PULMONIC CONSONANT Meaning and
Definition
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A pulmonic consonant is a type of consonant sound produced by obstructing airflow through the vocal tract using the lungs or the pulmonic mechanism. In other words, it refers to any consonant sound that is produced by controlling the flow of air from the lungs and then modulating it in the vocal tract to create specific sounds.
This category includes most of the consonant sounds used in various languages worldwide. The pulmonic consonants are typically categorized based on various properties such as place of articulation, manner of articulation, and voicing.
Examples of pulmonic consonants include sounds like /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, /s/, /z/, /m/, /n/, and many others. These consonants are created by using different speech organs to block or restrict airflow and then manipulating it to produce distinct sounds.
The pulmonic consonant sounds are a fundamental part of linguistic communication, providing the building blocks for spoken languages. They are crucial for conveying meaning and are combined with vowels and other sounds to form syllables, words, and sentences.
Learning the various pulmonic consonant sounds and how to produce them accurately is an essential step in acquiring proficiency in any language and is a vital aspect of phonetics and phonology studies.
Etymology of PULMONIC CONSONANT
The term "pulmonic consonant" is composed of two main parts: "pulmonic" and "consonant".
1. "Pulmonic" refers to the sound being produced by the lungs (pulmonic refers to the pulmonary/respiratory system). It comes from the Latin word "pulmo", meaning "lung".
2. "Consonant" refers to a speech sound produced by obstructing or constricting the airflow in some way. It comes from the Latin word "consonans", derived from "consonare", meaning "to sound together".
Combining these two components, the term "pulmonic consonant" describes a speech sound formed by using the lungs and involving some obstruction or constricting of the airflow.
