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A stop, '''plosive''', or '''occlusive''' is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal Tract . The term ''plosive'' is reserved for Oral (non-nasal) stops: that is, stops with a release burst. All languages in the world have stops. Most have at least [t , [n , However, colloquial Samoan lacks the dentals [t and and the northern Iroquoian languages lack the labials [p and [m]. Several of the Chimakuan , Salishan , and Wakashan languages around Puget Sound lack Nasal Stops . STOP ARTICULATION In the articulation of the stop, three phases can be distinguished:
In many languages, such as Malay and Vietnamese , final stops lack a release burst, or have a Nasal Release . See Unreleased Stop . In Affricate Stops , the release is a Fricative . CLASSIFICATION OF STOPS Nasalization Nasal Stops are differentiated from '''oral stops''' only by a lowered Velum that allows the air to escape through the nose during the occlusion. Nasal stops are acoustically Sonorant s, as they have a non-turbulent airflow and are nearly always voiced, but they are articulatorily Obstruent s, as there is complete blockage of the oral cavity. A Prenasalized Stop starts out with a lowered velum that raises during the occlusion. The closest examples in English are consonant clusters such as the in ''candy'', but many languages have prenasalized stops that behave as single consonants. Swahili is well known for having words that begin with sounds like [mp or [nd]. A Postnasalized Stop begins with a raised velum that lowers during the occlusion. This causes an audible nasal ''release'', as in English ''sudden''. Russian and other Slavic languages have words that begin with {Link without Title} , which can be seen in the name of the Dnieper River . Note that the terms ''prenasalization'' and ''postnasalization'' are normally only used in languages where these sounds are phonemic, that is, not analyzed into sequences of plosive plus nasal stop. Voice Voiced stops are articulated with simulaneous vibration of the Vocal Cords , ''' Voiceless stops''' without. Plosives are commonly voiceless, whereas nasal stops are only rarely so. Aspiration In aspirated stops, the voice onset (the time when the Vocal Cords begin to vibrate) comes perceivably later than the release of the stop. The duration between the release of the stop and the voice onset is called '' Voice Onset Time '' (VOT). Tenuis stops have a voice onset time close to zero, meaning that voicing begins when the stop is released. Voiced stops have a negative voice onset time, meaning the voicing begins before the stop is released. A stop is called "fully voiced" if it is voiced during the entire occlusion. In English, however, initial voiced plosives like or [d are only partially voiced, meaning that voicing picks up sometime during the occlusion. Aspirated stops have a voice onset time greater than zero, so that there is a period of voiceless airflow (a phonetic Voiceless Glottal Fricative ) before the onset of the vowel. In most dialects of English, the final ''g'' in the word ''bag'' is likely to be fully voiced, while the initial ''b'' will be only partially voiced. Initial voiceless plosives, like the ''p'' in ''pie'', are aspirated, with a palpable puff of air upon release, while a plosive after an ''s'', as in ''spy'', is tenuis. If you speak near a candle flame, you will see that the flame will flicker more when you say ''pie, tie, chi'' than when you say ''spy, sty, sky''. Length In a Geminate or '''long''' stop, the occlusion lasts longer than in normal stops. In languages where stops are only distinguished by length (e.g. Arabic, Ilwana, Icelandic), the long stops may last up to three times as long as the '''short stops'''. Italian is well known for its geminate stop, as the double ''t'' in the name ''Vittoria'' takes just as long to say as the ''ct'' does in English ''Victoria''. Note that there are many languages where the features voice, aspiration, and length reinforce each other, and in such cases it may be hard to tell which of these features predominates. In such cases the terms Fortis is sometimed used for aspiration or gemination, while ''' Lenis ''' is used for single, tenuis or voiced stops. Beware, however, that the terms ''fortis'' and ''lenis'' are poorly defined, and their meanings vary from source to source. Airstream Mechanism Stops may be made with more than one airstream mechanism. The normal mechanism is ( Glottalic Egressive ), ''' Implosive Stops ''' ( Glottalic Ingressive ), or ''' Click Consonant s''' ( Velaric Ingressive ). Tenseness A Fortis stop (in the narrow sense) is produced with more muscular tension than a Lenis stop (in the narrow sense). However, this is difficult to measure, and there is usually debate over the actual mechanism of alleged fortis or lenis consonants. There are a series of stops in Korean , sometimes written with the IPA symbol for ejectives, which are produced using " Stiff Voice ", meaning there is increased contraction of the glottis than for normal production of voiceless stops. The indirect evidence for stiff voice is in the following vowels, which have a higher fundamental frequency than those following other stops. The higher frequency is explained as a result of the glottis being tense. Other such Phonation types include Breathy Voice , or murmur; Slack Voice ; and Creaky Voice . EXAMPLES Here are the oral stops (plosives) granted dedicated symbols in the IPA . See also the Nasal Stops .
ENGLISH STOPS , , (aspirated word-initially, tenuis in clusters with ''s'') , , (in most dialects: partially voiced word-initially, fully voiced intervocalically) , , (fully voiced nasal stops) (glottal stop, not as a Phoneme in most dialects) SEE ALSO
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