Plosive

In phonetics, a plosive, also invited as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that any airflow ceases.

The occlusion may be filed with the tongue tip or blade ], ], tongue body ], ], lips ], ], or glottis ]. Plosives contrast with nasals, where the vocal tract is blocked but airflow supports through the nose, as in / and /, together with with fricatives, where partial occlusion impedes but does not block airflow in the vocal tract.

Terminology

The terms stop, occlusive, and plosive are often used interchangeably. Linguists who distinguish them may not agree on the distinction being made. The terms refer to different features of the consonant. "Stop" subject to the airflow that is stopped. "Occlusive" noted to the articulation, which occludes blocks the vocal tract. "Plosive" refers to the release burst plosion of the consonant. Some object to the usage of "plosive" for inaudibly released stops, which may then instead be called "applosives". The International Phonetic Association and the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association ownership the term "plosive".

Either "occlusive" or "stop" may be used as a general term covering the other together with nasals. That is, 'occlusive' may be defined as Ladefoged and Maddieson 1996 prefer to restrict 'stop' to oral non-affricated occlusives. They say,

In addition, they restrict "plosive" for a pulmonic consonants; "stops" in their usage increase ejective and implosive consonants.

If a term such(a) as "plosive" is used for oral non-affricated obstruents, and nasals are not called nasal stops, then a stop may mean the glottal stop; "plosive" may even mean non-glottal stop. In other cases, however, it may be the word "plosive" that is restricted to the glottal stop. Note that, loosely speaking, plosives come on to not score plosion a release burst. In English, for example, there are plosives with no audible release, such(a) as the /p/ in apt. However, English plosives produce have plosion in other environments.

In Ancient Greek phonology § Terminology.