Editing Plosive (section)

==Common plosives==
All spoken natural languages in the world have plosives,<ref>König, W. (ed) ''dtv Atlas zur deutschen Sprache'' dtv 1994{{full citation needed|date=August 2018}}</ref> and most have at least the voiceless plosives {{IPA|[p]}}, {{IPA|[t]}}, and {{IPA|[k]}}.  However, there are exceptions: Colloquial [[Samoan language|Samoan]] lacks the [[coronal consonant|coronal]] {{IPA|[t]}}, and several North American languages, such as the [[Iroquoian]] languages (e.g., [[Mohawk language|Mohawk]] and [[Cherokee]]), and [[Arabic]] lack the [[labial consonant|labial]] {{IPA|[p]}}. In fact, the labial is the least stable of the voiceless plosives in the languages of the world, as the unconditioned sound change {{IPA|[p]}} → {{IPA|[f]}} (→ {{IPA|[h]}} → {{IPA|Ø}}) is quite common in unrelated languages, having occurred in the history of [[Classical Japanese language|Classical Japanese]], [[Classical Arabic]], and [[Proto-Celtic language|Proto-Celtic]], for instance. Formal [[Samoan language|Samoan]] has only one word with [[velar consonant|velar]] {{IPA|[k]}}; colloquial Samoan conflates {{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/k/}} to {{IPA|/k/}}. [[Ni‘ihau]] [[Niihau dialect|Hawaiian]] has {{IPA|[t]}} for {{IPA|/k/}} to a greater extent than [[Hawaiian language|Standard Hawaiian]], but neither distinguish a {{IPA|/k/}} from a {{IPA|/t/}}. It may be more accurate to say that Hawaiian and colloquial Samoan do not distinguish velar and coronal plosives than to say they lack one or the other. 

[[Ontena Gadsup]] has only 1 phonemic plosive {{IPA|/ʔ/}}.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01728030/document |title=The Typology of the Distribution of Edge : the propensity for bipositionality|last=Ulfsbjorninn|first=Shanti|last2=Lahrouchi|first2=Mohamed|journal=Papers in Historical Phonology|volume=1|via=HAL-SHS - Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220219205744/https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01728030/document |archive-date=2022-02-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/14/55/28/145528924996124292827377513229587788840/Gadsup_Ontena.pdf |title=Organised Phonology Data - Gadsup ( Ontena dialect) Language [GAJ] - Eastern Highlands Province|website=[[SIL International]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308155324/https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/14/55/28/145528924996124292827377513229587788840/Gadsup_Ontena.pdf |archive-date=2022-03-08}}</ref> [[Yanyuwa_language|Yanyuwa]] distinguishes plosives in 7 places of articulations {{IPA|/b d̪ d ḏ ɖ ɡ̟ ɡ̠/}} (it does not have voiceless plosives) which is the most out of all languages.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://phonetics.ucla.edu/appendix/languages/yanuya/yanuwa.html | title=Yanuyuwa |website=UCLA Phonetics Lab Data |publisher=University of California, Los Angeles}}</ref>

See [[Occlusive#Common occlusives|Common occlusives]] for the distribution of both plosives and nasals.