Dental and alveolar ejective stops

IPA Unicode 0x0074%2B0x02BC

Dental and alveolar ejective stops are types of consonantal sounds used in various spoken languages. These sounds are characterized by a stop consonant produced with a simultaneous ejective articulation. Ejectives are glottalic egressive sounds, meaning they are made by pushing air out of the mouth using the glottis, rather than the lungs. The dental and alveolar ejective stops are articulated at the dental and alveolar ridge locations within the mouth, respectively.

Articulation

The articulation of dental and alveolar ejective stops involves two primary actions: the closure of the oral cavity to stop the airflow, and the upward movement of the closed glottis to create a high-pressure air pocket that is released as the oral closure is released. For the dental ejective stop, the tongue tip is placed against the upper teeth to create the closure. For the alveolar ejective stop, the tongue tip is placed against the alveolar ridge, just behind the upper teeth.

Symbols

In the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), the symbols for the dental and alveolar ejective stops are ⟨tʼ⟩ for the alveolar ejective and ⟨t̪ʼ⟩ for the dental ejective, though the symbol for the dental ejective is less commonly used and may be represented simply by ⟨tʼ⟩ with a dental notation indicated if necessary.

Occurrence

Dental and alveolar ejective stops occur in languages around the world, though they are not as widespread as some other types of consonants. They are found in languages of the Caucasus region, certain African languages, and in some Native American languages, among others. The presence of ejective stops can significantly influence the phonetic and phonological character of a language.

Phonetic and Phonological Features

Ejective stops, including dental and alveolar ejectives, are marked by several phonetic and phonological features:

• They are voiceless sounds, as the vocal cords do not vibrate during the production of ejectives.
• They have a distinctive sharp and popping sound quality due to the rapid release of the glottalic airstream.
• In terms of phonological behavior, ejective stops often participate in the phonemic contrasts of a language, distinguishing words through their presence or absence.

Examples

• Georgian: The alveolar ejective stop ⟨tʼ⟩ is found in words like თხელი (txeli) meaning 'thin'.
• Amharic: This Semitic language uses both dental and alveolar ejective stops as phonemic elements.
• Quechua: The alveolar ejective stop is used in this Native American language, distinguishing words such as qhatu ('market') and qhatuʼ ('he/she carries').

See Also

• Ejective consonant
• Glottalic egressive airstream mechanism
• Stop consonant
• International Phonetic Alphabet