Ejective-contour clicks, also calledsequential linguo-glottalic consonants, are consonants that transition from aclick to anejective sound, or more precisely, have an audible delay between the front and rear release of the click. All click types (alveolarǃ,dentalǀ,lateralǁ,palatalǂ,retroflex𝼊 andlabialʘ) have linguo-glottalic variants, which occur as both stops and affricates, and may bevoiced. At least a voiceless linguo-glottalic affricate is attested from allKhoisan languages of southern Africa (theKhoe,Tuu, andKx'a language families), as well as from the Bantu languageYeyi from the same area, but they are unattested elsewhere.

Traditionally, contour clicks were believed to beuvular in their rear articulation, whereas non-contour clicks were thought to bevelar. However, it is now known that all clicks are uvular, at least in the languages which have been investigated, and that the articulation of these clicks is more complex than that of others but no different in location. Linguists now analyze them as eithercontours (that is, as a transition from one kind of sound to another within a single consonant) or as sequences of a click followed by auvular consonant (that is, asconsonant clusters).^[1] Seepulmonic-contour clicks for discussion.

Phonetically, a linguo-glottalic consonant is a click in which the forward and rear articulations are released independently. The forward articulation, made with the lips or the front of the tongue, releases with alingual airstream as in any click. The rear articulation, however, is held longer, and when it is released, it is with aglottalic airstream. (Linguo-pulmonic consonants are similar, except that the second release ispulmonic, as in English consonants.) That is, such consonants have a doublerelease burst, one ingressive (the air pulled in by the tongue) and the other egressive (the air pushed out by the glottis). The rear articulation is involved in both: it helps create the suction that powers the first, and then is itself released for the second. Because the back of the tongue operates in the uvular orpharyngeal part of the mouth to generate the first burst, and the two bursts are very close together in time, the second release is articulated in approximately this same area.

Four series of ejective-contour clicks (as classified by the rear release) are attested. There are two manners of articulation (stop and fricative) and two voicing contrasts, each of which is found for each of the places of articulation (as classified by the front release) that clicks use.

In linguo-glottalic stops, the rear articulation is released into aejective stop. Although ejective stops are necessarily voiceless, click–ejective contours may be voiced, as the voicing during the articulation of the first (click) release is stopped for the second (ejective) release. In IPA, using thealveolar series as an example, the two series are ⟨ǃ͡qʼ⟩ and ⟨ᶢǃ͡qʼ⟩ (also ⟨ǃ̬͡qʼ⟩, etc.).

The rear articulation may also be released as africative. However, because the forward articulation may be considered a stop, these are calledaffricates rather than fricatives. There are two conventions for writing the frication: the English convention, with anx, and the Afrikaans tradition, with ag. Both are used in the orthographies of Khoisan languages. InJuǀ’hõa, for example, they are written voicelessǃk ǁk ǀk ǂk and voicedgǃk gǁk gǀk gǂk, and in the old orthographyqg’ xg’ cg’ çg’ anddqg’ dxg’ dcg’ dçg’; in Naro, they are (voiceless)qg’ xg’ cg’ tcg’, and in Khoekhoe (Korana),ǃkh’ ǁkh’ ǀkh’ ǂkh’. In the IPA, the two series of linguo-pulmonic affricates may be written ⟨ǃ͡χʼ⟩ and ⟨ᶢǃ͡χʼ⟩ (also ⟨ǃ̬͡χʼ⟩), though with a cluster analysis they would be ⟨ǃq͡χʼ⟩ and ⟨ᶢǃq͡χʼ⟩.

Miller (2011) distinguishes between two kinds of affricates:homorganic, where the rear articulation has the same uvular place in its release as it held during the front release, and heterorganic, where it is either velar orepiglottal. Although no language contrasts these possibilities from homorganic affricates, she holds that they are different enough in sound that considering them to be different consonants is useful. The transcriptions she uses are ⟨ǃ͡kxʼ⟩ or ⟨ᶢǃ͡kxʼ⟩ (velar) and ⟨ǃᵸ⟩ or ⟨ᶢǃˤ⟩ (epiglottal).^[2] (It is not clear if the⟨k⟩ is written because the rear release is actually an affricate, or because it better distinguishes these from the homorganic/uvular case, as in broad transcription⟨x⟩ may be used for either a velar or a uvular fricative.) In Gǀui, which has a velar release, the fricative is actuallylateral, and so may be narrowly transcribed as ⟨ǃ͡k𝼄ʼ⟩ (or ⟨ǃ͡𝼄ʼ⟩).

• Pulmonic-contour click
• Glottalized click
• Nasal click

• Amanda Miller, 2011. "The Representation of Clicks". In Oostendorp et al. eds.,The Blackwell Companion to Phonology.

• Click consonants

• Pages with plain IPA
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles using infobox templates with no data rows