Hausa glottalic consonants: a laryngographic study

Abstract

The Chadic (Afroasiatic) language Hausa, spoken mainly in Nigeria and the Republic of Niger, has a series of ‘glottalic’ obstruents. This includes both ejectives ([k’], [s’] or [ts’]; orthographic κ,ts) and two other consonants which have often been described as ‘implosives’ and are represented by the IPA symbols for implosives in Hausa orthography (б,d). In addition, there is a ‘laryngealized’ palatal glide (orthographic ‘y). The description of orthographic б,das implosive has been called into question, however. Ladefoged, in his well-known work on the phonetics of West African languages (Ladefoged (1964: 16)), suggested that, while these sounds may on occasion show the ingressive air flow characteristic of implosives, their most consistent characteristic is a distinctive mode of vocal fold vibration (phonation type) known as creaky voice or laryngealization; thus, Hausa б anddshould be labelled ‘laryngealized stops’ rather than ‘implosives’. One implication of this change in descriptive label is that, at least from a phonetic point of view, б anddshould be grouped with ‘y.

Feature economy in sound systems

“…In his phonetic study of West African languages, Ladefoged found : 'these sounds may be incidentally implosives on some occasions, but they are always distinguished from their voiced counterparts by being laryngealised ' (1968 : 16). In a more recent instrumental study, Lindsey et al (1992) found that the implosives are typically laryngealised, and sometimes even fully glottalised, i.e. produced with the same waveform patterns as the glottal stop.…”

Africa as a phonological area

“…While there is some variation in the way such sounds are realized, from a phonological point of view it appears sufficient to recognize two categories of nonexplosive stops, plain (modally voiced) and laryngealized/glottalized (produced with glottal creak or glottal closure). In languages lacking a contrast between these two types, implosives may have little if any laryngealization, as in most Bantu languages, strong glottalization as in Hausa (Lindau 1984, Lindsey et al 1992, or more rarely, complete glottal closure as in Bwamu (Manessy 1960). …”

Explosives, implosives and nonexplosives: The linguistic function of air pressure differences in stops

“…The distinction among some of these categories is subtle, but is often auditorily detectable. For example, the Xhosa implosives, including their voiceless variants, are typically produced with little or no detectable creak (Roux 1991;Michael Jessen, personal communication), while the glottalized stops of Hausa are typically creaky (Lindau 1984, Lindsey, Hayward, andHaruna 1992). Such distinctions are not contrastive in any language, as far as we know.…”