Plosive

A plosive, also known as a stop consonant or occlusive, is a consonant sound produced by completely blocking the flow of air in the vocal tract, building up pressure, and then releasing it. Plosives are among the most common consonants across the world's languages and are found in virtually all spoken languages.

Description

Plosives are articulated in three distinct phases:

1. Closure phase: The articulators come together to completely block the airflow in the vocal tract
2. Hold phase: Air pressure builds up behind the closure
3. Release phase: The articulators separate, releasing the built-up air pressure

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents plosives according to their place of articulation and voicing. Common plosives include:

Place of Articulation	Voiceless	Voiced	Example Languages
Bilabial	[p]	[b]	English: "pat" [pæt], "bat" [bæt]
Dental/Alveolar	[t]	[d]	English: "toe" [toʊ], "doe" [doʊ]
Retroflex	[ʈ]	[ɖ]	Hindi: "ṭūṭā" [ʈuʈa], "ḍālī" [ɖali]
Palatal	[c]	[ɟ]	Hungarian: "tyúk" [cuk], "gyár" [ɟaːr]
Velar	[k]	[g]	English: "kite" [kaɪt], "gate" [geɪt]
Uvular	[q]	[ɢ]	Arabic: "قلب" [qalb], Inuktitut: "ᕿᒥᕐᑯᑦ" [qimiʁqut]
Glottal	[ʔ]	—	English: "uh-oh" [ʔʌʔoʊ], Hawaiian: "a'a" [ʔaʔa]

Occurrence in Languages

Plosives are found in virtually all spoken languages, though the specific inventory varies:

• Nearly all languages have at least one voiceless plosive
• The set [p, t, k] is extremely common across languages
• Hawaiian is unusual in having only the glottal stop [ʔ]
• Some languages (like Arabic) lack [p] but have [b]
• Languages differ in how they implement voicing contrasts—some use aspiration, others use true voicing

Features

Plosives can have several phonetic variations beyond simple voicing:

• Aspiration: A puff of air following release (e.g., English [pʰ] in "pin")
• Unreleased/Unexploded: The closure is made but not released (e.g., [p̚] in "apt")
• Nasal release: The oral closure remains while the velum lowers (e.g., [tⁿ])
• Lateral release: The center closure remains while the sides of the tongue lower (e.g., [tˡ])
• Double articulation: Two closures made simultaneously (e.g., [k͡p])
• Implosive: Produced with a glottalic ingressive airstream (e.g., [ɓ])
• Ejective: Produced with a glottalic egressive airstream (e.g., [p'])

Acoustic Properties

Acoustically, plosives are characterized by:

• A silent period during the closure phase
• A burst of noise at release
• Formant transitions in adjacent vowels that help identify the place of articulation
• Voice onset time (VOT)—the time between release and the start of voicing—which is a key distinguishing feature between voiced and voiceless plosives

Related Articles

• Voiced Bilabial Plosive
• Voiced Alveolar Plosive
• Fricative
• Affricate
• Ejective Consonant
• Implosive Consonant

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