Re: Ejectives, was Re: New H/G lang?

At least according to my book on phonetics (Catford), an ejective is
produced by closing the glottis, and raising it to produce pressure in
the vocal cavity.

Now, the nasal passage is not affected by a closed glottis, which is
the point of being able to close the glottis -- it allows one to
swallow without getting food in one's lungs.

Since a nasal is a consonant where air flows out the nasal passage,
and the glottis is unable to propel air out the nasal passage, by
definition one cannot have an ejective nasal.

However, one could have a nasal quickly followed by a glottal stop,
and this might form part of a pattern where it played a role analogous
to glottalics, so for all intents and purposes there might be a nasal
in a row of ejectives.

I'll be interested to hear more from Rob about this.


---------------------------------------------------------------
Ed doesn't know everything, but he hasn't figured that out yet.
Please break it to him gently.              edheil@postmark.net
---------------------------------------------------------------

FFlores wrote:

> Ed Heil <edheil@...> wrote:
>
> > I don't believe ejective nasals are possible, because the glottis
> > cannot be used to produce an airstream in the nasal tract, only the
> > oral cavity.  And there can be no voice with an ejective, because the
> > vocal cords are shut completely in order to produce the ejective
> > pressure.
>
> I've been trying to follow the discussion and I don't think
> I have anything to add, except this: I think I *can* make an
> ejective nasal /n_?/, (orally) unvoiced... or maybe I'm not
> releasing both stops at the same time. Is something horribly
> wrong with my vocal/nasal tract? :-O
>
>
> --Pablo Flores
>   http://draseleq.conlang.org/pablo-david/
>