Voiceless palatal implosive

Wikipedia

Voiceless palatal implosive
ʄ̊
ƈ
Audio sample

The voiceless palatal implosive is a rare consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ʄ̊ or cʼ↓. A dedicated IPA letter, ƈ, was withdrawn in 1993.

Features

Features of the voiceless palatal implosive:

  • 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 implosive (glottalic ingressive), which means it is produced by pulling air in by pumping the glottis downward. As it is voiceless, the glottis is completely closed, and there is no pulmonic airstream at all.

Occurrence

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Lendu[1] ledyø [lɛʄ̥ø] [definition needed]
Ngiti tdyɛ̀kɛ̀ [káʄ̥ɛ̀kɛ̀] 'sorghum' Contrasts voiced implosive /ʄ/, and voiceless, voiced, and prenasalised plosives /c/, /ɟ/, /ᶮɟ/.[2][3]
Serer[4] [example needed] Written as in the Arabic script and as ƈ in Latin script. Contrasts /ɓ̥, ɗ̥, ʄ̊, ɓ, ɗ, ʄ/.

See also

References

  1. "Phoible 2.0 -".
  2. Kutsch Lojenga, Constance (1994). Ngiti: a Central-Sudanic language of Zaire (PhD). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
  3. "Phoible 2.0 -".
  4. Mc Laughlin (2005:203)