Glottalic and velaric airstreams

Airstream mechanisms

Airstream mechanism is the term we use to describe the means by which air is moved out of or into the vocal tract. So far, in almost all the sounds we have looked at, the airstream is pulmonic and egressive. Every spoken language uses this mechanism. There are two other important airstream mechanisms in the world’s languages, and it is possible to illustrate them from spoken English. They are:

velaric airstream, where there is a complete closure of the back of the tongue against the velum (sometimes uvula), with another closure somewhere forward of that, making a cavity between the two closures

glottalic airstream, where the glottis is closed and the larynx is raised to compress, or lowered to rarefy, air trapped between the glottal closure and a constriction higher up in the vocal tract

We will explore and illustrate these two airstreams with material from English.

While sounds that are made with the velaric and glottalic airstream mechanisms can be observed in English, very little is known about the uses to which these sounds are put, what their distribution in speech is, and who is likely to use them. This is an area for much further work. It is a challenging area, because velarically and glottalically initiated sounds are not easy to elicit from speakers (e.g. in eliciting word lists), but in many varieties of spoken English they are common in spontaneous, conversational speech.

الاكثر قراءة في Phonetics

Syllabic nasals

Glottal stops and flaps

Subtle individual variation

Inaudible release

Examples of transcription

frictionless continuant

cardinal vowels

Palatals

Diphthongs

Periodic sounds

Laterals: primary and secondary articulations

Limitations of the chart

Word sharing and dialects: Dialects generally borrow from dialects

The velaric airstream mechanism

acceptability (n.)

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

قسم الشؤون الطبية يقدم الخدمات الصحية والعلاجية لزائري مدينة سامراء

العتبة العباسية المقدسة تقدم خدماتها لزائري مرقد الإمامين العسكريين (عليهما السلام) في سامراء

المجمَع العلمي ووفد وزارة التربية يبحثان سبل التعاون المشترك

قسم الشؤون الفكرية يصدر العدد 192 من مجلة الرياحين للأطفال

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

كنز غذائي على طبقك.. ماذا تفعل السبانخ بجسمك؟

ما لا يتوقعه أحد.. "سر غذائي" في الجبن الدسم

لتحسين الهضم والنوم.. هذا أفضل وقت لتناول العشاء

10 طرق بسيطة وغير مألوفة لحرق المزيد من السعرات يوميا

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

سابقة بعالم الطيران.. طائرة تقرر الهبوط بنفسها بعد ظرف طارئ

"الإنفلونزا الخارقة" تكتسح دول العالم.. وتثير قلقا كبيرا

مرحلة ما قبل الأعراض.. دواء جديد يستهدف "شرارة" الزهايمر

إزالة ثاني أكسيد الكربون من الغلاف الجوي.. ما دور المحيطات والبحار؟

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Phonetic Transcription

Phonetics

Word sharing and dialects: Dialects generally borrow from dialects

Dialects—Where Do You Draw the Line?

The standard

Koinés

Externally motivated change

Chain shifts

Changes to make life easier

Systemic changes

Weakening of intervocalic unvoiced stops

Simplification of consonant clusters