(Click here to go back to the list of all language demos)
Authors disagree as to whether laryngealization should be included in the list of
secondary articulations such as labialization (click here for separate demo).
See Laver, p.330.
The secondary laryngeal constriction manifests itself as creaky voice, and since
creaky voice is just one of several possible phonation types, it may well be better
to view it as a laryngeal setting rather than a secondary articulation (see L&M, p.53).
In addition, it is often not easy to assign laryngealization unambigously to a
single segment.
The following examples are given here: 1. Hausa stops
2. Bura Approximants
3. Danish stød
Chadic languages such as Hausa (spoken in Northern Nigeria and some nearby countries)
are often described as having a series of laryngealized stops. In Hausa, the picture
is complicated by the fact that at the labial and alveolar place of articulation
the laryngealized stops may be implosive (contrasting with plain voiced eggressive
stops) and at the velar place of articulation they may be ejective. (SoWL has a more
extensive demo illustrating these possibilities. See also L&M, p. 84-86).
Although the implosives are normally voiced, there may be voicing throughout the
closure, and in fact the laryngealization may be more in evidence at the beginning
of the adjacent vowel.
The stød is sometimes referred to as a "glottal catch", and in very deliberate
speech may be realized as a glottal stop. The more usual manifestation seems to be
a period of irregular voicing (creaky voice). It seems celar that it cannot be
regarded as a secondary articulation attached to a particular segment. It may appear
in both consonants and vowels, the location of its appearance depending on the
syllable structure (see Laver, p.330).