Velar ejective affricate

The velar ejective affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨kxʼ⟩. [kxʼ] is a common realization of a velar ejective often transcribed /kʼ/, and it is rare for a language to distinguish /kʼ/ and /kxʼ/, though several of the Nguni languages do so,[1] as well as the Northeast Caucasian language Karata-Tukita.

Velar ejective affricate
kxʼ
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Features

Features of the velar 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 velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the soft palate.
  • Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
  • It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
  • It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
  • The airstream mechanism is ejective (glottalic egressive), which means the air is forced out by pumping the glottis upward.

Occurrence
LanguageWordIPAMeaning
Hadzadlaggwa[cʎ̝̥ʼakxʷ’a]'to cradle'
Haidattsanskkaagid[tsʼanskxʼaːkit]'beams'
Karata-Tukita
Xhosakrola[kxʼola]'inscribe '

See also

Notes
  1. The ejective articulation of the Nguni consonants is however quite light.
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