IPA is a phonetic notation system that is used to represent each distinct sound that exists in human spoken speech.
It encompasses all languages of the world. The system was created in 1886 by linguist Paul Passy and last updated in 2020.
The International Phonetic Alphabet’ (IPA) is currently 163 symbols. IPA consists of 107 letters, 52 diacritics, and 4 prosodic marks.
Non-pulmonic consonants are speech sounds produced without using air from the lungs, relying instead on other airflow mechanisms like the mouth or larynx, and include clicks (like tongue pops in Khoisan languages), implosives (inward airflow, e.g., in Sindhi), and ejectives (glottal compression, e.g., in Amharic).
These contrast with pulmonic sounds (like English ‘p’, ‘t’, ‘k‘) that use the lungs, and are found in various world languages, including African languages.
This video explains the three (3) main types of non-pulmonary consonants:
Types of Non-Pulmonic Consonants
- Clicks: Created by creating suction with the tongue to trap air, then releasing the closure.
- Examples: Dental [ǀ], Alveolar [ǃ], Lateral [ǁ] (used in Xhosa, Zulu).
- Implosives: Air flows inward(ingressive) from the lungs, often initiated by lowering the glottis, then released.
- Examples: Bilabial [ɓ], Dental/Alveolar [ɗ] (used in Hausa).
- Ejectives: Air is compressed at the glottis (vocal cords) and released with a burst (egressive), similar direction to normal sounds but with glottal compression.
- Examples: Bilabial [pʼ], Alveolar [tʼ], Velar [kʼ] (used in many Amerindian languages).
You can see and hear examples of ejectives, implosives, and clicks in this video:
Key Characteristics
- Airflow: Not from the lungs (pulmonic) but from the mouth (velaric) or glottis (glottalic).
- Location: Found globally, but concentrated in specific regions; absent in most European languages.
- Function: They serve as distinct consonants, creating different words in languages that use them (e.g., click sounds in Xhosa).
