Comments on: Ejectives in English

By: John Wells

John Wells — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:35:15 +0000

I have a brief mention of ejectives on p. 261 (vol. 1):

[apropos of preglottalization]
“An emphatic articulation of the glottal component [in final -ʔp, -ʔt, -ʔk] will readily convert this into an ejective .. both northerners and southerners may be found who use these forms under appropriate stylistic conditions.”

I agree that it would be better to have discussed them at greater length and to have included “ejective” in the index.

John

By: abdul

abdul — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:54:17 +0000

By “ejective” do you mean articualting the /k/ with a glottalic airstream mechanism? If not, then this could be only a case of geminating the /k/ in final position and releasing it with a short voicleess vowel (schwa).

By: Nigel Greenwood

Nigel Greenwood — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 11:16:40 +0000

Any online audio examples? I presume you’re talking about words like “break” pronounced with an exaggerated ejective “k” at the end.

Nigel