ABSTRACT
Implosive consonants are sounds of a plosive nature, i.e. made by a stop and a release, in which the air is sucked inwards instead of being expelled. The organs of speech are placed in position for the stop, and at the same time the larynx is lowered considerably: this lowering, by enlarging the air-passage above, causes a rarefaction, and on the release of the stop the air momentarily rushes in to fill this rarefied space. It is immediately followed by an out-breathed vowel. The African Institute recommends the writing of implosive and explosive sounds with the ordinary letters preceded by an apostrophe, if a number of them occur in a language. Where an implosive and explosive consonant exist side by side in a language and differentiate words, it is very necessary to distinguish them in pronunciation and in writing.
