Emphatic consonant

Last updated December 20, 2024

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In Semitic linguistics, an emphatic consonant is an obstruent consonant which originally contrasted, and often still contrasts, with an analogous voiced or voiceless obstruent by means of a secondary articulation. In specific Semitic languages, the members of the emphatic series may be realized as uvularized, pharyngealized, velarized or ejective, or by plain voicing contrast; for instance, in Arabic, emphasis involves retraction of the dorsum (or root) of the tongue, which has variously been described as velarization or pharyngealization depending on where the locus of the retraction is assumed to be. The term is also used, to a lesser extent, to describe cognate series in other Afro-Asiatic languages, where they are typically realized as ejective, implosive or pharyngealized consonants.

In Semitic studies, emphatic consonants are commonly transcribed using the convention of placing a dot under the closest plain consonant in the Latin alphabet. However, exceptions exist: original emphatic k developed into /q/ in most Semitic languages; strictly speaking, it has thus ceased to be an emphatic version of k and has become a different consonant, being most commonly transcribed as q (rather than ḳ) accordingly.

Within Arabic, the four emphatic consonants (Arabic : حروف الإطباق, romanized: ḥurūf al-ʾiṭbāq) may vary in phonetic realization from dialect to dialect, but they are typically realized as pharyngealized consonants. In Ethiopian Semitic and Modern South Arabian languages, they are realized as ejective consonants. While these sounds do not necessarily share any particular phonetic properties in common, most historically derive from a common source.

Five such "emphatic" phonemes are reconstructed for Proto-Semitic:

Proto-Semitic			Arabic		Geʽez	Aramaic	Hebrew
Phoneme description	IPA	Trans.	IPA	Letter/phoneme name
Alveolar ejective	[ tʼ ]	ṭ	[ tˤ ]	Ṭāʼ ط	Ṭäyt ጠ	Teth ט	Tet ט
Dental ejective fricative	[ θʼ ]	ṯ̣	[ ðˤ ]	Ẓāʾ ظ	Ṣädäy ጸ	Teth ט	Tsadi צ
Alveolar ejective fricative or affricate	[ tsʼ ]/[ sʼ ]	ṣ	[ sˤ ]	Ṣād ص	Ṣädäy ጸ	Ṣade צ
Alveolar lateral ejective fricative or affricate	[ ɬʼ ]/[ tɬʼ ]	ṣ́	[ dˤ ]	Ḍād ض	Ṣ́äppä ፀ	Ayin ע
Velar ejective	[ kʼ ]	ḳ	[ q ]*	Qāf ق	Ḳaf ቀ	Qoph ק	Qof ק

An extra emphatic labial *ṗጰ occurs in some Semitic languages, but it is unclear whether it was a phoneme in Proto-Semitic.

The classical Ethiopian Semitic language Geʽez is unique among Semitic languages for contrasting all three of /f/, /p/, and /pʼ/. While /p/ and /pʼ/ occur mostly in loanwords (especially from Greek), there are many other occurrences whose origin is less clear (such as hepʼä 'strike', häppälä 'wash clothes').^[1]
According to Hetzron, Hebrew developed^{[ when? ]} an emphatic labial phoneme ṗ to represent unaspirated /p/ from Persian and Greek; this phoneme is not attested in Hebrew orthography.^[2]

In Arabic قqāf[q] is not considered an emphatic consonant or part of حروف الإطباق⁩ḥurūf al-ʾiṭbāq. In several Arabic dialects, especially those of the Hejaz and Najd, the hypothesized emphatic [ kʼ ] developed into a plain [ ɡ ]. This form of pronunciation is quite old and probably existed already at the beginning of the Islamic conquests.

Historically, the emphatic consonant ضḌād/dˤ/ is hypothesized to have been pronounced [ ɮˤ ], or possibly [ d͡ɮˤ ]^[3]—either way, a highly unusual sound. The medieval Arabs even termed their language لغة الضادlughat al-ḍād 'the language of the Ḍād' (the name of the letter used for this sound), believing the sound unique to their language, though it still occurs in the Mehri language (part of the Modern South Arabian languages), for example the capital of the Mehri region Al Ghaydah الغيضة is pronounced [ɣaj.dˤa] in Arabic and [ɣaj,ɬ̠ʼa] in Mehri.^[4] It is also still preserved among older speakers in a few isolated Arabic dialects.^[5]

General Modern Israeli Hebrew and Maltese are notable exceptions among Semitic languages to the presence of emphatic consonants. In both languages, they have been lost under the influence of Indo-European languages (chiefly Yiddish and Sicilian, respectively, though other languages may also have had an influence; see revival of the Hebrew language).

In Hebrew, the letter tsadi (from Proto-Semitic ṯ̣, ṣ, ṣ́) remains distinct, but has been replaced by a non-pharygealized affricate /ts/. Emphatic ḳ has been merged with plain k in non-lenited positions, but remains distinct post-vocally, where the plain consonant becomes /x/ (phonetically [ χ ]), while the original emphatic does not. Semitic ṭ has been fully merged with plain t.
In Maltese, only emphatic ḳ (spelled q) remains distinct. It is still realised as a uvular stop [ q ] in a few villages but has otherwise developed into a glottal consonant stop [ ʔ ]. All other emphatics have been merged into plain consonants. However, they are often still recognizable from special vocalic developments that they triggered before the mergers: compare sejf ('sword', from Arabic سَيْف⁩sayf) with sajf ('summer', from Arabic صَيْف⁩ṣayf). The emphatic ṣ prevented the a from being raised to e as it did with the plain s).

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References

↑ Woodard, Roger D. (2008). Woodard, Roger D. (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor. Cambridge University Press. p. 219. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511486845. ISBN 978-0-521-68496-5.
↑ Hetzron, Robert (1997). The Semitic languages. Routledge. p. 147. ISBN 9780415412667.
↑ Ferguson, Charles (1959), "The Arabic Koine", Language , 35 (4): 630, doi:10.2307/410601, JSTOR 410601
↑ Saeed, Al-Qumairi. "Dr. Saeed Al-Qumairi: The Mehri language still retains many of the lateral voiced letters".
↑ Al-Azraqi, Munira (2019). "Delateralisation in Arabic and Mehri". Dialectologia. 23: 1–23.

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[1] Woodard, Roger D. (2008). Woodard, Roger D. (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor. Cambridge University Press. p. 219. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511486845. ISBN 978-0-521-68496-5.

[2] Hetzron, Robert (1997). The Semitic languages. Routledge. p. 147. ISBN 9780415412667.

[3] Ferguson, Charles (1959), "The Arabic Koine", Language , 35 (4): 630, doi:10.2307/410601, JSTOR 410601

[4] Saeed, Al-Qumairi. "Dr. Saeed Al-Qumairi: The Mehri language still retains many of the lateral voiced letters".

[5] Al-Azraqi, Munira (2019). "Delateralisation in Arabic and Mehri". Dialectologia. 23: 1–23.

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