Abstract:

In ejective consonants the airflow generating the sound comes from raising the larynx with the glottis closed. This pistonlike action only moves a small volume of air. Ejective constants are usually stops, and raising the larynx provides sufficient pressure for a salient burst. A handful of languages are described as having ejective fricatives, but how can one sustain a continuant, such as a fricative, using the ejective mechanism? Two languages reported to have sounds of this type are Tlingit (Na-Dene) and Yapese (Austronesian). Acoustic and aerodynamic data on the fricatives in these languages have been collected in recent fieldwork. This demonstrates two different solutions to the problem of combining glottal closure and frication. Tlingit has genuine ejective fricatives, glottal closure overlaps the entire frication duration, and intraoral pressure reaches a higher peak but for a shorter duration than in a pulmonic fricative. The duration of frication appears to be prolonged by narrowing the constriction more than for a pulmonic fricative. In Yapese the frication and glottal constriction are sequenced; intraoral pressure is the same in plain and glottalized fricatives. Both patterns provide clear contrast by solving the problem of combining frication and glottal closure in different ways.