[suction]

Counterpart

Feature System

Definition

Some sounds are produced with two closures that happen simultaneously. When these sounds are articulated, there may be movements of either the velar or glottal closures during a period of closure. If these movements occur in a direction toward the lungs, “the volume of the space between the two closures is increased and the pressure inside that space decreases” (Chomsky & Halle 1968:322). Once the primary closure gets released, a suction effect takes place and air flows into the mouth (Chomsky & Halle 1968:322).

When [suction] is produced with the closure of the velum, it is considered a click. Oppositely, when [suction] is produced from a glottal closure, it is an implosive (Chomsky & Halle 1968:322).

Purpose

The feature [suction] is used to distinguish the direction of air flow when there is velar or glottal movement (Chomsky & Halle 1968:322).

History

The feature [suction] was introduced as a distinctive feature by Chomsky and Halle (1968), as a supplementary movement, alongside [pressure].

Ladefoged and Traill (1994) identify four steps in the articulatory process of creating a click: (1) the tip or blade of the tongue raises to enclose a body of air in the front of the mouth, and the back of the tongue raises to make a velar or uvular closure on the soft palate; (2) the downward movement of the center of the tongue rarefies the cavity of air between the two closures, while the tip or the blade of the tongue stays in contact with the roof of the mouth; (3) the click sound is produced as the air rushes into the mouth when the tongue tip or blade moves down; (4) the back of the tongue releases its closure (Ladefodged & Traill 1994:34).

There are five types of clicks–bilabial, dental, alveolar, palatal, lateral–and the type of click that is used depends on the speaker and language (Ladefoged & Traill 1994:35).

Historically, linguists have not known much about clicks and how they pattern according to phonological rules.

The feature [suction] is mostly used just to distinguish between phonemes, though the feature implies that clicks and implosives pattern together in a rule. However, several languages have both types of [suction], so that is not the case.

References

Chomsky, Noam; and Morris Halle. 1968. The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper and Row.

Ladefodged, Peter; and Anthony Traill. 1994. Clicks and their accompaniments. Journal of Phonetics 22.33-64.

Author

Ainsley Graf