Implosives (Was: Relative frequency of ejectives)

Steven Williams wrote at 2006-05-26 20:08:43 (+0200)
 > --- Chris Bates <chris.maths_student@...>
 > schrieb:
 >
 > > >Implosive: b/ > d/ > g/
 > > >
 > > >(afraid I can't furnish any examples, implosives being
 > > > vanishingly rare)
 > > >
 > > >
 > > The hierarchy is right, but Implosives aren't that rare at
 > > all. They're quite common in certain areas of Africa, and in some
 > > areas of South East asia, and some Amazonian languages have them,
 > > and... IIRC, an estimate 10% - 15% of languages has implosives, a
 > > similar percentage to the number of languages that have
 > > ejectives.
 >
 > Really? I didn't know that. I guess just 'cause I can't pronounce
 > implosives, doesn't mean everyone else can't, either, right? :)
 >
 > How the heck do you form implosives, anyways? Are they just
 > pulmonic ingressives (= sucking in air, rather than blowing it
 > out), or what?

They're _glottalic_ ingressives - the exact opposite of ejectives,
hence their relevance here.  I don't find them terribly difficult to
produce, for whatever that's worth.  Have an interesting "hollow"
sound.  I'm planning to include some when I get my phonology sorted
out...