Uvular lateral ejective affricate

Uvular lateral ejective affricate
q𝼄̠ʼ
qʟ̝̊ʼ

A uvular lateral ejective affricate is a rare type of consonantal sound, used allophonically in some spoken languages.

Features

Features of a uvular lateral ejective affricate:

• Its manner of articulation is affricate, which means it is produced by first stopping the airflow entirely, then allowing air flow through a constricted channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
• Its place of articulation is uvular, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the uvula.
• Its phonation is un-voiced, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
• It is an oral consonant, which means that air is exclusively allowed to escape through the mouth.
• It is a lateral consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream over the sides of the tongue, rather than down the middle.
• The airstream mechanism is ejective (glottalic egressive), which means the air is forced out by pumping the glottis upward.

Occurrence

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
ǂʼAmkoe	[ǂq𝼄̠ʼāú]		'dark'	Occurs in apparently free variation with the uvular ejective affricate [qχʼ], both as a single consonant and as the release of contour clicks and other obstruents, which in some analyses are considered consonant clusters. [1]
Gǀui	[q᫈ʟ̝̊ʼáà]		'drink'	Occurs as a single consonant. This lateral affricate is more front than the central affricate release of the consonants /tqχ’/,/tsqχ’/ and analogous clicks, but it behaves as a uvular in that it cannot precede a non-back vowel. [2]

References

1. Linda Gerlach (2016: 86, 104) Nǃaqriaxe. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden
2. Hirosi Nakagawa (2006: 123) Aspects of the phonetic and phonological structure of the Gǀui language. University of the Witwatersrand.