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Speaking as a phonologist, it is my impression that many people use "plosive" as a cover term for {stop, affricate}; that is, for non-continuant obstruents.<div><br></div><div>But I've also seen others do it the other way around, using "stop" as the cover term, and "plosive" to refer specifically to non-affricate stops. The problem is that in this narrower technical sense of "plosive" (which you find in Ladefoged's standard textbook "A Course in Phonetics", among other places), that term is supposed to refer specifically to *pulmonic* stops. So ejectives wouldn't be covered under that, which means that for Athabaskan languages we'd be back in the same dilemma with how to refer to the affricate vs. stop distinction among *ejectives*.</div><div><br></div><div>So my vote would go with using "plosive" in the wider, cover-term sense described above. I've always found that a handy terminology.</div><div><br></div><div>--Gunnar<br><div><br><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><div>===========================================</div><div> Gunnar Ólafur Hansson</div><div> Department of Linguistics</div><div> University of British Columbia</div><div> Totem Field Studios</div><div> 2613 West Mall</div><div> Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4</div><div> CANADA</div><div><br></div><div> phone: (604) 822-4658</div><div> email: <a href="mailto:ghansson@interchange.ubc.ca">ghansson@interchange.ubc.ca</a></div><div> web: <a href="http://www.linguistics.ubc.ca/people/ghansson">http://www.linguistics.ubc.ca/people/ghansson</a> </div><div>===========================================</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span></span></span></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br><div><div>On 1-Dec-09, at 8:11 PM, James Crippen wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">As far as I understand things, in all the Athabaskan languages the</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">series of (oral) stops and affricates together form a natural class of</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">consonants. Certainly this is true in Tlingit, where affricates behave</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">like stops phonologically. (Phonetically they are quite different, of</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">course.) The annoying thing is that I have to keep writing clumsy</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">phrases like "all unaspirated stops and affricates", or "all ejective</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">stops and affricates". Is there a term which unites both classes under</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">a single umbrella? Something like "obstruent" but excluding</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">fricatives? Saying "non-fricative obstruents" is even worse than</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">"stops and affricates". I have asked all of my local phonologists,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">even the historical linguists, but none could think of such a term.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Thanks,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">James</div> </blockquote></div><br></div></div></body></html>