Volume 35, Issue 5

After a short chronology of the investigation, the author discusses the nature of the implosives and the problems resulting from their complexity and ambiguity. One of the main problems is that of the production of voice; the most satisfactory solution is offered by the ‘active voice’ suggested by Husson. From certain phenomena it can be seen that the articulation is based upon the more or less modified movements of the second phase of the act of deglutition; wherein certain reflex-conditioned interdependencies play an important part. As a result, there is not merely one phonemic constituent to be called ‘implosion’, but two or three different ones, depending on the points of departure of articulation. ‘Implosion’ is one of the most ancient and archaic manners of articulation.

The development of tone in Panjabi from the loss of certain consonants has often been cited as an instance of the consonantal origins of a tonal system. Acoustic data demonstrating the correlation between Panjabi tones and Hindi consonants are presented. Panjabi high tone matches a higher fundamental frequency on a Hindi vowel preceding a breathy voiced consonant. Panjabi low tone matches a lower fundamental frequency on a Hindi vowel following a breathy voiced consonant. It is interesting that the data exhibit the spread of the consonantal effect throughout the entire word.