Strident vowel

Strident vowels (also called sphincteric vowels) are strongly pharyngealized vowels accompanied by an (ary)epiglottal trill, with the larynx being raised and the pharynx constricted.^[1][2] Either the epiglottis or the arytenoid cartilages thus vibrate instead of the vocal cords. That is, the epiglottal trill is the voice source for such sounds.

Strident vowel
◌᷽
◌ʢ

Strident vowels are fairly common in Khoisan languages, which contrasts them with simple pharyngealized vowels. Stridency is used in onomatopoeia in Zulu and Lamba.^{[3][page needed]} Stridency may be a type of phonation called harsh voice. A similar phonation, without the trill, is called ventricular voice; both have been called pressed voice.^{[citation needed]} Bai, of southern China, has a register system that has allophonic strident and pressed vowels.

Subscript double tilde on the letter ⟨a⟩ (⟨a᷽⟩), to represent a strident vowel

There is no official symbol for stridency in the IPA, but a superscript ⟨^ʢ⟩ (for a voiced epiglottal trill) is often used.^{[citation needed]} In some literature, a subscript double tilde (≈) is sometimes used.^[1]

It has been accepted into Unicode, at code points U+1DFD and U+107B4.

Languages

These languages use phonemic strident vowels:

• Tuu languages
  • Taa (See Taa vowels)
  • ǃKwi (ǃUi)
    • Nǁng (a dialect cluster; moribund)
    • ǀXam (a dialect cluster, including Nǀuusaa) †

See also

• Nasal vowel
• Vowel