Dental and alveolar ejectives

Alveolar ejective
ť
IPA number	165
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	t​ť
Unicode (hex)	U+0074 U+0165
X-SAMPA	t_>
Kirshenbaum	t`
Image
Sound
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The alveolar ejective is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ť⟩.

Features

Features of the alveolar 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 stop.
• There are four specific variants of [ť]:
  • Dental, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the upper teeth, termed respectively apical and laminal.
  • Denti-alveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, and the tip of the tongue behind upper teeth.
  • Alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
  • Postalveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.

• 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

Dental or denti-alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Dahalo[1]		[t̪ʼat̪t̪a]		'hair'	Laminal denti-alveolar, contrasts with alveolar ejective.[2]

Alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		ятӀэ	[jaːtʼa]	'dirt'
Amharic		ጥጃ	[tʼəd͡ʒa]	'calf'
Armenian	Yerevan dialect[3]	տիկ	[tʼikʼ]	'wineskin'	Corresponds to tenuis [t⁼] in other Eastern dialects.
Dahalo[1]		[t̺ʼirimalle]		'spider'	Apical, contrasts with laminal denti-alveolar ejective.[2]
Georgian		ტიტა	[tʼitʼa]	'tulip'
Haida		qqayttas	[qʼajtʼas]	'basket'
Kabardian		тӀы	[tʼə]	'ram'
Khwarshi		?	[tʼaja]	'to drop'
Nez Perce		tʼeyíitʼeyii	[tʼæˈjiːtʼæjiː]	'flat'

See also

• List of phonetic topics

References

1. Maddieson et al. (1993), p. 27.
2. Maddieson et al. (1993), pp. 27–28.
3. Dum-Tragut (2009), pp. 17–18.

Bibliography

• Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
• Maddieson, Ian; Spajić, Siniša; Sands, Bonny; Ladefoged, Peter (1993), "Phonetic structures of Dahalo", in Maddieson, Ian, UCLA working papers in phonetics: Fieldwork studies of targeted languages 84, Los Angeles: The UCLA Phonetics Laboratory Group, pp. 25–65