Back-released velar click
Velar click | |||
---|---|---|---|
ʞ | |||
ʞ̃̊ | |||
ᵑ̊ʞ | |||
ᶰ̥ʞ | |||
IPA Number | 291 | ||
Encoding | |||
Entity (decimal) | ʞ | ||
Unicode (hex) | U+029E | ||
|
A velar click, or more precisely a back-released velar click or back-released uvular click, is a
IPA symbol withdrawn
In 1921, the International Phonetic Association (IPA) adopted Daniel Jones' symbol ⟨ʞ⟩, a turned lowercase K, for the palatal clicks of Khoekhoe.[3] Jones seems to have first applied the label "velar" in an IPA publication in 1928.[4] At the time, little was known about the articulation of clicks, and different authors used different labels for the same sounds – Doke, for example, called the same clicks 'alveolar'.[5] The last mention of the "velar" clicks was in the 1949 Principles. It was omitted when the other three click letters were moved into the symbol chart in 1951, and was not mentioned again.
An actual velar click, in the sense that term is used with the languages of southern Africa, is not possible. A click is articulated with two closures of the tongue or lips. The rear articulation of all clicks is velar or uvular, and the families of dental, alveolar, palatal, and bilabial clicks are defined by the front closure, which is released to cause the influx of air from the front of the mouth that identifies the type of click. A forward closure in the velar region would leave no room for the air pocket that generates that influx of air.[6]
From 2008 to 2015 the unused letter was picked up by the
The letter ⟨ʞ⟩ has been used for such sounds (though not by the IPA itself), and was dropped from the extIPA to avoid confusion with that usage.
Production
Lionnet describes the clicks as follows:
Like any other click, [ʞ] is produced with an ingressive lingual (velaric) airstream: the oral cavity is closed in two places: at the velum and at the front of the mouth. Air rarefaction in the intra-oral cavity is achieved mostly through tongue body lowering. However, instead of the front closure, the velar closure is released, allowing air to rush into the mouth from the back, either from the nasal cavity or from the post-velar cavity if the velo-pharyngeal port is closed.[8]
Velar clicks are produced with closed lips in those languages known to have them. For this reason, it was at first thought that the front articulation was labial:
This click uses the ingressive airstream mechanism, just like regular clicks. The oral cavity is closed in two places: the lips and the palate or the velum. The tongue acts as a piston, with the only difference from velaric ingressive [i.e. other] clicks being the path through which air flows into the oral cavity: in clicks produced with the mouth open the air flows in through the mouth, and in this click it flows in through the nasal cavity.[2]
However, the labial closure does not appear to be distinctive. Although articulatory measurements have not been done, it appears that the two relevant articulations are dorsal and coronal: The rear articulation appears to be at the very front of the velum, near the hard palate (at least in Wolof and Laal), and the front articulation is dental or alveolar. The lips are closed merely because that is their rest position; opening the lips has no effect on the consonant.[8] That is, the setup of a velar click is very much like one of the coronal clicks, [ǀ, ǂ, ǃ], but with the roles of the two closures of the tongue reversed.
In Mundang and Kanuri, the rear articulation is said to be uvular and back-velar rather than front-velar. Comparisons between the languages have yet to be done.[8]
Occurrence
Paralinguistic velar clicks are attested from a number of languages in west and central Africa, from Senegal in the west to northern Cameroon and southern Chad in the east. The literature reports at least
In Wolof, a back-released velar click is in free variation with a lateral click or an alveolar click. It means 'yes' when used once, and 'I see' or 'I get it' when repeated. It's also used for back-channeling.[2] In Laal as well, it is used for "strong agreement" and back-channeling, and is in free variation with the lateral click. It appears to have the same two functions in the other languages.[8]
See also
- Alveolar click
- Bilabial click
- Dental click
- Lateral click
- Palatal click
- Retroflex click
- Index of phonetics articles
- Click consonant
References
- ^ Grenoble, Lenore (2014). Plungian, Vladimir; et al. (eds.). "Verbal gestures: Toward a field-based approach to language description". Language. Constants. Variables: In Memory of A. E. Kibrik. Saint Petersburg: Aleteija: 105–118.
- ^ a b c Grenoble; Martinovic; Baglini (2015). "Verbal gestures in Wolof" (PDF). Proceedings of the 44th Annual Conference on African Linguistics. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
- ^ Association phonétique internationale (1921). L'Ecriture phonétique internationale : exposé populaire avec application au français et à plusieurs autres langues (2nd ed.).
- JSTOR 44704262.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Pullum & Ladusaw (2013) Phonetic Symbol Guide, University of Chicago Press, p. 101.
- ^ "extIPA Symbols for Disordered Speech" (PDF). www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 July 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f Lionnet, Florian. 2020. "Paralinguistic use of clicks in Chad". In Bonny Sands (ed.), Click Consonants, pp. 422-437. Leiden: Brill.