202 Adrian Simpson
Ohala & Busà 1995), the glottal and articulatory components which can produce
potentially identical acoustic patterns and auditory impressions of an ‘ejective’ can
be genuinely ambiguous. And indeed, there is no reason why there should not be
intra- as well as interspeaker variability in the production of ejectives performing
different functions.
Much of what has been said about the possible production mechanisms behind
ejectives has been speculation informed by the acoustic record and impressionis-
tic observation and remains to be substantiated by instrumental investigation, in
particular using a combination of transillumination and air pressure measurement
to examine and compare ejective production in a range of languages and different
linguistic and interactional contexts.
Finally, I have kept away from any discussion of using whether ‘ejective’ is an
appropriate term, whether it would be appropriate to use modifiers such as ‘stiff ’
or ‘slack’, or whether some of the examples we have looked at should be treated as
complex segment types. Instead, I have tried to concentrate on examining possible
production mechanisms and functions of elements which are unified by giving rise
to similar auditory impressions and acoustic records.ReferencesCatford, John C. 1977. Fundamental Problems in Phonetics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
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