Goal: Research other consonant articulations
Note: You can evolve any articulations you’re interested in through sound changes.
Tip: Use secondary and other articulation options sparingly (if at all) in the proto-inventory.
Work focus: Learn/Brainstorm/Try
Today’s prompt is more about exploring options than anything else. The goal is to research other articulatory patterns in consonants, including affricates, non-pulmonic consonants, and secondary articulations. Your starting sound inventory may not shift at all, but you may learn something new!
So far, you have narrowed down the selection of consonants you want to have in your starting sound inventory by focusing on the pulmonic consonant chart provided by the IPA. As a reminder, the label “pulmonic” means that, to produce those sounds, the air stream begins in the lungs, and the sound is shaped as air is released from your lungs and out of your body (either through the oral cavity or the nasal cavity). There are other options for consonant sounds not listed on that IPA consonant chart.
I have previously mentioned the [w], which does not appear on the IPA’s pulmonic consonant chart because it requires two points of articulation to produce—it doesn’t fit nicely into one column or another. For that reason, it is listed in a section of other consonant sounds that also don’t fit nicely into a single column or row. The [w] is still a pulmonic consonant, as are the other consonants listed in that small section of sounds.
That same section of other consonants also mentions affricates, which are another type of consonant you may want to incorporate. An affricate sound is produced by first stopping the airflow at a place of articulation and then releasing the air in a fricative sound. A few common affricates include [tʃ] (the initial consonant sound in chew), [dʒ] (the initial consonant sound in joy), [ts] (the initial consonant sound in the German word zahlen), and [dz] (the initial consonant sound in the Italian word zio). Affricates can be a part of a starting inventory, but you can also easily evolve them to be a part of your modern language if you want to keep your starting consonant inventory minimal.
Double articulations like [k͡p] are when two sounds are made simultaneously. For instance, to pronounce [k͡p], you need to stop the air flow at both the [k] and [p] placements (the velum and the lips, respectively) and then release them both at the same time. Double articulations are often evolved rather than a part of a starting sound inventory. If you’re interested in incorporating those into your conlang through sound changes, I encourage you to make a note to remind yourself to introduce specific series of sound changes to produce those segments.
Non-pulmonic consonants do not have the same pattern of airflow. Rather than an airstream traveling from the lungs outward, non-pulmonic consonants are created through bringing air in or trapping air before releasing it. Within the non-pulmonic consonants, ejectives are the most common. If you are interested in exploring these non-pulmonic options and are not familiar with them, I encourage you to research them and listen to recordings (which you can find on the interactive IPA chart).
If you want to incorporate non-pulmonic consonants, it’s good to limit yourself to one type rather than trying to, for instance, incorporate ejectives, implosives, and clicks into your language to create a gallimaufry of sounds. Beginning conlangers are especially prone to relying on these non-pulmonic sounds too heavily to create an “exotic” aesthetic for their language—but these sounds are only “exotic” for people whose native language (and second or third languages) do not have them. Overuse of non-pulmonic sounds can lead to a system that is unwieldy and inefficient.
The bottom of the IPA’s page of linguistic sounds includes a large box of diacritics, many of which refer to secondary articulations, or ways that sounds can have an added layer of production. A common secondary articulation for consonants is aspiration, especially for voiceless stops. Aspiration refers to a small puff of air released as the sound is produced. English has aspiration, but it doesn’t create a meaningful difference in pronunciation. If you focus carefully on how you pronounce the [p] of “pear” versus the [p] of “spare,” you may be able to isolate the aspiration in “pear” to feel and hear how it is different from “spare.” In some languages, an aspirated [p] is a completely different phoneme from an unaspirated [p], so [per] and [pʰer] could be two different words in the language.
You should research other secondary articulations to learn about them so you can make informed decisions about the consonants in your language. That is especially important as you move forward so you can decide if you want to introduce these into your language through sound changes. As you research, you should find languages with those sounds to see how their inventory is laid out for inspiration in crafting your own system. Even if you don’t use any of these sounds, any research you do to better understand languages and how they work is time well spent in the conlanging process!
In general, my advice is that if you want to have non-pulmonic consonants and secondary articulations in your starting sound inventory, don’t go overboard. It’s always better to start more minimally and grow the system through regular sound changes than to start with too much and create a muddle of confusion you’ll have to wade through later.