Tenuis alveolar click

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The voiceless or more precisely tenuis (post)alveolar click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a tenuis alveolar click with a velar rear articulation is ⟨k͡ǃ⟩ or ⟨k͜ǃ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨⟩, ⟨ᵏǃ⟩ or simply ⟨ǃ⟩; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is ⟨k͡ʗ⟩ or ⟨k͜ʗ⟩, abbreviated ⟨⟩, ⟨ᵏʗ⟩ or just ⟨ʗ⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨q͡ǃ, q͜ǃ, qǃ, 𐞥ǃ⟩ and ⟨q͡ʗ, q͜ʗ, qʗ, 𐞥ʗ⟩. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ǃk⟩ or ⟨ǃᵏ⟩; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.[2]

Tenuis alveolar velar click
k͡ǃ   k͡ʗ
ᵏǃ   ᵏʗ
ǃ   ʗ
IPA Number178
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ǃ​ʗ
Unicode (hex)U+01C3 U+0297
Braille⠯ (braille pattern dots-12346)⠞ (braille pattern dots-2345)
Unicode character name for ǃ is LATIN LETTER RETROFLEX CLICK
Tenuis alveolar uvular click
q͡ǃ   q͡ʗ
𐞥ǃ   𐞥ʗ

Features

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Features of the tenuis (post)alveolar click:

  • The airstream mechanism is lingual ingressive (also known as velaric ingressive), which means a pocket of air trapped between two closures is rarefied by a "sucking" action of the tongue, rather than being moved by the glottis or the lungs/diaphragm. The release of the forward closure produces the "click" sound. Voiced and nasal clicks have a simultaneous pulmonic egressive airstream.
  • Its place of articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
  • Its phonation is voiceless, unaspirated, and unglottalized, which means it is produced without vibration or constriction of the vocal cords, and any following vowel starts without significant delay.
  • It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
  • It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.

Occurrence

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Tenuis alveolar clicks are found primarily in the various Khoisan language families of southern Africa and in some neighboring Bantu languages.

Language Word IPA Meaning
Hadza laqo [lak͜ǃo] = [laᵏʗo] 'to trip'
Khoekhoe ǃgabe [k͜ǃȁwé] = [ᵏʗȁwé] 'to speak a Khoisan language'
Sesotho ho qoqa [hʊk͜ǃɔk͜ǃɑ] = [hʊᵏʗɔᵏʗɑ] 'to chat'
Xhosa iqanda [ik͜ǃanda] = [iᵏʗanda] 'egg'
Zulu iqaqa [íːk͜ǃaːk͜ǃá] = [íːᵏʗaːᵏʗá] 'polecat'

References

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  1. ^ Kirshenbaum assigns ⟨c!⟩ indifferently to both alveolar and palatal clicks.
  2. ^ Afrika und Übersee. D. Reimer. 2005. pp. 93–94.