Emphatic consonant

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"Emphatic consonant" is an imprecise term commonly used in Semitic linguistics to describe pharyngealized or velarized, and ejective consonants, or consonants that historically had one of these properties. It is also used, to a lesser extent, in describing the phonology of other Afro-Asiatic languages, notably Berber. They are commonly transcribed in the Latin alphabet by adding a dot under the consonant. Within Arabic, the emphatic consonants vary in phonetic realization from dialect to dialect, but are typically realized as pharyngealized consonants. Within Ethiopian languages, they are realized as ejective consonants. While these sounds do not necessarily share any particular phonetic properties in common, historically most derive from a common source.

Five such "emphatic" phonemes are reconstructed for Proto-Semitic