In phonetics, an egressive sound is one where air flows outward. Er... isn't that all of them, he asked him knowingly? Not quite. Almost every sound in every language is egressive, but Bantu and other African families have some sounds that are implosive (q.v. for more detail) and the Khoe (or Khoisan) languages of southern Africa have their famous clicks. When speaking, whatever the language, most of the time air is being pushed out from the lungs, and interruptions to it are of short duration.

As well as the normal pulmonic air stream, certain specially emphatic egressive sounds can be made by compressing the air in the mouth and releasing it explosively: see ejective for details and examples.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.