Explanation
A plosive is a non-nasal stop involving temporary complete blockage of airflow. Closure may occur at different places, including the lips or glottis, so the definition should not be restricted to closure inside the mouth. Nor is an audible explosive release necessary in every realisation: a stop can occur without a clearly audible release. In the affricate context, an additional question is whether closure is followed by a characteristic frication phase. Articulatory sequence, phonological unit and spelling remain separate levels of analysis.
Movement of thought
1. Identify the closure interval. 2. Locate the blockage. 3. Examine voicing and airflow. 4. Assess the manner and audibility of release. 5. Analyse any following frication separately.
Scientific use case
Phonetic research can measure closure duration, release and voicing separately.
Example
The sounds [p] and [t] involve different closure locations. The glottal stop [ʔ] also belongs to the class, although its blockage is not inside the mouth.
Counterexample
A nasal may involve oral closure while air flows through the nose; it is therefore not simply the same manner of articulation.
Distinction
Distinguish plosives from nasals, affricates, letter names and necessarily audible explosions.
Effect on thought and perception
Analysis replaces the everyday expectation of a bang with an account of articulatory sequence.
Resonance
A sound may gain its shape precisely through a brief interruption of airflow.
Provenance
Parallel corpus 98f0950771ae4662f291d2f15f5c51b6797f3c20ba458a68615cdb177002ea18; case-bounded source review accepted; human specialist review not claimed.
Cite this entry
Reich, Michael (Hrsg./ed.): „Plosive“. Atlas der Sprache, AT-NAV-G04-030. ATLAS 259, data model 1.6.0. https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-NAV-G04-030The address remains stable; editorial content may evolve. Editorial reading state: 2026-10-15. Include your access date for precise references.