Mehri ejective fricatives: an acoustic study

Abstract : Ejective consonants are not very common cross-linguistically. Even less common is the occurrence of ejective fricatives. This infrequency is generally attributed to the incompatibility of two aerodynamic requirements: a continuing flow of air to create noise frication and an increasing intraoral air pressure to implement ejectivity. This study reports on an acoustic investigation of initial and intervocalic ejective fricatives in Mehri, a Modern South Arabian language spoken in Oman, and seeks to determine how this incompatibility is solved by the 5 subjects recorded. The analysis of different temporal and non-temporal parameters shows a high degree of variability in the way this contrast is implemented. Much of this variability is shaped by the position of the fricatives within the word.