3 hjə́ʔ
‘you’ a. Partial adduction of arytenoids for h b. Phonation for jə
In example 3a, we see that the arytenoid cartilages are partially pressed together as the musculature works in tandem to bring the vocal folds in a closer proximity to one another without
touching. This allows air pressure to build up, increasing the speed by which the air molecules pass by the vocal folds giving a noisy fricative sound. The arytenoid chink can be seen at the posterior end of
the vocal folds, below the arytenoids. The production of modal voice in 3b includes bringing the arytenoids completely together in the typical medial compression configuration in order for the
following vowel to be phonated.
6.2.2 Vowel medial laryngeal consonants
Now, consider the vowel medial glotal stop in 4, which exemplifies the same kind of production or word initial glottal stops.
4 suʔut
he breaks a. Voiceless for s
b. Phonation during uʔ
c. Full closure for ʔ d. Phonation during ʔu
In 4a, we see the state of the vocal folds during the production of the alveolar fricative. Notice, that the arytenoids and vocal folds are far from their resting position as illustrated in figure 3. The
arytenoids are partially pulled together and the position of the vocal folds can be likened to a laryngeal fricative in 3a. The difference between the laryngeal fricative, however, lies in that the glottis is longer
due to less adducted arytenoid cartilages. Hence, frication is negligible. Photo 4b illustrates a modal voice vowel, yet with the thyroid arytenoid muscle already contracting to form the glottal stop in 4c.
Example 4d is the vowel that follows the glottal stop, which looks identical to 4b. The difference is that the thyroid arytenoid muscle is now relaxing instead of constricting. What is most noticeable here
is the slight adjustment of the thyroid arytenoid muscle constriction required from a modal voice vowel to a glottal stop and vice versa.
A vowel medial laryngeal fricative is illustrated in 5. 5
npʰúhu ‘chair’
a. Phonation for npʰ b. Phonation for pʰu
c. Production of h d. Phonation for u
Here we see a modal-voice nasal moving into the voicelessnessaspiration of the following stop. Example 5b shows constricted arytenoid cartilages, but with the vocal folds touching in their posterior
portion. This implies that there is some amount of residual aspiration on the following vowel. The laryngeal fricative is seen in intervocalic position in 5c where the amount of glottal longitudinal space
is increased, yet not to the full extent that we see in 3a. This is due to the rapid readjustment required for modal voice of the last vowel.
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6.2.3 Vowel final laryngeal consonants
