| Tenuis alveolar velar click | |
|---|---|
| kǃ kʗ | |
| ᵏǃ ᵏʗ | |
| ǃ ʗ | |
| IPA number | 178 |
| Encoding | |
| Entity(decimal) | ǃʗ |
| Unicode(hex) | U+01C3 U+0297 |
| Braille |   |
| Unicode character name for ǃ isLATIN LETTER RETROFLEX CLICK | |
| Tenuis alveolar uvular click | |
|---|---|
| qǃ qʗ | |
| 𐞥ǃ 𐞥ʗ |
Avoiceless or more preciselytenuis (post)alveolar click is aclick consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa. The symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet for a tenuis alveolar click with avelar rear articulation is ⟨k͡ǃ⟩ or ⟨k͜ǃ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨kǃ⟩, ⟨ᵏǃ⟩ or simply ⟨ǃ⟩; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is ⟨k͡ʗ⟩ or ⟨k͜ʗ⟩, abbreviated ⟨kʗ⟩, ⟨ᵏʗ⟩ or just ⟨ʗ⟩. For a click with auvular 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.[1]
Features of a tenuis (post)alveolar click:
Tenuis alveolar clicks are found primarily in the variousKhoisan language families of southern Africa and in some neighboringBantu languages.
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hadza | laqo | [lak͜ǃo] =[laᵏʗo] | 'to trip' |
| Khoekhoe | ǃgabe | [k͜ǃȁwé] =[ᵏʗȁwé] | 'to speak aKhoisan language' |
| Sesotho | hoqoqa | [hʊk͜ǃɔk͜ǃɑ] =[hʊᵏʗɔᵏʗɑ] | 'to chat' |
| Xhosa | iqanda | [ik͜ǃanda] =[iᵏʗanda] | 'egg' |
| Zulu | iqaqa | [íːk͜ǃaːk͜ǃá] =[íːᵏʗaːᵏʗá] | 'polecat' |
