Strident vowels (also called sphincteric vowels) are strongly pharyngealized vowels accompanied by an (ary)epiglottal trill, with the larynx being raised and the pharynx constricted.[1][2] Either the epiglottis or the arytenoid cartilages thus vibrate instead of the vocal cords. That is, the epiglottal trill is the voice source for such sounds.

Strident vowel
◌᷽
ʢ

Strident vowels are fairly common in Khoisan languages, which contrasts them with simple pharyngealized vowels. Stridency is used in onomatopoeia in Zulu and Lamba.[3][page needed] Stridency may be a type of phonation called harsh voice. A similar phonation, without the trill, is called ventricular voice; both have been called pressed voice.[citation needed] Bai, of southern China, has a register system that has allophonic strident and pressed vowels.

Subscript double tilde on the letter ⟨a⟩ (⟨a᷽⟩), to represent a strident vowel

There is no official symbol for stridency in the IPA, but a superscript ⟨ʢ⟩ (for a voiced epiglottal trill) is often used.[citation needed] In some literature, a subscript double tilde (≈) is sometimes used.[1]

It has been accepted into Unicode, at code points U+1DFD and U+107B4.

Languages

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These languages use phonemic strident vowels:

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers. pp. 310–311. ISBN 0-631-19814-8. LCCN 94-49209.
  2. ^ Miller-Ockhuizen, Amanda (2003). The phonetics and phonology of gutturals: case study from Juǀʼhoansi. Outstanding dissertations in Linguistics. New York City, NY: Routledge. p. 99. doi:10.4324/9780203506400. ISBN 978-0-415-86141-0. LCCN 2003046887.
  3. ^ Doke, C. M. (1936). "An outline of ǂKhomani Bushman phonetics". Bantu Studies. 10 (1): 433–460. doi:10.1080/02561751.1936.9676037.

Sources

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  • Moisik, Scott; Czaykowska-Higgins, Ewa; Esling, John H. (Winter 2012). Loughran, Jenny; McKillen, Alanah (eds.). "The Epilaryngeal Articulator: A New Conceptual Tool for Understanding Lingual-Laryngeal Contrasts". McGill Working Papers in Linguistics. 22 (1). McGill University.