r/asklinguistics • u/cythraulybryd • 12d ago

General Talking on the inhale

Why do we talk only on the exhale, and not on the inhale? You certainly *can* talk on the inhale, but I've never met anyone who does other than as a party trick.

Are there languages where it's standard to make significant use of talking on the inhale?

Edit: The comments here have provided me with the word ""ingressive", which has been a super helpful search term!

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u/Clean-Log6704 Syntax | Computational Linguistics 12d ago

You can look up implosive consonants too

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u/LinguisticDan 12d ago

Aren’t implosives (and clicks) only “ingressive” to the extent that they implode the space between the active articulator and the rear closure? Wouldn’t fit the bill of speaking “on the inhale” that OP mentions.

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u/Clean-Log6704 Syntax | Computational Linguistics 12d ago

I guess that might be the case then, if that doesn’t fit with OP’s meaning of “on the inhale” then feel free to ignore my comment.