Avoiced retroflex click is a rareclick consonant. In practical orthography, anad hoc symbol ⟨‼⟩ is used for theretroflex clicks; a voiced click with avelar rear articulation is ⟨ɡ͡‼⟩ or ⟨ɡ͜‼⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨ɡ‼⟩, ⟨ᶢ‼⟩ or ⟨‼̬⟩.The implicit symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet is ⟨ɡ͡𝼊⟩ or ⟨ɡ͜𝼊⟩, abbreviated ⟨ɡ𝼊⟩, ⟨ᶢ𝼊⟩ or ⟨𝼊̬⟩.[1] Linguists who prefer theold IPA letters use the analogousDoke convention[2] of ⟨ɡ͡ψ⟩ or ⟨ɡ͜ψ⟩, abbreviated ⟨ɡψ⟩, ⟨ᶢψ⟩ or ⟨ψ̬⟩. For a click with auvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨ɢ͡‼,ɢ͜‼,ɢ‼,𐞒‼⟩, ⟨ɢ͡𝼊,ɢ͜𝼊,ɢ𝼊,𐞒𝼊⟩ and ⟨ɢ͡ψ,ɢ͜ψ,ɢψ,𐞒ψ⟩.Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨𝼊ɡ⟩ or ⟨𝼊ᶢ⟩; this may be a simple 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 voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
It is anoral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
It is amedian consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline 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.
