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Implosive consonants are a group ofstop consonants (and possibly also someaffricates) with a mixedglottalic ingressive andpulmonic egressiveairstream mechanism.[1] That is, the airstream is controlled by moving theglottis downward in addition to expelling air from the lungs. Therefore, unlike the purely glottalicejective consonants, implosives can be modified byphonation. Contrastive implosives are found in approximately 13%[2] of the world's languages.
In theInternational Phonetic Alphabet, implosives are indicated by modifying the top of a letter (voiced stop) with a rightward-facing hook: bilabial ⟨ɓ⟩, alveolar ⟨ɗ ⟩, retroflex ⟨ᶑ ⟩ (this letter is 'implicit' in the IPA), palatal ⟨ ʄ ⟩, velar ⟨ɠ ⟩ and uvular ⟨ʛ ⟩.
During the occlusion of the stop, pulling the glottis downward rarefies the air in the vocal tract. The stop is then released. In languages whose implosives are particularly salient, that may result in air rushing into the mouth before it flows out again with the next vowel. To take in air sharply in that way is to implode a sound.[3]
However, probably more typically, there is no movement of air at all, which contrasts with the burst of the pulmonary plosives. This is the case with many of theKru languages, for example. That means that implosives are phonetically sonorants (not obstruents) as the concept of sonorant is usually defined. However, implosives can phonologically pattern as both; that is, they may be phonologicalsonorants orobstruents depending on the language.
George N. Clements (2002) actually proposes that implosives are phonologically neither obstruents nor sonorants.[4]
The vast majority of implosive consonants arevoiced, so the glottis is only partially closed. Because the airflow required for voicing reduces the vacuum being created in the mouth, implosives are easiest to make with a large oral cavity.[citation needed]
Implosives are most often voiced stops, occasionally voiceless stops. Individual tokens of glottalized sonorants (nasals, trills, laterals, etc.) may also be pronounced with a lowering of the glottis by some individuals, occasionally to the extent that they are noticeably implosive, but no language is known where implosion is a general characteristic of such sounds.[5]
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Labial– velar | Uvular | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless | ƥ | ƭ̪ | ƭ | 𝼉 | ƈ | ƙ | k͜ƥ | ʠ |
| Voiced | ɓ | ɗ̪ | ɗ | ᶑ | ʄ | ɠ | ɡ͜ɓ | ʛ |
A labial–alveolar implosive[d͜ɓ] has also been described.[7]
There are no IPA symbols for implosive fricatives, and no confirmed cases of implosive fricatives or affricates. Implosive affricates are occasionally reported, but further investigation typically reveals that such sounds are either stops or not implosive. For example, the Swahilij has an implosive allophone, but the distinction is pulmonic affricate[d͜ʒ] vs implosive stop[ʄ].[8] Similarly, implosive[ɗ͜ʒ] has been reported fromRoglai, but it has also been analyzed as[ʄ],[9] and the implosive affricates reported fromGitxsan turn out to belenis ejectives that are sometimes perceived as voiced.[10]
The attested voiced implosive stops are the following:
Consonants variously called "voiceless implosives," "implosives with glottal closure,"[11] or "reverse ejectives" involve a slightly different airstream mechanism, purely glottalic ingressive.[1] The glottis is closed so no pulmonic airstream is possible. The IPA once dedicated the letters ⟨ƥ⟩, ⟨ƭ⟩, ⟨𝼉⟩, ⟨ƈ ⟩, ⟨ƙ⟩, ⟨ʠ ⟩ to such sounds. These were withdrawn in 1993 and replaced with a voiceless diacritic, ⟨ɓ̥⟩, ⟨ɗ̥ ⟩, ⟨ᶑ̥ ⟩, ⟨ʄ̊ ⟩, ⟨ɠ̊ ⟩, ⟨ʛ̥ ⟩, though ⟨Ƥƥ⟩, ⟨Ƭƭ⟩, ⟨Ƈƈ ⟩ remain inSerer orthography. Some authors disagree with the analysis implied by the IPA voiceless diacritic and retain the dedicated voiceless letters, or, occasionally, suggest transcribing them instead as ingressive ejectives ⟨pʼ↓⟩, ⟨tʼ↓⟩, ⟨ʈʼ↓⟩, ⟨cʼ↓⟩, ⟨kʼ↓⟩, ⟨qʼ↓⟩. The IPA had also suggested the possibility of a superscript left pointer, ⟨p˂⟩, ⟨t˂⟩, ⟨ʈ˂⟩, ⟨c˂⟩, ⟨k˂⟩, ⟨q˂⟩, which might also be used for fricatives, but this was not approved by the membership.
The attested voiceless implosive stops are:
In the world's languages, the occurrence of implosives shows a strong cline fromfront to back points of articulation. Bilabial[ɓ] is the most common implosive. It is very rarely lacking in the inventory of languages which have implosive stops. On the other hand, implosives with a back articulation (such as velar[ɠ]) occur much less frequently; apart from a few exceptions, the presence of the velar implosive[ɠ] goes along with the presence of implosives further forward.[12] One of the few languages with a farther back implosive (specifically the alveolar one[ɗ]), and without the bilabial implosive, isYali, aDani language spoken on the Indonesian side ofNew Guinea.[13]
Implosives are widespread among the languages ofSub-Saharan Africa andSoutheast Asia and are found in a few languages of theAmazon Basin. They are rarely reported elsewhere but occur in scattered languages such as theMayan languages inNorth America, andSaraiki andSindhi in theIndian subcontinent. They appear to be entirely absent as phonemes fromEurope and northernAsia and fromAustralia, even from the Australian ceremonial languageDamin, which uses every other possible airstream mechanism besidespercussives. However, Alpher (1977) reports that theNhangu language of Australia may actually contain implosives, though more research is needed to determine the true nature of these sounds. Implosives may occasionally occur phonetically in some European languages: For instance, in some northern dialects ofIngrian, intervocalic bilabial stops may be realised as the implosive[ɓ] or[ɓ̥].[14]
Fully voiced stops are slightly implosive in a number of other languages, but this is not often described explicitly if there is no contrast with modal-voiced plosives. This situation occurs fromMaidu toThai to manyBantu languages, includingSwahili.
Sindhi andSaraiki have an unusually large number of contrastive implosives, with/ɓᶑ ʄɠ/.[11][15] Although Sindhi has a dental–retroflex distinction in its plosives, with/bdɖ ɟɡ/, the contrast is neutralized in the implosives. A contrastive retroflex implosive/ᶑ/ may also occur inNgad'a, a language spoken inFlores,Indonesia,[16] and occurs inWadiyara Koli, a language spoken inIndia andPakistan which in total has/ɓ,ɗ,ᶑ,ʄ,ɠ/.[17]
More examples can be found in the articles on individual implosives.
Voiceless implosives are quite rare, but are found in languages as varied as the Owere dialect ofIgbo inNigeria (/ƥ//ƭ/),Krongo inSudan, the Uzere dialect ofIsoko, the closely relatedLendu andNgiti languages in theDemocratic Republic of Congo,Serer inSenegal (/ƥƭƈ/), and some dialects of thePoqomchi’ andQuiche languages inGuatemala (/ƥƭ/). Owere Igbo has a seven-way contrast among bilabial stops,/pʰpƥbʱbɓm/, and its alveolar stops are similar. Thevoiceless velar implosive[ƙ] occurs marginally inUspantek[18] and/ʠ/ occurs inMam,Kaqchikel, andUspantek.[19]Lendu has been claimed to have voiceless/ƥƭƈ/, but they may actually becreaky-voiced implosives.[11] The voiceless labial–velar implosive[ƙ͜ƥ] also may occur in Central Igbo.[20][21]
Some English speakers use a voiceless velar implosive[ƙ] to imitate the "glug-glug" sound of liquid being poured from a bottle, but others use a voiced implosive[ɠ].[22]
