Voiceless velar implosive

A voiceless velar implosive is a rare consonantal sound, used in some oral languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɠ̊ or kʼ↓. A dedicated IPA letter, ƙ, was withdrawn in 1993.

Voiceless velar implosive
ɠ̊
ƙ
kʼ↓

Features

Features of the voiceless velar implosive:

  • Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
  • It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
  • 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

A phonemic /ɠ̊/ has not been confirmed for any language. It has been claimed for Lendu, but it is more likely to be creaky-voiced /ɠ̰/, as in Hausa. Some English speakers use a voiceless velar implosive [ɠ̊] to imitate the "glug-glug" sound of liquid being poured from a bottle, though others use a voiced implosive [ɠ].[1]

See also

References

  1. Pike, Phonetics, 1943:40
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