The representation of glottals in Oromo

In current phonological feature theories, the behaviour of glottals poses serious problems for their representation. The special status of / h / and /? / which are often transparent to vowel harmony processes (cf. Steriade 1987; McCarthy 1991, forthcoming; Stemberger 1993), has led to the hypothesis that, at least in some languages, they lack a place node. The representation of ejectives and implosives, though, is very rarely discussed in the literature. On phonetic grounds, the main difference between plain stops and ejectives and implosives is the airstream mechanism used during their realisation, the former having a pulmonic egressive airstream while the latter involve a supplementary glottal constriction, which may accompany either egressive airflow, as in ejectives, or ingressive, as in implosives.