When implosives are biphasic: Implosivity in Gawwada and beyond

This paper discusses acoustic data on the realization of the implosives in Gawwada, a Cushitic language of Ethiopia. Besides the presence of features connected to laryngeal activity and voicing already described for other languages (Demolin, Ngonka-Ke-Mbembe, Soquet 2002; Mc Laughlin 2005), implosives in Gawwada display quite different realizations. Even though not supported by an aerodynamic study, spectrograms offer a number of cues for an acoustic account of implosives and a discussion of their basic phonological properties (as shown by Nagano-Madsen and Thornell (2012) for Mpiemo). The absence in Gawwada of phonological voicing contrast has momentous consequences on the very realization of implosives. In particular, preglottalization, rather than devoicing, seems to be a reliable correlate.