:Ejective:

Pronunciation ɪˈdʒektɪv

A sound made with an egressive glottalic (pharyngeal) airstream. Ejectives found in languages are all obstruents. Voiced ejectives are thought by many writers to be impossible. Ejectives are symbolised by placing an apostrophe after the symbol for a voiceless consonant symbol. Thus represents a velar ejective stop. Ejectives are found in contrast to pulmonic egressive sounds in languages of North and Central America, many languages in Africa and in Caucasian languages. Other languages often use ejectives as positional or stylistic variants of pulmonic egressive sounds. For instance, English speakers sometimes use pʼ tʼ kʼ in utterance final position in emphatic utterances such as Wait! weɪtʼ. In American writings the term ejective is often replaced by the term glottalised.


Click on the icon to hear the Nuxalk word kʼipt (“elderberry”)