| Tenuis dental click (velar) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| k͜ǀ | |||
| ᵏǀ | |||
| ǀ | |||
| k͜ʇᵏʇ | |||
| IPA number | 177, 201 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity(decimal) | ǀʇ | ||
| Unicode(hex) | U+01C0 U+0287 | ||
| X-SAMPA | |\ | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
| Voiced dental click (velar) | |
|---|---|
| ɡ͡ǀ | |
| ᶢǀᵈǀ | |
| ɡ͡ʇᶢʇ |
| Dental nasal click (velar) | |
|---|---|
| ŋ͡ǀ | |
| ᵑǀⁿǀ | |
| ŋ͡ʇᵑʇ |
| Tenuis dental click (uvular) | |
|---|---|
| q͡ǀ | |
| 𐞥ǀ | |
| q͡ʇ𐞥ʇ |
| Voiced dental click (uvular) | |
|---|---|
| ɢ͡ǀ | |
| 𐞒ǀ | |
| ɢ͡ʇ𐞒ʇ |
| Dental nasal click (uvular) | |
|---|---|
| ɴ͡ǀ | |
| ᶰǀ | |
| ɴ͡ʇᶰʇ |
Dental (or more preciselydenti-alveolar)[1]clicks are a family ofclick consonants found, as constituents of words, only inAfrica and in theDamin ritual jargon ofAustralia.
InEnglish, thetut-tut! (British spelling, "tutting") ortsk! tsk! (American spelling, "tsking") sound used to express disapproval or pity is an unreleased[2] dental click, although it is not a lexicalphoneme (a sound that distinguishes words) in English but a paralinguisticspeech-sound. Similarlyparalinguistic usage of dental clicks is made in certain other languages, but the meaning thereof differs widely between many of the languages (e.g., affirmation inSomali but negation in manyvarieties of Arabic,Turkish and the languages of the Balkans).[3]
The symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet that represents theplace of articulation of these sounds is ⟨ǀ⟩, avertical bar. Prior to 1989, ⟨ʇ⟩ was the IPA letter for the dental clicks. It is still occasionally used where the symbol ⟨ǀ⟩ would be confounded with other symbols, such asprosody marks, or simply because in many fonts the vertical bar is indistinguishable from a lowercase L or capital I.[4] Either letter may be combined with a second letter to indicate themanner of articulation, though this is commonly omitted fortenuis clicks.
In official IPA transcription, the click letter is combined with a ⟨kɡŋqɢɴ⟩ via a tie bar, though ⟨k⟩ is frequently omitted. Many authors instead use a superscript ⟨kɡŋqɢɴ⟩ without the tie bar, again often neglecting the ⟨k⟩. Either letter, whether baseline or superscript, is usually placed before the click letter, but may come after when the release of the velar or uvular occlusion is audible. A third convention is the click letter with diacritics for voicelessness, voicing and nasalization; it does not distinguish velar from uvular dental clicks. Common dental clicks are:
| Trans. I | Trans. II | Trans. III | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| (velar) | |||
| ⟨k͜ǀ⟩ | ⟨ᵏǀ⟩ | ⟨ǀ⟩ | tenuis dental click |
| ⟨k͜ǀʰ⟩ | ⟨ᵏǀʰ⟩ | ⟨ǀʰ⟩ | aspirated dental click |
| ⟨ɡ͜ǀ⟩ | ⟨ᶢǀ⟩ | ⟨ǀ̬⟩ | voiced dental click |
| ⟨ŋ͜ǀ⟩ | ⟨ᵑǀ⟩ | ⟨ǀ̬̃⟩ | dental nasal click |
| ⟨ŋ͜ǀ̥ʰʰ⟩ | ⟨ᵑǀ̥ʰʰ⟩ | ⟨ǀ̥̃ʰʰ⟩ | aspirated dental nasal click |
| ⟨ŋ͜ǀˀ⟩ | ⟨ᵑǀˀ⟩ | ⟨ǀ̃ˀ⟩ | glottalized dental nasal click |
| (uvular) | |||
| ⟨q͜ǀ⟩ | ⟨𐞥ǀ⟩ | tenuis dental click | |
| ⟨q͜ǀʰ⟩ | ⟨𐞥ǀʰ⟩ | aspirated dental click | |
| ⟨ɢ͜ǀ⟩ | ⟨𐞒ǀ⟩ | voiced dental click | |
| ⟨ɴ͜ǀ⟩ | ⟨ᶰǀ⟩ | dental nasal click | |
| ⟨ɴ͜ǀ̥ʰʰ⟩ | ⟨ᶰǀ̥ʰʰ⟩ | aspirated dental nasal click | |
| ⟨ɴ͜ǀˀ⟩ | ⟨ᶰǀˀ⟩ | glottalized dental nasal click | |
The last is what is heard in the sound sample at right, as non-native speakers tend to glottalize clicks to avoid nasalizing them.
In the orthographies of individual languages, the letters and digraphs for dental clicks may be based on either the vertical bar symbol of the IPA, ⟨ǀ⟩, or on the Latin⟨c⟩ of Bantu convention.Nama and most Saan languages use the former;Naro,Sandawe, andZulu use the latter.
Features of dental clicks:
Dental clicks are common inKhoisan languages and the neighboring Nguni languages, such asZulu andXhosa. In the Nguni languages, thetenuis click is denoted by the letterc, themurmured click bygc, theaspirated click bych, and thenasal click bync. The prenasalized clicks are writtenngc andnkc.
The Cushitic languageDahalo has four clicks, all of them nasalized:[ᵑ̊ʇ,ᵑʇ,ᵑ̊ʇʷ,ᵑʇʷ].
Dental clicks may also be used para-linguistically. For example,English speakers use a plain dental click, usually writtentsk ortut (and oftenreduplicatedtsk-tsk ortut-tut; these spellings often lead tospelling pronunciations/tɪsk/ or/tʌt/), as aninterjection to express commiseration, disapproval, irritation, or to call a small animal.German (ts ortss),Hungarian (cöccögés),Persian (noch),Portuguese (tsc), Russian (ts-ts-ts;sound file)Spanish (ts) andFrench (t-t-t-t) speakers use the dental click in exactly the same way as English.
The dental click is also used para-linguistically inSemitic languages such asArabic,Hebrew and Indo-EuropeanPashto, andPersian where it is transcribed asنچ/noch and is also used as a negative response to a "yes or no" question (includingDari andTajiki). It is also used in some languages spoken in regions closer to, or in,Europe, such asTurkish,Albanian,Greek,Bulgarian,Italian,Portuguese,Spanish,Romanian orSerbo-Croatian to denote a negative response to a "yes or no" question. The dental click is sometimes accompanied by an upward motion of the head.[5][3]
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zulu | icici | [iːᵏǀíːᵏǀi] =[iːʇ̥íːʇ̥i] | earring | |
| ukuchaza | [úɠuˈᵏǀʰáːza̤] =[úɠuˈʇ̥ʰáːza̤] | to fascinate | ||
| isigcino | [ísiᶢǀʱǐ̤ːno] =[ísiʇ̬ʱǐ̤ːno] | end | ||
| incwancwa | [iᵑǀwáːᵑǀwa] =[iʇ̃wáːʇ̃wa] | sour corn meal | ||
| ingcosi | [iᵑǀʱǒ̤ːsi] =[iʇ̃ʱǒ̤ːsi] | a bit | ||
| Hadza | cinambo | [ᵏǀinambo] =[ʇ̥inambo] | firefly | |
| cheta | [ᵏǀʰeta] =[ʇ̥ʰeta] | to be happy | ||
| minca | [miᵑǀa] =[miʇ̃a] | to smack one's lips | ||
| tacce | [taᵑǀˀe] =[taʇ̃ˀe] | rope | ||
| Khoekhoe | ǀgurub | [ᵏǀȕɾȕp] =[ʇ̥ȕɾȕp] | dry autumn leaves | |
| ǀnam | [ᵑǀȁm̀] =[ʇ̬̃ȁm̀] | to love | ||
| ǀHōǂgaeb | [ᵑ̊ǀʰȍòǂàè̯p] =[ʇ̥̃ʰȍòǂàè̯p] | November | ||
| ǀoroǀoro | [ᵑǀˀòɾőᵑǀˀòɾȍ] =[ʇ̃ˀòɾőʇ̃ˀòɾȍ] | to wear out | ||
| ǀkhore | [ᵏǀ͡χòɾe̋] =[ʇ̥͡χòɾe̋] | to divine, prophesize | ||
