Plosives

A plosive is a consonant articulation with the following characteristics:

• One articulator is moved against another, or two articulators are moved against each other, so as to form a stricture that allows no air to escape from the vocal tract. The stricture is, then, total.

• After this stricture has been formed and air has been compressed behind it, it is released - that is, air is allowed to escape.

• If the air behind the stricture is still under pressure when the plosive is released, it is probable that the escape of air will produce noise loud enough to be heard. This noise is called plosion. d) There may be voicing during part or all of the plosive articulation.

To give a complete description of a plosive consonant we must describe what happens at each of the following four phases in its production:

• The first phase is when the articulator or articulators move to form the stricture for the plosive. We call this the closing phase.

• The second phase is when the compressed air is stopped from escaping. We call this the compression phase.

• The third phase is when the articulators used to form the stricture are moved so as to allow air to escape. This is the release phase.

• The fourth phase is what happens immediately after (iii), so we will call it the post-release phase.