Uvular ejective stop
The uvular ejective is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨qʼ⟩.
Features
Features of the uvular ejective:
- 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 uvular, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the uvula.
- 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 ejective (glottalic egressive), which means the air is forced out by pumping the glottis upward.
Occurrence
A single plain uvular ejective is found in almost all Northeast Caucasian languages, all South Caucasian languages, and some Athabaskan languages, as well as Itelmen, Quechua and Aymara.
Most Salishan languages, the Tlingit language, and Adyghe and Kabardian (Northwest Caucasian) demonstrate a two-way contrast between labialised and plain uvular ejectives.
The Akhvakh language appears to have a contrast between lax and tense uvular ejectives: [qʼaː] 'soup, broth' (lax) vs. [qʼːama] 'cock's comb' (tense).
Abkhaz contrasts plain, palatalised and labialised uvular ejectives, written ⟨ҟ, ҟь, ҟə⟩, e.g., аҟаԥшь [aqʼapʃ] 'red', -ҵəҟьа [-t͡ɕʷʼqʲʼa] 'really, indeed (a verbal suffix)', Аҟәа [aqʷʼa] 'Sukhum'. As with Georgian, Abkhaz has no non-ejective uvular stops; the historically present uvular aspirates have merged with their corresponding fricatives, although the aspirates are preserved in Abaza.
The plain uvular ejective is one of the most common consonants in Ubykh, due to its presence in the past tense suffix /-qʼɜ/. But in addition to palatalised, labialised and plain uvular ejectives, Ubykh also possesses a pharyngealised version and a concurrently labialised and pharyngealised version, making a total of five: [qʼɜqʼɜ] 'he said it', [mɨqʲʼ] 'small and round', [qʷʼɜ] 'to seize', [qˤʼɜqˤʼ] 'to chew', [qʷˤʼɜ] 'cavern'.