Alveolar click

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Tenuis alveolar click
(velar)
k͜ǃ
ᵏǃ
ǃ
k͜ʗᵏʗ
IPA Number 178, 202
Audio sample
source  · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ǃʗ
Unicode (hex)U+01C3U+0297
X-SAMPA !\
Braille Braille AND.svg Braille T.svg
Voiced alveolar click
(velar)
ɡ͡ǃ
ᶢǃ
ɡ͡ʗᶢʗ
Alveolar nasal click
(velar)
ŋ͡ǃ
ᵑǃ
ŋ͡ʗᵑʗ
Audio sample
source  · help
Tenuis alveolar click
(uvular)
q͡ǃ
𐞥ǃ
q͡ʗ𐞥ʗ
Voiced alveolar click
(uvular)
ɢ͡ǃ
𐞒ǃ
ɢ͡ʗ𐞒ʗ
Alveolar nasal click
(uvular)
ɴ͡ǃ
ᶰǃ
ɴ͡ʗᶰʗ

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.

Contents

The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the place of articulation of these sounds is ǃ. The symbol is not an exclamation mark in origin, but rather a vertical 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 the manner of articulation, though this is commonly omitted for tenuis clicks.

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. ITrans. IITrans. IIIDescription
(velar)
k͜ǃᵏǃǃ tenuis alveolar click
k͜ǃʰᵏǃʰǃʰ aspirated alveolar click
ɡ͜ǃᶢǃǃ̬ voiced alveolar click
ŋ͜ǃᵑǃǃ̬̃ alveolar nasal click
ŋ͜ǃ̥̥ʰʰᵑǃ̥ʰʰǃ̥̃ʰʰaspirated alveolar nasal click
ŋ͜ǃˀᵑǃˀǃ̃ˀ glottalized alveolar nasal click
(uvular)
q͜ǃ𐞥ǃtenuis alveolar click
q͜ǃʰ𐞥ǃʰaspirated alveolar click
ɢ͜ǃ𐞒ǃvoiced alveolar click
ɴ͜ǃᶰǃalveolar nasal click
ɴ͜ǃ̥ʰʰᶰǃ̥ʰʰaspirated alveolar nasal click
ɴ͜ǃˀᶰǃˀglottalized 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:

Occurrence

English does not have an alveolar click (or any other click consonant) as a phoneme, but a plain alveolar click does occur in mimesis, as a sound children use to imitate a horse trotting. [2]

LanguageWord IPA MeaningNotes
!Kung an[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 murmured, aspirated, and alveolar nasal clicks. See Sotho phonology
Xhosa iqanda[iᵏǃanda]=[iʗ̊anda]'egg'Contrasts with murmured, aspirated, and alveolar nasal clicks
ǃXóõ ǃqhàà[ǃ͡qʰɑ̀ː]=[ʗ͡qʰɑ̀ː]'water'An aspirated linguo-pulmonic stop
Zulu iqaqa[iːᵏǃáːᵏǃa]=[iːʗ̊áːʗ̊a]'polecat'Contrasts with murmured, aspirated, and alveolar nasal clicks.

Percussive release

Percussive alveolar click
(tenuis velar)
ᵏǃ͡¡ᵏʗ͡¡
k͜ǃꜞk͜ʗꜞ

In Sandawe, 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 sublingual percussive component is ¡ in the extensions 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 a palatal click with slapped release, [ᵑǂ¡].) [4]

Nasal clicks that fit this description are used by speakers of Gan Chinese (from Ningdu county) and of Mandarin (from Beijing and Jilin), 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),

[tʰienitsʰakᵑǃ͡¡o] 天一隻鵝 'a goose in the sky'
[tihaitsʰakᵑǃ͡¡a] 地下一隻鴨 'a duck on the ground'
[ᵑǃ͡¡osaŋᵑǃ͡¡otʰan,ᵑǃ͡¡opʰauᵑǃ͡¡o] 鵝生鵝蛋鵝孵鵝 'a goose lays a goose egg, a goose hatches a goose'
[ᵑǃ͡¡asaŋᵑǃ͡¡atʰan,ᵑǃ͡¡apʰauᵑǃ͡¡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¡]. [5]

"Fricated" alveolar clicks

A series of clicks in Ekoka !Kung have been variously described as retroflex or fricated palatal clicks.

See also

Related Research Articles

Click consonants, or clicks, are speech sounds that occur as consonants in many languages of Southern Africa and in three languages of East Africa. Examples familiar to English-speakers are the tut-tut or tsk! tsk! used to express disapproval or pity, the tchick! used to spur on a horse, and the clip-clop! sound children make with their tongue to imitate a horse trotting. However, these paralinguistic sounds in English are not full click consonants, as they only involve the front of the tongue, without the release of the back of the tongue that is required for clicks to combine with vowels and form syllables.

A lateral is a consonant in which the airstream proceeds along one or both of the sides of the tongue, but it is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth. An example of a lateral consonant is the English L, as in Larry. Lateral consonants contrast with central consonants, in which the airstream flows through the center of the mouth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Place of articulation</span> Place in the mouth consonants are articulated

In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation of a consonant is a location along the vocal tract where its production occurs. It is a point where a constriction is made between an active and a passive articulator. Active articulators are organs capable of voluntary movement which create the constriction, while passive articulators are so called because they are normally fixed and are the parts with which an active articulator makes contact. Along with the manner of articulation and phonation, the place of articulation gives the consonant its distinctive sound.

Postalveolar (post-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate, the place of articulation for palatal consonants. Examples of postalveolar consonants are the English palato-alveolar consonants, as in the words "ship", "'chill", "vision", and "jump", respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Retroflex consonant</span> Type of consonant articulation

A retroflex, apico-domal, or cacuminalconsonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants—especially in Indology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lateral click</span> Consonantal sound

The lateral clicks are a family of click consonants found only in African languages. The clicking sound used by equestrians to urge on their horses is a lateral click, although it is not a speech sound in that context. Lateral clicks are found throughout southern Africa, for example in Zulu, and in some languages in Tanzania and Namibia. The place of articulation is not known to be contrastive in any language, and typically varies from alveolar to palatal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palatal click</span> Consonantal sound

The palatal or palato-alveolar clicks are a family of click consonants found, as components of words, only in southern Africa. The tongue is nearly flat, and is pulled back rather than down as in the postalveolar clicks, making a sharper sound than those consonants. The tongue makes an extremely broad contact across the roof of the mouth, making correlation with the places of articulation of non-clicks difficult, but Ladefoged & Traill (1984:18) find that the primary place of articulation is the palate, and say that "there is no doubt that should be described as a palatal sound".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voiced retroflex nasal</span> Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ɳ⟩ in IPA

The voiced retroflex nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɳ ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is n`.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voiced palatal plosive</span> Consonantal sound

The voiced palatal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɟ⟩, a barred dotless ⟨j⟩ that was initially created by turning the type for a lowercase letter ⟨f⟩. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is J\.

In phonetics, the airstream mechanism is the method by which airflow is created in the vocal tract. Along with phonation and articulation, it is one of three main components of speech production. The airstream mechanism is mandatory for most sound production and constitutes the first part of this process, which is called initiation.

In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the active articulator and passive articulator. Standard Spanish ⟨rr⟩ as in perro, for example, is an alveolar trill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alveolo-palatal consonant</span> Type of consonant

In phonetics, alveolo-palatal consonants, sometimes synonymous with pre-palatal consonants, are intermediate in articulation between the coronal and dorsal consonants, or which have simultaneous alveolar and palatal articulation. In the official IPA chart, alveolo-palatals would appear between the retroflex and palatal consonants but for "lack of space". Ladefoged and Maddieson characterize the alveolo-palatals as palatalized postalveolars, articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge and the body of the tongue raised toward the palate, whereas Esling describes them as advanced palatals (pre-palatals), the furthest front of the dorsal consonants, articulated with the body of the tongue approaching the alveolar ridge. These descriptions are essentially equivalent, since the contact includes both the blade and body of the tongue. They are front enough that the fricatives and affricates are sibilants, the only sibilants among the dorsal consonants.

Doubly articulated consonants are consonants with two simultaneous primary places of articulation of the same manner. They are a subset of co-articulated consonants. They are to be distinguished from co-articulated consonants with secondary articulation; that is, a second articulation not of the same manner. An example of a doubly articulated consonant is the voiceless labial–velar plosive, which is a and a pronounced simultaneously. On the other hand, the voiceless labialized velar plosive has only a single stop articulation, velar, with a simultaneous approximant-like rounding of the lips. In some dialects of Arabic, the voiceless velar fricative has a simultaneous uvular trill, but this is not considered double articulation either.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Retroflex click</span> Family of click consonants

The retroflex clicks are a family of click consonants known only from the Central ǃKung language or dialect of Namibia. They are sub-apical retroflex and should not be confused with the more widespread postalveolar clicks, which are sometimes mistakenly called "retroflex" due to their concave tongue shape.

The voiceless or more precisely tenuis (post)alveolar click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a tenuis alveolar click with a velar rear articulation is ⟨k͡ǃ⟩ or ⟨k͜ǃ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨⟩, ⟨ᵏǃ⟩ or simply ⟨ǃ⟩; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is ⟨k͡ʗ⟩ or ⟨k͜ʗ⟩, abbreviated ⟨⟩, ⟨ᵏʗ⟩ or just ⟨ʗ⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨q͡ǃ, q͜ǃ, qǃ, 𐞥ǃ⟩ and ⟨q͡ʗ, q͜ʗ, qʗ, 𐞥ʗ⟩. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ǃk⟩ or ⟨ǃᵏ⟩; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.

The voiced (post)alveolar click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a voiced alveolar click with a velar rear articulation is ⟨ɡ͡ǃ⟩ or ⟨ɡ͜ǃ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨ɡǃ⟩, ⟨ᶢǃ⟩ or ⟨ǃ̬⟩; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is ⟨ɡ͡ʗ⟩ or ⟨ɡ͜ʗ⟩, abbreviated ⟨ɡʗ⟩, ⟨ᶢʗ⟩ or ⟨ʗ̬⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨ɢ͡ǃ, ɢ͜ǃ, ɢǃ, 𐞒ǃ⟩ and ⟨ɢ͡ʗ, ɢ͜ʗ, ɢʗ, 𐞒ʗ⟩. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ǃɡ⟩ or ⟨ǃᶢ⟩; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.

The alveolar nasal click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a nasal alveolar click with a velar rear articulation is ⟨ŋ͡ǃ⟩ or ⟨ŋ͜ǃ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨ŋǃ⟩, ⟨ᵑǃ⟩ or ⟨ǃ̃⟩; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is ⟨ŋ͡ʗ⟩ or ⟨ŋ͜ʗ⟩, abbreviated ⟨ŋʗ⟩, ⟨ᵑʗ⟩ or ⟨ʗ̃⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨ɴ͡ǃ, ɴ͜ǃ, ɴǃ, ᶰǃ⟩ and ⟨ɴ͡ʗ, ɴ͜ʗ, ɴʗ, ᶰʗ⟩. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ǃŋ⟩ or ⟨ǃᵑ⟩; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.

The retroflex nasal click is a rare click consonant. In practical orthography, an ad hoc symbol ⟨⟩ is used for the retroflex clicks; a nasal click with a velar rear articulation is ⟨ŋ͡‼⟩ or ⟨ŋ͜‼⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨ŋ‼⟩, ⟨ᵑ‼⟩ or ⟨‼̃⟩. The implicit symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is ⟨ŋ͡𝼊⟩ or ⟨ŋ͜𝼊⟩, abbreviated ⟨ŋ𝼊⟩, ⟨ᵑ𝼊⟩ or ⟨𝼊̃⟩. Linguists who prefer the old IPA letters use the analogous Doke convention of ⟨ŋ͡ψ⟩ or ⟨ŋ͜ψ⟩, abbreviated ⟨ŋψ⟩, ⟨ᵑψ⟩ or ⟨ψ̃⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨ɴ͡‼, ɴ͜‼, ɴ‼, ᶰ‼⟩, ⟨ɴ͡𝼊, ɴ͜𝼊, ɴ𝼊, ᶰ𝼊⟩ and ⟨ɴ͡ψ, ɴ͜ψ, ɴψ, ᶰψ⟩. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨𝼊ŋ⟩ or ⟨𝼊ᵑ⟩; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Back-released click</span> Consonantal sound

A back-released click, sometimes more precisely a back-released velar click or back-released uvular click, is a click consonant found in paralinguistic use in languages across Africa, such as Wolof. The tongue is in a similar position to other click articulations, such as an alveolar click, and like other clicks, the airstream mechanism is lingual. However, unlike other clicks, the salient sound is produced by releasing the rear closure of the tongue rather than the front closure. Consequently, the air that fills the vacuum comes from behind the tongue, from the nasal cavity and the throat. Velar clicks are always voiceless and typically nasal, as nasal airflow is required for a reasonably loud production.

References

  1. Pullum & Ladusaw, Phonetic Symbol Guide, p. 34
  2. Tucker et al. (1977), The East-African Click Languages: A Phonetic Comparison
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Geoffrey Nathan, 'Clicks in a Chinese Nursery Rhyme', JIPA (2001) 31/2.