Strident vowel

Strident vowels are fairly common in Khoisan languages, which contrasts them with simple pharyngealized vowels. Stridency is used in onomatopoeia in Zulu and Lamba. Stridency may be a type of phonation called harsh voice. A similar phonation, without the trill, is called ventricular voice; both have been called pressed voice. Bai, of southern China, has a register system that has allophonic strident and pressed vowels.

There is no official symbol for stridency in the IPA, but a superscript ⟨⟩ (for a voiced epiglottal trill) is often used. In some literature, a double tilde below ⟨⟩ (similar to the single tilde below ⟨⟩ used to transcribe creaky voice) has been used.

Languages

These languages use phonemic strident vowels:

• Tuu languages
  • Taa (See Taa vowels)
  • ǃKwi (ǃUi)
    • Nǁng (a dialect cluster; moribund)
    • ǀXam (a dialect cluster, including Nǀuusaa) †