Dental click

Last updated
Tenuis dental click
(velar)
k͜ǀ
ᵏǀ
ǀ
k͜ʇᵏʇ
IPA Number 177, 201
Audio sample
source  · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ǀʇ
Unicode (hex)U+01C0U+0287
X-SAMPA |\
Braille Braille AND.svg Braille O.svg
Voiced dental click
(velar)
ɡ͡ǀ
ᶢǀᵈǀ
ɡ͡ʇᶢʇ
Dental nasal click
(velar)
ŋ͡ǀ
ᵑǀⁿǀ
ŋ͡ʇᵑʇ
Tenuis dental click
(uvular)
q͡ǀ
𐞥ǀ
q͡ʇ𐞥ʇ
Voiced dental click
(uvular)
ɢ͡ǀ
𐞒ǀ
ɢ͡ʇ𐞒ʇ
Dental nasal click
(uvular)
ɴ͡ǀ
ᶰǀ
ɴ͡ʇᶰʇ

Dental (or more precisely denti-alveolar) [1] clicks are a family of click consonants found, as constituents of words, only in Africa and in the Damin ritual jargon of Australia.

Contents

In English, the tut-tut! (British spelling, "tutting") or tsk! tsk! (American spelling, "tsking") sound used to express disapproval or pity is an unreleased [2] dental click, although it is not a lexical phoneme (a sound that distinguishes words) in English but a paralinguistic speech-sound. Similarly paralinguistic usage of dental clicks is made in certain other languages, but the meaning thereof differs widely between many of the languages (e.g., affirmation in Somali but negation in many varieties of Arabic, Turkish and the languages of the Balkans). [3]

The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the place of articulation of these sounds is ǀ, a vertical bar. Prior to 1989, ʇ was the IPA letter for the dental clicks. It is still occasionally used where the symbol ǀ would be confounded with other symbols, such as prosody marks, or simply because in many fonts the vertical bar is indistinguishable from a lowercase L or capital I. [4] 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 dental clicks. Common dental clicks are:

Trans. ITrans. IITrans. IIIDescription
(velar)
k͜ǀᵏǀǀ tenuis dental click
k͜ǀʰᵏǀʰǀʰ aspirated dental click
ɡ͜ǀᶢǀǀ̬ voiced dental click
ŋ͜ǀᵑǀǀ̬̃ dental nasal click
ŋ͜ǀ̥ʰʰᵑǀ̥ʰʰǀ̥̃ʰʰaspirated dental nasal click
ŋ͜ǀˀᵑǀˀǀ̃ˀ glottalized dental nasal click
(uvular)
q͜ǀ𐞥ǀtenuis dental click
q͜ǀʰ𐞥ǀʰaspirated dental click
ɢ͜ǀ𐞒ǀvoiced dental click
ɴ͜ǀᶰǀdental nasal click
ɴ͜ǀ̥ʰʰᶰǀ̥ʰʰaspirated dental nasal click
ɴ͜ǀˀᶰǀˀglottalized dental nasal click

The last is what is heard in the sound sample at right, as non-native speakers tend to glottalize clicks to avoid nasalizing them.

In the orthographies of individual languages, the letters and digraphs for dental clicks may be based on either the vertical bar symbol of the IPA, ǀ, or on the Latin c of Bantu convention. Nama and most Saan languages use the former; Naro, Sandawe, and Zulu use the latter.

Features

Features of dental clicks:

Occurrence

Dental clicks are common in Khoisan languages and the neighboring Nguni languages, such as Zulu and Xhosa. In the Nguni languages, the tenuis click is denoted by the letter c, the murmured click by gc, the aspirated click by ch, and the nasal click by nc. The prenasalized clicks are written ngc and nkc.

The Cushitic language Dahalo has four clicks, all of them nasalized: [ᵑ̊ʇ,ᵑʇ,ᵑ̊ʇʷ,ᵑʇʷ].

Dental clicks may also be used para-linguistically. For example, English speakers use a plain dental click, usually written tsk or tut (and often reduplicated tsk-tsk or tut-tut; these spellings often lead to spelling pronunciations /tɪsk/ or /tʌt/), as an interjection to express commiseration, disapproval, irritation, or to call a small animal. German (ts or tss), Hungarian (cöccögés), Persian (noch), Portuguese (tsc), Russian ( ts-ts-ts ; sound file) Spanish (ts) and French (t-t-t-t) speakers use the dental click in exactly the same way as English.

The dental click is also used para-linguistically in Semitic languages such as Arabic, Hebrew and Indo-European Pashto, and Persian where it is transcribed as نچ/noch and is also used as a negative response to a "yes or no" question (including Dari and Tajiki). It is also used in some languages spoken in regions closer to, or in, Europe, such as Turkish, Albanian, Greek, Bulgarian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian or Serbo-Croatian to denote a negative response to a "yes or no" question. The dental click is sometimes accompanied by an upward motion of the head. [5] [3]

LanguageWord IPA Meaning
Zulu icici[iːᵏǀíːᵏǀi]=[iːʇ̥íːʇ̥i]earring
ukuchaza[úɠuˈᵏǀʰáːza̤]=[úɠuˈʇ̥ʰáːza̤]to fascinate
isigcino[ísiᶢǀʱǐ̤ːno]=[ísiʇ̬ʱǐ̤ːno]end
incwancwa[iᵑǀwáːᵑǀwa]=[iʇ̃wáːʇ̃wa]sour corn meal
ingcosi[iᵑǀʱǒ̤ːsi]=[iʇ̃ʱǒ̤ːsi]a bit
Hadza cinambo[ᵏǀinambo]=[ʇ̥inambo]firefly
cheta[ᵏǀʰeta]=[ʇ̥ʰeta]to be happy
minca[miᵑǀa]=[miʇ̃a]to smack one's lips
tacce[taᵑǀˀe]=[taʇ̃ˀe]rope
Khoekhoe ǀgurub[ᵏǀȕɾȕp]=[ʇ̥ȕɾȕp]dry autumn leaves
ǀnam[ᵑǀȁm̀]=[ʇ̬̃ȁm̀]to love
ǀHōǂgaeb[ᵑ̊ǀʰȍòǂàè̯p]=[ʇ̥̃ʰȍòǂàè̯p]November
ǀoroǀoro[ᵑǀˀòɾőᵑǀˀòɾȍ]=[ʇ̃ˀòɾőʇ̃ˀòɾȍ]to wear out
ǀkhore[ᵏǀ͡χòɾe̋]=[ʇ̥͡χòɾe̋]to divine, prophesize

See also

Notes

  1. Ladefoged & Traill, 1984:18
  2. In the English sound, the velar closure is not released, unlike the released sound found in languages that combine clicks with vowels.
  3. 1 2 WALS info on Para-linguistic usage of the dental click
  4. John Wells, 2011. Vertical lines. Compare the vertical bar, ǀ, with |, l, and I (unformatted ǀ, |, l, I).
  5. Deliso, Christopher. "Saying Yes and No in the Balkans". Overseas Digest. Archived from the original on 2008-12-26. Retrieved 2008-10-23.

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.

In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. Some languages have glottalized sonorants with creaky voice that pattern with ejectives phonologically, and other languages have ejectives that pattern with implosives, which has led to phonologists positing a phonological class of glottalic consonants, which includes ejectives.

Nǁng or Nǁŋǃke, commonly known by the name of its only spoken dialect Nǀuu (Nǀhuki), is a moribund Tuu (Khoisan) language once spoken in South Africa. It is no longer spoken on a daily basis, as the speakers live in different villages. The ǀʼAuni name for the Nǀuu, ǂKhomani, is used by the South African government. As of June 2021, only one speaker of the Nǀuu dialect remains, the rest of the population having shifted to Khoekhoe and Afrikaans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dental and alveolar ejective stops</span> Consonantal sounds represented by ⟨tʼ⟩ in IPA

The alveolar and dental ejective stops are types of consonantal sounds, usually described as voiceless, that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, ejectives are indicated with a "modifier letter apostrophe" ⟨ʼ⟩, as in this article. A reversed apostrophe is sometimes used to represent light aspiration, as in Armenian linguistics ⟨p‘ t‘ k‘⟩; this usage is obsolete in the IPA. In other transcription traditions, the apostrophe represents palatalization: ⟨pʼ⟩ = IPA ⟨pʲ⟩. In some Americanist traditions, an apostrophe indicates weak ejection and an exclamation mark strong ejection: ⟨k̓, k!⟩. In the IPA, the distinction might be written ⟨kʼ, kʼʼ⟩, but it seems that no language distinguishes degrees of ejection.

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

The bilabial clicks are a family of click consonants that sound like a smack of the lips. They are found as phonemes only in the small Tuu language family, in the ǂ’Amkoe language of Botswana, and in the extinct Damin ritual jargon of Australia. However, bilabial clicks are found paralinguistically for a kiss in various languages, including integrated into a greeting in the Hadza language of Tanzania, and as allophones of labial–velar stops in some West African languages, as of /mw/ in some of the languages neighboring Shona, such as Ndau and Tonga.

<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">Alveolar click</span> Click consonant sound

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, and is pulled down rather than back as in the palatal clicks, making a hollower sound than those consonants.

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.

Dahalo is an endangered Cushitic language spoken by around 500–600 Dahalo people on the coast of Kenya, near the mouth of the Tana River. Dahalo is unusual among the world's languages in using all four airstream mechanisms found in human language: clicks, implosives, ejectives, and pulmonic 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.

The voiced dental click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a voiced dental click with a velar rear articulation is ⟨ɡ͡ǀ⟩ or ⟨ɡ͜ǀ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨ɡǀ⟩, ⟨ᶢǀ⟩ or ⟨ǀ̬⟩; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is ⟨ɡ͡ʇ⟩ or ⟨ɡ͜ʇ⟩, abbreviated ⟨ɡʇ⟩, ⟨ᶢʇ⟩ or ⟨ʇ̬⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨ɢ͡ǀ, ɢ͜ǀ, ɢǀ, 𐞒ǀ⟩ and ⟨ɢ͡ʇ, ɢ͜ʇ, ɢʇ, 𐞒ʇ⟩. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ǀɡ⟩ or ⟨ǀᶢ⟩; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.

The dental nasal click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a nasal dental click with a velar rear articulation is ⟨ŋ͡ǀ⟩ or ⟨ŋ͜ǀ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨ŋǀ⟩, ⟨ᵑǀ⟩ or ⟨ǀ̃⟩; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is ⟨ŋ͡ʇ⟩ or ⟨ŋ͜ʇ⟩, abbreviated ⟨ŋʇ⟩, ⟨ᵑʇ⟩ or ⟨ʇ̃⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨ɴ͡ǀ, ɴ͜ǀ, ɴǀ, ᶰǀ⟩ and ⟨ɴ͡ʇ, ɴ͜ʇ, ɴʇ, ᶰʇ⟩. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ǀŋ⟩ or ⟨ǀᵑ⟩; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.

The voiceless or more precisely tenuis dental click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ǀ⟩. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a tenuis dental click with a velar rear articulation is ⟨k͡ǀ⟩ or ⟨k͜ǀ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨⟩, ⟨ᵏǀ⟩ or simply ⟨ǀ⟩; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is ⟨k͡ʇ⟩ or ⟨k͜ʇ⟩, abbreviated ⟨⟩, ⟨ᵏʇ⟩ or just ⟨ʇ⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨q͡ǀ, q͜ǀ, qǀ, 𐞥ǀ⟩ and ⟨q͡ʇ, q͜ʇ, qʇ, 𐞥ʇ⟩. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ǀk⟩ or ⟨ǀᵏ⟩; 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 lateral nasal click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a nasal lateral click with a velar rear articulation is ⟨ŋ͡ǁ⟩ or ⟨ŋ͜ǁ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨ŋǁ⟩, ⟨ᵑǁ⟩ or ⟨ǁ̃⟩; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is ⟨ŋ͡ʖ⟩ or ⟨ŋ͜ʖ⟩, abbreviated ⟨ŋʖ⟩, ⟨ᵑʖ⟩ or ⟨ʖ̃⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨ɴ͡ǁ, ɴ͜ǁ, ɴǁ, ᶰǁ⟩ and ⟨ɴ͡ʖ, ɴ͜ʖ, ɴʖ, ᶰʖ⟩. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ǁŋ⟩ or ⟨ǁᵑ⟩; 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">Click letter</span> Letter representing a click sound

Various letters have been used to write the click consonants of southern Africa. The precursors of the current IPA letters, ⟨ǀ⟩ ⟨ǁ⟩ ⟨ǃ⟩ ⟨ǂ⟩, were created by Karl Richard Lepsius and used by Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd, who added ⟨ʘ⟩. Also influential were Daniel Jones, who created the letters ⟨ʇ⟩ ⟨ʖ⟩ ⟨ʗ⟩ ⟨ʞ⟩ that were promoted by the IPA from 1921 to 1989, and were used by Clement Doke and Douglas Beach.

<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