| Tenuis alveolar click (velar) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| kǃ kʗ | |||
| ᵏǃ ᵏʗ | |||
| ǃ ʗ | |||
| IPA number | 178, 202 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity(decimal) | ǃʗ | ||
| Unicode(hex) | U+01C3 U+0297 | ||
| X-SAMPA | !\ | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
| Voiced alveolar click (velar) | |
|---|---|
| ɡǃ ɡʗ | |
| ᶢǃ ᶢʗ |
| Alveolar nasal click (velar) | |
|---|---|
| ŋǃ ŋʗ | |
| ᵑǃ ᵑʗ |
| Tenuis alveolar click (uvular) | |
|---|---|
| qǃ qʗ | |
| 𐞥ǃ 𐞥ʗ |
| Voiced alveolar click (uvular) | |
|---|---|
| ɢǃ ɢʗ | |
| 𐞒ǃ 𐞒ʗ |
| Alveolar nasal click (uvular) | |
|---|---|
| ɴǃ ɴʗ | |
| ᶰǃ ᶰʗ |
Thealveolar orpostalveolar clicks are a family ofclick consonants found only inAfrica and in theDamin ritual jargon ofAustralia. The tongue is more or less concave (depending on the language), and is pulled down rather than back as in thepalatal clicks, making a hollower sound than those consonants.
The symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet that represents theplace of articulation of these sounds is ⟨ǃ⟩. The symbol is not anexclamation mark in origin, but rather avertical bar with a subscript dot, the dot being the old diacritic for retroflex consonants. Prior to 1989, ⟨ʗ⟩ (stretched c) was the IPA letter for the alveolar clicks, and this is still preferred by some phoneticians. The tail of ⟨ʗ⟩ may be the tail of retroflex consonants in the IPA, and thus analogous to the underdot of ⟨ǃ⟩.[1] 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 alveolar clicks. Common alveolar clicks in these three transcriptions are:
| Trans. I | Trans. II | Trans. III | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| (velar) | |||
| ⟨k͜ǃ⟩ | ⟨ᵏǃ⟩ | ⟨ǃ⟩ | tenuis alveolar click |
| ⟨k͜ǃʰ⟩ | ⟨ᵏǃʰ⟩ | ⟨ǃʰ⟩ | aspirated alveolar click |
| ⟨ɡ͜ǃ⟩ | ⟨ᶢǃ⟩ | ⟨ǃ̬⟩ | voiced alveolar click |
| ⟨ŋ͜ǃ⟩ | ⟨ᵑǃ⟩ | ⟨ǃ̬̃⟩ | alveolar nasal click |
| ⟨ŋ͜ǃ̥̥ʰʰ⟩ | ⟨ᵑǃ̥ʰʰ⟩ | ⟨ǃ̥̃ʰʰ⟩ | aspirated alveolar nasal click |
| ⟨ŋ͜ǃˀ⟩ | ⟨ᵑǃˀ⟩ | ⟨ǃ̃ˀ⟩ | glottalized alveolar nasal click |
| (uvular) | |||
| ⟨q͜ǃ⟩ | ⟨𐞥ǃ⟩ | tenuis alveolar click | |
| ⟨q͜ǃʰ⟩ | ⟨𐞥ǃʰ⟩ | aspirated alveolar click | |
| ⟨ɢ͜ǃ⟩ | ⟨𐞒ǃ⟩ | voiced alveolar click | |
| ⟨ɴ͜ǃ⟩ | ⟨ᶰǃ⟩ | alveolar nasal click | |
| ⟨ɴ͜ǃ̥ʰʰ⟩ | ⟨ᶰǃ̥ʰʰ⟩ | aspirated alveolar nasal click | |
| ⟨ɴ͜ǃˀ⟩ | ⟨ᶰǃˀ⟩ | glottalized alveolar nasal click | |
The last can be heard in the sound sample at right; non-native speakers tend toglottalize clicks to avoid nasalizing them. The nasal click may also be heard at the right.
In the orthographies of individual languages, the letters and digraphs for alveolar clicks may be based on either the vertical bar symbol of the IPA, ⟨ǃ⟩, or on the Latin⟨q⟩ of Bantu convention.Khoekhoe and mostBushman languages use the former;Naro,Sandawe, andZulu use the latter.
Features of postalveolar clicks:
English does not have an alveolar click (or any other click consonant) as a phoneme, but a plain alveolar click does occur inmimesis, as a sound children use to imitate a horse trotting.[2]
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| !Kung | nǃan | [ᵑǃáŋ]=[ʗ̃áŋ] | 'inside' | ||
| Hadza | laqo | [laᵏǃo]=[laʗ̊o] | 'to trip' | ||
| keqhena | [keᵏǃʰena]=[keʗ̊ʰena] | 'to be slow' | |||
| henqee | [ɦeᵑǃeʔe]=[ɦeʗ̃eʔe] | 'dead leopard' | |||
| teqqe | [teᵑǃˀe]=[teʗ̃ˀe] | 'to carry' | |||
| Sandawe | gqokomi | [ᶢǃokomi]=[ʗ̬okomi] | 'greater kudu' | may have aslapped release:[ǃ̬͡¡okomi]=[ʗ̬͡¡okomi] | |
| Sotho | hoqoqa | [hoᵏǃɔᵏǃɑ]=[hoʗ̊ɔʗ̊ɑ] | 'to chat/converse' | Contrasts withmurmured,aspirated, andalveolar nasal clicks. SeeSotho phonology | |
| Xhosa | iqanda | [iᵏǃanda]=[iʗ̊anda] | 'egg' | Contrasts withmurmured,aspirated, andalveolar nasal clicks | |
| ǃXóõ | ǃqhàà | [ǃ͡qʰɑ̀ː]=[ʗ͡qʰɑ̀ː] | 'water' | An aspiratedlinguo-pulmonic stop | |
| Zulu | iqaqa | [iːᵏǃáːᵏǃa] =[iːʗ̊áːʗ̊a] | 'polecat' | Contrasts withmurmured,aspirated, andalveolar nasal clicks. | |
| Percussive alveolar click (tenuis velar) | |
|---|---|
| ᵏǃ¡ ᵏʗ¡ | |
| kǃꜞ kʗꜞ | |
| ǃ¡ |
| Percussive palatal click (nasal velar) | |
|---|---|
| ᵑǂ¡ᵑ𝼋¡ | |
| ŋǂꜞŋ𝼋ꜞ |
InSandawe, alveolar clicks commonly have a ballistic release, with the underside of the tip of the tongue subsequently striking the floor of the mouth.[3] This allophone has been called "flapped" and "slapped". Sometimes the percussive slap is louder than the release, resulting in a sound that has been characterized as a "cluck". The symbol for the sublingualpercussive component is ⟨¡⟩ in theextensions to the IPA; a slapped click is therefore transcribed ⟨ǃ͡¡⟩ or ⟨ǃꜞ⟩ (or ⟨ʗ͡¡,ʗꜞ⟩). The percussive allophones of the five Sandawe alveolar clicks are[ᵏǃ͡¡,ᵏǃ͡¡ʰ,ᶢǃ͡¡,ᵑǃ͡¡,ᵑǃ͡¡ˀ] (or[ᵏʗꜞᵏʗꜞʰᶢʗꜞᵑʗꜞᵑʗꜞˀ] etc.).
Clement Doke also noted apalatal click with slapped release,[ᵑǂ¡].[4]
Nasal clicks that fit this description are used by speakers ofGan Chinese (fromNingdu county) and of Mandarin (from Beijing andJilin), and presumably people from other parts of the country, with varying degrees of competence in nursery rhymes for the words for 'goose' and 'duck', both of which begin with/ŋ/ in Gan and until recently began with/ŋ/ in Mandarin as well. In Gan, the nursery rhyme is (disregarding tone),
where the/ŋ/ onsets are all pronounced[ᵑǃ͡¡].[5]
A series of clicks inEkoka !Kung have been variously described as retroflex orfricated palatal clicks.
