Implosive consonant in the context of "Airstream mechanism"

In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for [h], which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are [p] and [b], pronounced with the lips; [t] and [d], pronounced with the front of the tongue; [k] and [g], pronounced with the back of the tongue; [h], pronounced throughout the vocal tract; [f], [v], [s], and [z] pronounced by forcing air through a narrow channel (fricatives); and [m] and [n], which have air flowing through the nose (nasals). Most consonants are pulmonic, using air pressure from the lungs to generate a sound. Very few natural languages are non-pulmonic, making use of ejectives, implosives, and clicks. Contrasting with consonants are vowels.

Since the number of speech sounds in the world's languages is much greater than the number of letters in any one alphabet, linguists have devised systems such as the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to assign a unique and unambiguous symbol to each attested consonant. The English alphabet has fewer consonant letters than the English language has consonant sounds, so digraphs like ⟨ch⟩, ⟨sh⟩, ⟨th⟩, and ⟨ng⟩ are used to extend the alphabet, though some letters and digraphs represent more than one consonant. For example, the sound spelled ⟨th⟩ in "this" is a different consonant from the ⟨th⟩ sound in "thin". (In the IPA, these are [ð] and [θ], respectively.)

A pulmonic consonant is a consonant produced by air pressure from the lungs, as opposed to ejective, implosive and click consonants.

Most languages have only pulmonic consonants. Ian Maddieson, in his survey of 566 languages, found that only 152 had ejectives, implosives, or clicks (or two or three of these types) – that is, 73% of the world's extant languages have only pulmonic consonants. See glottalic consonants and click consonants for more information on the distribution of nonpulmonic consonants.

In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. Some languages have glottalized sonorants with creaky voice that pattern with ejectives phonologically, and other languages have ejectives that pattern with implosives, which has led to phonologists positing a phonological class of glottalic consonants, which includes ejectives.

Spitting is the act of forcibly ejecting saliva, sputum, nasal mucus and/or other substances from the mouth. The act is often done to get rid of unwanted or foul-tasting substances in the mouth, or to get rid of a large buildup of mucus. Spitting of small saliva droplets can also happen unintentionally during talking, especially when articulating ejective and implosive consonants.

Spitting in public is considered rude, disgusting, and a social taboo in many parts of the world including the West, while in some other parts of the world it is considered more socially acceptable.

In phonetics, a glottalic consonant is a consonant produced with some important contribution (movement or closure) of the glottis.

Glottalic sounds may involve motion of the larynx upward or downward, as the initiator of an egressive or ingressive glottalic airstream mechanism respectively. An egressive glottalic airstream produces ejective consonants, while an ingressive glottalic airstream produces implosive consonants. Ejectives are almost always voiceless stops (plosives) or affricates, while implosives are almost always voiced stops.

Dahalo is an endangered Cushitic language spoken by around 500–600 Dahalo people on the coast of Kenya, near the mouth of the Tana River. Dahalo is unusual among the world's languages in using all four airstream mechanisms found in human language: clicks, implosives, ejectives, and pulmonic consonants.

While the language is known primarily as "Dahalo" to linguists, the term itself is an exonym supposedly used by Aweer speakers that itself essentially means “stupid” or “worthless.” The speakers themselves refer to the language as numma guhooni.

A voiced palatal implosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ ʄ ⟩. Typographically, the IPA symbol is a dotless lowercase letter j with a horizontal stroke that was initially created by turning the type for a lowercase letter f (the symbol for the voiced palatal stop) and a rightward hook (the diacritic for implosives). A very similar-looking letter, ⟨ ƒ ⟩ (an ⟨f⟩ with a tail), is used in Ewe for /ɸ/.