Bilabial ejective stop

The bilabial ejective is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨pʼ⟩.

Bilabial ejective stop
pʼ
IPA number	101 + 401
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	p​ʼ
Unicode (hex)	U+0070 U+02BC
X-SAMPA	p_>
Braille
Image

Features

Features of the bilabial ejective:

• Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is a plosive.
• Its place of articulation is bilabial, which means it is articulated with both lips.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
• The airstream mechanism is ejective (glottalic egressive), which means the air is forced out by pumping the glottis upward.

Occurrence

In addition to the languages listed below, this sound is also a common phonological feature of the Ethiopian linguistic area, especially Ethiopian Semitic languages.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		пӏакӏэ	[pʼaːt͡ʃʼa]ⓘ	'thin'
Amharic		ጴጥሮስ/p̣iéṭros	[pʼetʼros]	'Peter'
Armenian	Yerevan dialect[1]	պոչ/pochʿ	[pʼotʃʰ]	'tail'	Corresponds to tenuis [p⁼] in other Eastern dialects
Chechen		пӏелг / phelg / ڢەلگ	[pʼelɡ]	'finger'
Ganza[2]: 95		[pʼá̰bḭ́]		'gathering'
Georgian		პეპელა/pepela	[pʼɛpʼɛlɑ]	'butterfly'
Hadza		hûbbu	[ɦuːpʼu]	'to lift something heavy'	(mimetic)
Haida		ttappad	[tʼapʼat]	'to break'	(mimetic)
Halkomelem		p̓əq̓	[pʼəqʼ]	'white'
Kabardian		цӏапӏэ / çaṗe / ڗاࢠه	[t͡sʼaːpʼa]ⓘ	'mean'
Kunigami		p'aapaa	[pʼaːpaː]	'grandmother'
Nez Perce		p’íłin	[ˈpʼiɬin]	'hole'
Ossetian	Iron	пъовыр/phovyr	[ˈpʼovɪ̈r]	'cook'
Quechua		p’acha	[pʼat͡ʃa]	'clothes'
Ubykh		wıp'ts'e	[wɨpʼtsʼɜ]	'your name'	See Ubykh phonology
Yurok[3]		kaap'	[kaːpʼ]	'leaves'

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

Notes

1. Dum-Tragut (2009:17–18)
2. Smolders, Joshua (2016). "A Phonology of Ganza" (pdf). Linguistic Discovery. 14 (1): 86–144. doi:10.1349/PS1.1537-0852.A.470. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
3. "Yurok consonants". Yurok Language Project. UC Berkeley. Archived from the original on 2011-06-29. Retrieved 2021-04-17.

References

• Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009). Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian. London Oriental and African Language Library. Vol. 14. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. ISBN 978-90-272-8879-0. LCCN 2009037609.

External links

• List of languages with [pʼ] on PHOIBLE