Alveolar click
Alveolar click (plain velar) | |||
---|---|---|---|
k͜ǃ | |||
ᵏǃ | |||
ǃ | |||
k͜ʗ | |||
ᵏʗ | |||
ʗ̊ | |||
IPA Number | 178, 202 | ||
Audio sample | |||
help | |||
Encoding | |||
Entity (decimal) | ǃʗ | ||
Unicode (hex) | U+01C3 U+0297 | ||
X-SAMPA | !\ | ||
Braille | ![]() ![]() | ||
|
Voiced alveolar click | |
---|---|
ɡ͜ǃ | |
ᶢǃ | |
ǃ̬ | |
ɡ͜ʗ | |
ᶢʗ | |
ʗ̬ |
Alveolar nasal click | |
---|---|
ŋ͜ǃ | |
ᵑǃ | |
ǃ̃ | |
ŋ͜ʗ | |
ᵑʗ | |
ʗ̃ | |
Audio sample | |
help |
The alveolar or postalveolar clicks are a family of click consonants found only in Africa and in the Damin ritual jargon of Australia. The tongue is more or less concave (depending on the language), and is pulled down rather than back as in the palatal clicks, making a hollower sound than those consonants.
The symbol in the
In official IPA transcription, the click letter is combined with a ⟨k ɡ ŋ q ɢ ɴ⟩ via a tie bar, though ⟨k⟩ is frequently omitted. Many authors instead use a superscript ⟨k ɡ ŋ q ɢ ɴ⟩ 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 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⟩ | ⟨ǃ̃⟩ | 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 to glottalize 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 most Bushman languages use the former; Naro, Sandawe, and Zulu use the latter.
Features
Features of postalveolar clicks:
- The basic articulation may be voiced, nasal, aspirated, glottalized, etc.
- The forward alveolar ridge or the roof of the mouth behind the alveolar ridge. (Damin contrasted these two articulations as separate phonemes.) The release is a sharp, plosive sound in southern Africa, but in Sandawe it may be percussive, with the underside of the tip of the tongue striking the floor of the mouth after the release of the click (see below), and in Hadza the release is often quite weak.
- Clicks may be oral or nasal, which means that the airflow is either restricted to the mouth, or passes through the nose as well.
- They are central consonants, which means they are produced by releasing the airstream at the center of the tongue, rather than at the sides.
- The airstream mechanism is lingual 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 the glottis or the lungs/diaphragm. The release of the forward closure produces the "click" sound. Voiced and nasal clicks have a simultaneous pulmonic egressive airstream.
Occurrence
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 a slapped release: [ǃ̬͡¡okomi] = [ʗ̬͡¡okomi] | |
Sotho | ho qoqa | [hoᵏǃɔᵏǃɑ] = [hoʗ̊ɔʗ̊ɑ] | 'to chat/converse' | Contrasts with alveolar nasal clicks. See Sotho phonology
| |
Xhosa | iqanda | [iᵏǃanda] = [iʗ̊anda] | 'egg' | Contrasts with alveolar nasal clicks
| |
ǃXóõ | ǃqhàà | [ǃ͡qʰɑ̀ː] = [ʗ͡qʰɑ̀ː] | 'water' | An aspirated linguo-pulmonic stop
| |
Zulu | iqaqa | [iːᵏǃáːᵏǃa] = [iːʗ̊áːʗ̊a] | 'polecat' | Contrasts with alveolar nasal clicks .
|
Percussive release
Percussive alveolar click (plain) | |
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ǃ͡¡ | |
ʗꜞ | |
Audio sample | |
help |
In
(Clement Doke also noted a palatal click with slapped release, [ᵑǂ¡].)[5]
Nasal clicks that fit this description are used by speakers of
- [tʰien i tsʰak ᵑǃ͡¡o] 天一隻鵝 'a goose in the sky'
- [ti ha i tsʰak ᵑǃ͡¡a] 地下一隻鴨 'a duck on the ground'
- [ᵑǃ͡¡o saŋ ᵑǃ͡¡o tʰan, ᵑǃ͡¡o pʰau ᵑǃ͡¡o] 鵝生鵝蛋鵝孵鵝 'a goose lays a goose egg, a goose hatches a goose'
- [ᵑǃ͡¡a saŋ ᵑǃ͡¡a tʰan, ᵑǃ͡¡a pʰau ᵑǃ͡¡a] 鴨生鴨蛋鴨孵鴨 'a duck lays a duck egg, a duck hatches a duck'
where the /ŋ/ onsets are all pronounced [ᵑǃ͡¡].[6]
"Fricated" alveolar clicks
A series of clicks in
See also
References
- ^ Kirshenbaum assigned ⟨c!⟩ to IPA ⟨ʗ⟩, which it used indifferently for both alveolar ⟨ǃ⟩ and palatal ⟨ǂ⟩ clicks.
- ^ Pullum & Ladusaw, Phonetic Symbol Guide, p. 34
- ^ Tucker et al. (1977), The East-African Click Languages: A Phonetic Comparison
- ^ Wright, Richard, Ian Maddieson, Peter Ladefoged, Bonny Sands (1995). "A phonetic study of Sandawe clicks", UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics, No. 91: Fieldwork Studies in Targeted Languages III.
- ^ Clement Doke (1925) An outline of the phonetics of the language of the ʗhũ̬꞉ Bushman of the North-West Kalahari. Bantu Studies 2: 129–166.
- ^ Geoffrey Nathan, 'Clicks in a Chinese Nursery Rhyme', JIPA (2001) 31/2.