Notes on Maddieson 1984 Patterns of sound Stop consonants 0 A term which is used in this report is stop series This term refers to a set of stop consonants which have the same voicing or air stream mechanism For example English has two stop series the voiceless aspirated stops p t and k and the voiceless unaspirated stops p t and k which in some environments and in some dialects are voiced 1 All languages have at least one series of stop consonants usually plain voiceless stops 49 of the 50 languages with one stop series but most languages have more than one series as the figure below shows of languages in the UPSID database 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1 2 3 4 Number of stop series 5 6 The three most common stop series in languages are the plain voiceless plain voiced and the aspirated voiceless Note that ejectives are more commonly voiceless than voiced while implosives are more commonly voiced than voiceless This is reflected in the IPA chart where the symbols p t and k are shown in the chart and b d g the voiced ejectives are not Similarly and are given a more prominent location than are the voiceless implosive symbols 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 Voiceless implosive Prevoiced ejective Postnasalized voiced Voiceless with breathy release Preaspirated voiceless Laryngealized voiceless Laryngealized voiced Breathy voiced Prenasalized voiced Voiced implosive Voiceless ejective Aspirated voiceless Plain voiced 0 Plain voiceless of languages in the UPSID database 100 3 The next figure shows which kinds of stops are used in languages with 1 2 3 and 4 stop series Each line in this graph shows a set of languages For instance the line labeled 1 series represents the set of languages that have only one series of stops The graph shows that in 98 of these languages the one series is the plain voiceless stops This figure shows that stop series other than the three most common ones do not occur in languages unless there are at least three series of stops This kind of observation can be put in the form of an implicational law For example if a language has ejectives or implosives it is highly likely 97 of all languages that it has at least two of the three most common stop series of language in the UPSID database 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Plain voiceless Plain voiced 1 series Aspirated voiceless 2 series Voiceless ejective 3 series Voiced implosive 4 series 4 About 2 3 of the languages with 3 stop series have plain voiceless and voiced stops with a laryngeal series ejectives or implosives 25 of languages with 3 stop series contrast plain voiceless and voiced and aspirated voiceless a three way voice onset time distinction 5 Languages with 4 stops series fall into four equally frequent patterns a plain voiceless plain voiced voiced implosive voiceless ejective b plain voiceless plain voiced aspirated voiceless voiceless ejective c plain voiceless plain voiced prenasalized voiced voiced implosive or d plain voiceless plain voiced aspirated voiceless breathy voiced These patterns seem to be associated with particular parts of the world a and b are found in African languages c is found only in native North American languages and d is found only in languages of India 6 Explanations a Why are plain voiceless stops most common Keating Linker and Huffman 1983 argue that plain voiceless stops are easier to produce than other types at least in utterance initial position One thing that makes them easier is that the oral gesture the stop release occurs simultaneously with the laryngeal gesture the onset of voicing This pattern of articulatory timing seems to be inherently more natural than other patterns b Why are plain voiced and aspirated voiceless consonants more common than ejectives or implosives These contrasts involve no new gestures compared with plain voiceless stops only different timing relations So rather than have the oral and laryngeal gestures occur simultaneously a small asynchrony is produced with voice onset preceding stop release in voiced stops and voice onset following stop release in aspirated stops c Then why do languages with 3 stop series use a laryngeal series rather than a simple 3 way voice onset time contrast The 3 way VOT contrast imposes a perceptual burden on listeners especially when the effects of coarticulation is considered which is avoided to some extent by using a laryngeal series This is a classic example of the tension between ease of articulation stated in b and ease of perception Most languages with three stop series impose an extra articulatory burden rather than face the perceptual difficulty presented by a 3 way VOT contrast