Kissing, clicking, sputtering... these are just some of the odd sounds that people around
the world actually use to speak! Come hear these unusual phonemes, try them out yourself
and find out which one of them is something you say every day in English.
Weird Sounds in World Languages! Not my normal fare, but I'm feeling something light before
we get into more linguistic tales. Let's go!
A row of languages all lined up in Africa have a sound written gb. So when you run across
this name of a dance from the Côte d'Ivoire, you might be tempted to go French on it and
call it gbégbé. But notice the tie on top - it's one single sound. To make it, bring
your tongue up to the soft palate and make a /g/, but also close and release your lips during
that /g/ for a combo g-b sound: ɡ͡b, ɡ͡beɡ͡be! There's a voiceless form, too: k͡p.
In the World Atlas of Language Structures, with its cross-language data on common and
uncommon sounds, these are rare enough that they're only in 8% of the languages sampled.
Can you putter your lips like if you're cold? /ʙʙʙ/ That's a bilabial trill, phonetically
speaking. Don't pat yourself on the back for it though. A number of languages use ʙ̥u
and ʙu sounds. But in the far reaches of Brazil, deep in the Amazon, live the Pirahã,
a people whose language has stirred up some linguistic controversy. One of its unusual
features is a bilabial trilled affricate. To make it, they hold their tongue in position
for a t sound against the teeth, then release it with that sputtering lip trill: t̪͡ʙ̥.
(I see why this sound is rare!) /t̪͡ʙ̥a/
This next type of sound might be more familiar to some of you out there: pharyngeals. The
pharynx is straight in the back of your mouth, where the nasal cavity connects to the throat
connects to the voice box. If you bring the base, the root of the tongue way back, the
restricted airflow makes the sound ħ.
(Am I breathing in your ear? This isn't creepy at all!)
Voice that sound, and it's ʕ. Do you know which major world language has
sounds close to both of these and expects you to tell them apart from nearby glottal
h and velar x? It's Arabic! And other Afroasiatic languages. In all, pharyngeals can be found
in only 4% the languages in that world sample.
A Spanish island in the Canaries off the coast of Africa, La Gomera, makes some intriguing
noises. Unlike the previous examples, their oddity isn't a sound, it's actually a whole
way of speaking using whistles. It's called el silbo "the whistle" by locals, who use
high or low frequency combined with either flows or breaks to communicate
both vowels and consonants.
The West African gb, that lippy trill in Brazil, pharyngeals in Semitic - so far our rares
are clustered in hotzones. But this next rarity is found all around the planet. Prepare your
tongue for "dental fricatives"! You won't really need much practice though, because
English has them: θ, ð. Putting the tongue up against the teeth and pushing a stream
of airflow around it THis way is only done in somewhat over 7% of that
world language sample. Alright, English!
You know how French is infamous for its nasal sounds? Anhanhan! French got them when a nosy
sound spread one vowel over. That happens. But nasal spreading doesn't have to stop there.
Spread away! Through vowels, through consonants, until whole stretches of sounds become downright
infected with the nasal, like in the Epena language of Colombia where /sĩəso/ comes
out as [s̃ĩə̃s̃õ].
Lots of odd consonants so far, but I found some fun vowels along a river in Oaxaca, Mexico,
in a town where they speak a Mazatec language. For every one normal vowel you give 'em, they
have three for you: normal æ, which linguists call "modal voice", but also breathy voice
æ̤, and creaky voice æ̰. They even do this with nasals: æ̃, æ̤̃, æ̰̃!
Add to this that they also have tones, all these consonants you've never tried to tell
apart, and even their own whistle speech, and you've got a mouthful!
One last one before we go - time for the oddest speech sounds out there! Making their home
in the southwest of Africa are the Khoisan languages. This isn't a single family (even
though mass comparison struck again). It's a cluster of families renowned for possessing
entire sets of sounds called clicks.
This is a kiss, I mean a bilabial click. (Kind of even looks like a kiss.) To make it, speakers
close their tongue against the back of the mouth and also close both lips but don't purse
them. Two closures. Then, using the tongue, they suck a pocket of air into that enclosed
area. Finally, they let go of the lips and out pops a ʘ!
Trapping air between two closures and then releasing the front closure can be applied
to your teeth: ǀ ǀ ǀ, the side of your mouth: ǁ ǁ, the roof of your mouth: ǃ ǃ !
So much clicking! Click languages accounted for just 1.8% of that world language sample.
Well, see, our world's languages are full of all kinds of meaningful, strange sounds.
Maybe we'll take a linguistic trip to one of these hotspots and investigate further.
Until then, stick around and subscribe for language!