Avoiceless or more preciselytenuis retroflex click is a rareclick consonant. In practical orthography, anad hoc symbol ⟨‼⟩ is used for theretroflex clicks; a tenuis click with avelar rear articulation is ⟨k͡‼⟩ or ⟨k͜‼⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨k‼⟩, ⟨ᵏ‼⟩ or just ⟨‼⟩.The implicit symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet is ⟨k͡𝼊⟩ or ⟨k͜𝼊⟩, abbreviated ⟨k𝼊⟩, ⟨ᵏ𝼊⟩ or just ⟨𝼊⟩.[1] Linguists who prefer theold IPA letters use the analogousDoke convention[2] of ⟨k͡ψ⟩ or ⟨k͜ψ⟩, abbreviated ⟨kψ⟩, ⟨ᵏψ⟩ or ⟨ψ⟩. For a click with auvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨q͡‼,q͜‼,q‼,𐞥‼⟩, ⟨q͡𝼊,q͜𝼊,q𝼊,𐞥𝼊⟩ and ⟨q͡ψ,q͜ψ,qψ,𐞥ψ⟩.Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨𝼊k⟩ or ⟨𝼊ᵏ⟩; this may simply be an orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.[3]
Theairstream mechanism islingual 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 theglottis or thelungs/diaphragm. The release of the forward closure produces the "click" sound. Voiced and nasal clicks have a simultaneouspulmonic egressive airstream.
Itsplace of articulation isretroflex, which prototypically means it is articulatedsubapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it ispostalveolar without beingpalatalized. That is, besides the prototypical subapical articulation, the tongue can beapical (pointed) or, in some fricatives,laminal (flat).
Itsphonation is voiceless, unaspirated, and unglottalized, which means it is produced without vibration or constriction of the vocal cords, and any following vowel startswithout significant delay.
It is anoral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
It is acentral consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
^Doke, Clement M. (1925). "An outline of the phonetics of the language of the ʗhũ: Bushman of the North-West Kalahari".Bantu Studies.2:129–166.doi:10.1080/02561751.1923.9676181.
^Scott, Abigail; Miller, Amanda; Namaseb, Levi; Sands, Bonny; Shah, Sheena (June 2, 2010). "Retroflex Clicks in Two Dialects of ǃXung".University of Botswana, Department of African Languages.
