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Occlusive
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<h2 id="common-occlusives">Common occlusives</h2> <p>All languages in the world have occlusives<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> and most have at least the voiceless stops [p], [t], [k] and the nasals [n], and [m]. However, there are exceptions. </p><p>Colloquial <a href="/facts/Samoan_language/mpCAULTg">Samoan</a> lacks the <a href="/facts/Coronal_consonant/nJA2jL4n">coronals</a> [t] and [n], and several North American languages, such as the northern <a href="/facts/Iroquoian/CH7pSR3B">Iroquoian</a> languages, lack the <a href="/facts/Labial_consonant/bv4MqTMf">labials</a> [p] and [m]. In fact, the labial plosive is the least stable of the voiceless stops in the languages of the world, as the unconditioned sound change [p] → [f] (→ [h] → Ø) is quite common in unrelated languages, having occurred in the history of <a href="/facts/Classical_Japanese/b0bVazYz">Classical Japanese</a>, <a href="/facts/Classical_Arabic/TShrKBgR">Classical Arabic</a> and <a href="/facts/Proto-Celtic_language/RLla8fIB">Proto-Celtic</a>, for instance. </p><p>Some of the <a href="/facts/Chimakuan_languages/3EEbjxH7">Chimakuan</a>, <a href="/facts/Salishan_languages/38tG7Bt1">Salishan</a>, and <a href="/facts/Wakashan_languages/6KcMWXcf">Wakashan</a> languages near <a href="/facts/Puget_Sound/A7TgLsHA">Puget Sound</a> lack <a href="/facts/Nasal_occlusive/m6D3cVhe">nasal occlusives</a> [m] and [n], as does the <a href="/facts/Rotokas_language/3mLChzo8">Rotokas language</a> of <a href="/facts/Papua_New_Guinea/RLaVlhFC">Papua New Guinea</a>. In some African and South American languages, nasal occlusives occur only in the environment of <a href="/facts/Nasal_vowel/E8MYuu0T">nasal vowels</a> and so are <a href="/facts/Allophone/2gp1p5PN">not distinctive</a>. </p><p>Formal <a href="/facts/Samoan_language/mpCAULTg">Samoan</a> has nasals /n ŋ/ and /t/ but only one word with <a href="/facts/Velar_consonant/blWClp79">velar</a> [k]; colloquial Samoan <a href="/facts/Allophone/2gp1p5PN">conflates</a> these to /ŋ k/. <a href="/facts/Ni%E2%80%98ihau/d6rczjcR">Ni‘ihau</a> <a href="/facts/Hawaiian_language/SsQuMKm9">Hawaiian</a> has [t] for /k/ to a greater extent than Standard Hawaiian, but neither distinguishes a /k/ from a /t/. It may be more accurate to say that Hawaiian and colloquial Samoan do not distinguish velar and coronal stops than to say they lack one or the other. </p><p><a href="/facts/Yanyuwa_language/Adb1DkfR">Yanyuwa</a> distinguishes nasals and plosives in seven places of articulations /m n̪ n ṉ ɳ ŋ̟ ŋ̠/ and /b d̪ d ḏ ɖ ɡ̟ ɡ̠/ (it does not have voiceless plosives) which is the most out of all languages.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 102. ISBN 0-631-19815-6. <a href="0-631-19815-6" target="_blank">0-631-19815-6</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>König, W. (ed) dtv Atlas zur deutschen Sprache dtv 1994 (in German) <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>"Yanuyuwa". <a href="http://phonetics.ucla.edu/appendix/languages/yanuya/yanuwa.html" target="_blank">http://phonetics.ucla.edu/appendix/languages/yanuya/yanuwa.html</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>