In Semitic linguistics, an emphatic consonant is an obstruent consonant which originally contrasted, and often still contrasts, with an analogous voiced or voiceless obstruent by means of a secondary articulation.
In specific Semitic languages, the members of the emphatic series may be realized as uvularized, pharyngealized, velarized or ejective, or by plain voicing contrast; for instance, in Arabic, emphasis involves retraction of the dorsum (or root) of the tongue, which has variously been described as velarization or pharyngealization depending on where the locus of the retraction is assumed to be.
The term is also used, to a lesser extent, to describe cognate series in other Afro-Asiatic languages, where they are typically realized as ejective, implosive or pharyngealized consonants.
In Ethiopian Semitic and Modern South Arabian languages, they are realized as ejective consonants.
General Modern Israeli Hebrew and Maltese are notable exceptions among Semitic languages to the presence of emphatic consonants.