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( Stop consonant)
A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. The terms plosive and stop are usually used interchangeably, but they are not perfect synonyms. Plosives are stops with a pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. The term is also used to describe oral (non-nasal) stops. Many use the term nasal continuant rather than nasal stop to refer to sounds like [n] and [m]. One should be aware that this article treats these "nasal continuants" as nasal stops. All languages in the world have stops[1] and most have at least [p], [t], [k], [n], and [m]. However, there are exceptions Colloquial Samoan lacks the coronals [t] and [n], and the several North American languages, such as the northern Iroquoian languages, lack the labials [p] and [m]. Some of the Chimakuan, Salishan, and Wakashan languages near Puget Sound lack nasal stops [m] and [n], as does the Rotokas language of Papua New Guinea, and Eyak lacks both labials and nasals, [p], [m], [n].[2] In some African and South American languages, nasal stops occur, but only in the environment of nasal vowels, and so are not distinctive. Formal Samoan has only one word with velar [k], but it has a nasal velar stop, [?]. Ni‘ihau Hawaiian, which has /t/ for Standard Hawaiian /k/, can be analysed as having no velars, but in fact its /t/ and /n/ vary in pronunciation, [t]~[k] and [n]~[?]. It may be more accurate to say that Hawaiian and colloquial Samoan do not distinguish velar and coronal stops than to say they lack one or the other. In the articulation of the stop, three phases can be distinguished In many languages, such as Malay and Vietnamese, final stops lack a release burst, or have a nasal release. See Unreleased stop.
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Stop consonant Subcategories
Stop consonant Articles
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