Tim.mills: Created a first pass at a definition.

2015-06-02T20:36:35Z

Created a first pass at a definition.

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The way air is moved about in the vocal tract to produce sound is referred to as the '''airstream''', or '''airstream mechanism'''. Airstreams are described in terms of the generator of movement and the direction of movement.

Generators of movement:
* Pulmonic: lungs
* Glottalic: glottis/larynx
* Velaric: velar closure with the back of the tongue

Directions of movement:
* Ingressive: inwards (away from lips)
* Egressive: outwards (towards lips)

There are four main airstreams used in human speech.
* Pulmonic egressive. This is by far the most common airstream used. About 82% of languages (including English and most other European languages) use this airstream exclusively. This airstream generates sound by moving air outward from the lungs.
* Glottalic egressive. This airstream produces consonants known as [[ejectives]], transcribed in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] with an apostrophe after a voiceless obstruent symbol, such as [p']. These sounds are produced with a closed larynx moving up, pushing air ahead of it.
* Glottalic ingressive. This airstream produces consonants known as [[implosives]], transcribed in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] using characters with a right hook off an ascending portion of the glyph for a voiced pulmonic plosive, such as [ɓ].
* Velaric ingressive. This airstream produces consonants known as [[clicks]], of which there are five recognized in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] and transcribed with five different symbols: [ʘǀǃǂǁ].

The pulmonic ingressive airstream is physiologically achievable, and is used [[paralinguistic|paralinguistically]] in some cultures [ref needed]. However, it is never used [[phonemic contrast|contrastively]], and so the IPA does not contain symbols or diacritics to represent such productions.

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[[Category:Phonetics]]

Airstream - Revision history

Tim.mills: Created a first pass at a definition.