Epiglottal plosive
consonantal sound
An epiglottal or pharyngeal plosive (or stop) is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʡ⟩.
Esling (2010) describes the sounds covered by the term "epiglottal plosive" as an "active closure by the aryepiglottic pharyngeal stricture mechanism" – that is, a stop produced by the aryepiglottic folds within the pharynx.
Features
Features of an epiglottal stop:
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, it is a plosive.
Its place of articulation is epiglottal, which means it is articulated with the aryepiglottic folds against the epiglottis.
It has no defined phonation, although it is typically voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. Voiced epiglottal "stops" tend toward being epiglottal flaps.
It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
“Epiglottal plosive” enters the record as consonantal sound. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Epiglottal, plosive and consonantal can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Epiglottal plosive” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Epiglottal, plosive and consonantal provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1137718. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2010.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Epiglottal plosive” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.