase as an allophone of /t/.[citation needed]
Oromo[1] [example needed]
Yokuts Wukchumni ṭʼa∙yʼ[ʈʼaːjˀ] 'down feather' Phonemically distinct, not found in other Yokuts dialects

See also

References

  1. ↑ "[+CONSCRICTED GLOTTIS] REFLEXES OF Ṭ AND Q IN CONTACT SITUATIONS: CONTACT-INDUCED CHANGE OR INHERITANCE?" (PDF). Retrieved 2025-11-04.
    Oromo and Berta have both voiceless and voiced glottalic dentals [t’] and [ɗ] (in Oromo, it can be a retroflex),