Adental nasal click is aclick consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa.[1] The symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet for a nasal dental click with avelar rear articulation is ⟨ŋ͡ǀ⟩ or ⟨ŋ͜ǀ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨ŋǀ⟩, ⟨ᵑǀ⟩ or ⟨ǀ̃⟩; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is ⟨ŋ͡ʇ⟩ or ⟨ŋ͜ʇ⟩, abbreviated ⟨ŋʇ⟩, ⟨ᵑʇ⟩ or ⟨ʇ̃⟩. For a click with auvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨ɴ͡ǀ,ɴ͜ǀ,ɴǀ,ᶰǀ⟩ and ⟨ɴ͡ʇ,ɴ͜ʇ,ɴʇ,ᶰʇ⟩.Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ǀŋ⟩ or ⟨ǀᵑ⟩; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.[2]
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 isdental, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the upperteeth, termed respectivelyapical andlaminal. Note that most stops and liquids described as dental are actuallydenti-alveolar.
Itsphonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
It is anasal consonant, which means air is exclusively allowed to escape through the nose for nasal stops; otherwise, in addition to through the mouth.
It is amedian consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
Dental nasal clicks are found primarily in the variousKhoisan language families of southern Africa and in some neighboringBantu languages, such asYeyi andFwe.[3][4] They also appear in the Australian ritual languageDamin.
AllKhoisan languages, and a few Bantu languages, have glottalized nasal clicks. These are formed by closing theglottis so that the click is pronounced in silence; however, any preceding vowel will be nasalized.
