Dental and alveolar ejective stops

Alveolar and dental ejective stops are special consonant sounds made without using the voice. They are created by pushing air out from the glottis, which is the space between the vocal cords. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, a special symbol called a "modifier letter apostrophe" ⟨ʼ⟩ is used to show these sounds.

Different languages have their own ways to write these sounds. In Hausa, a hooked letter ƙ is used for the sound /kʼ/. In Zulu and Xhosa, simple letters like p, t, and k are used to represent these ejective sounds. Some languages, like Haida and Hadza, use double letters such as tt or kk to show these sounds. In Oromo, one of the Ethiopian languages, the letter x is used to write this consonant.

Features

An alveolar ejective stop is a special kind of sound made in speech. It is created by blocking all the air in the mouth and then letting it out suddenly. This makes a popping sound without using the voice.

There are a few ways this sound can be made depending on where the tongue touches in the mouth. It can be made near the teeth, just behind the teeth, or further back on the roof of the mouth. No air escapes through the nose when making this sound, and it is always made without using the voice boxes. The air is pushed out by lifting the part of the throat that controls breathing.

Occurrence

Dental or denti-alveolar

Alveolar