Pulmonic-contour click

Last updated • 5 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Tenuis alveolar linguo-pulmonic stop
ǃ͡q
Voiced dental linguo-pulmonic stop
ǀ͡ɢ
Aspirated lateral linguo-pulmonic stop
ǁ͡qʰ
Breathy-voiced palatal linguo-pulmonic stop
ǂ͡ɢʱ
Voiceless labial linguo-pulmonic affricate
ʘ͡χ
Voiced retroflex linguo-pulmonic affricate
‼͡ʁ

Pulmonic-contour clicks, also called sequential linguo-pulmonic consonants, are consonants that transition from a click to an ordinary pulmonic sound, or more precisely, have an audible delay between the front and rear release of the click. All click types (alveolar ǃ, dental ǀ, lateral ǁ, palatal ǂ, retroflex ‼, and labial ʘ) have linguo-pulmonic variants, which occur as both stops and affricates, and are attested in four phonations: tenuis, voiced, aspirated, and murmured (breathy voiced). At least a voiceless linguo-pulmonic affricate is attested from all Khoisan languages of southern Africa (the Khoe, Tuu, and Kx'a language families), as well as (reportedly) from the Bantu language Yeyi from the same area, but they are unattested elsewhere.

Contents

Analysis

Traditionally, contour clicks were believed to be uvular in their rear articulation, whereas non-contour clicks were thought to be velar. However, it is now known that all clicks are uvular, at least in the languages that have been investigated, and that the articulation of these clicks is more complex than that of others but no different in location. Miller (2011) analyzes them as contours (that is, as a transition from one kind of sound to another within a single consonant), whereas Nakagawa (2006) [1] analyzes them as sequences of a click followed by a uvular consonant (that is, as consonant clusters). The benefit of a cluster analysis is that it greatly reduces the consonant inventory of the language. Taa, for example, has 164 known consonants, including 111 (and potentially 115) clicks, an extraordinary number considering that the largest inventory of any language without clicks, that of Ubykh, is 80 (84 consonants including loanwords). With a cluster analysis, the number of clicks in Taa is reduced to 43, and the total number of consonants to 87, only slightly surpassing Ubykh for the most consonants in the world. [2] [lower-alpha 1] There are, however, some disadvantages to a cluster analysis: Although the click series and non-click series can often be made to align, in some languages there are consonants in these purported clusters that never occur alone, something that never happens with other kinds of consonants. Also, all other languages in the world that allow obstruent clusters (as English does with s and t in steep, and as these click clusters would be) also allow clusters with sonorants (as English does with r in treat). However, no Khoisan language allows a cluster of any consonant, click or otherwise, with sonorants like l, r, y or w. Miller concludes that the remarkably large numbers of consonants in these languages is real, a consequence of the greater number of permutations of clicks, where there are two places of articulation that can be independently manipulated. [lower-alpha 2]

Description

Phonetically, a linguo-pulmonic consonant is a click in which the forward and rear articulations are released independently. The forward articulation, made with the lips or the front of the tongue, releases with a lingual airstream as in any click. The rear articulation, however, is held longer, and when it is released, it is with a pulmonic airstream. (Linguo-ejective consonants are similar, except that the second release is ejective.) That is, such consonants have a double release burst, one ingressive (the air pulled in by the tongue) and the other egressive (the air pushed out by the lungs). The rear articulation is involved in both: it helps create the suction that powers the first, and then is itself released for the second. Because the back of the tongue operates in the uvular or pharyngeal part of the mouth to generate the first burst, and the two bursts are very close together in time, the second release is uvular as well.

Types

Six series of pulmonic-contour clicks (as classified by the rear release) are attested. There are two manners of articulation (stop and fricative) and four voicing contrasts, each of which is found for each of the places of articulation (as classified by the front release) that clicks use.

Linguo-pulmonic stops

In linguo-pulmonic stops, the rear articulation is released into a pulmonic stop. This may be tenuis, aspirated, voiced, or murmured (breathy-voiced). The modally voiced and breathy-voiced clicks tend to be prenasalized in the various languages which use them, for reasons which are not clear. They tend to be written with a ⟨q⟩ before or after the letter for the click, and with an ⟨h⟩ afterward for the aspirated and breathy-voiced clicks. In IPA, using the alveolar series as an example, the four attested series of linguo-pulmonic stops may be transcribed ⟨ǃ͡q⟩, ⟨ǃ͡qʰ⟩, ⟨ǃ͡ɢ⟩, ⟨ǃ͡ɢʱ⟩, with the possibility of ⟨ɴǃ͡ɢ⟩ or ⟨ɴǃ͡ɢʱ⟩ to indicate the prenasalization. The breathy-voiced consonants of some languages such as Juǀʼhoansi, including clicks, contain a voiceless interval and are sometimes written with mixed voicing. Miller (2003) attributes this to a larger glottal opening than is found in for example Hindustani breathy-voiced consonants.

Linguo-pulmonic affricates

The rear articulation may also be released as a fricative, one which may be either voiceless or voiced. Aspiration / breathy voice is not distinctive, as fricatives are not easily aspirated. However, because the forward articulation may be considered a stop, these are called affricates rather than fricatives. [lower-alpha 3] There are two conventions for writing the frication: the English convention, with an ⟨x⟩, and the Afrikaans tradition, with a ⟨g⟩. Both are used in the orthographies of Khoisan languages. In Juǀ’hõa, for example, they are written voiceless ⟨ǃx ǁx ǀx ǂx⟩ and voiced ⟨gǃx gǁx gǀx gǂx⟩, and in the old orthography ⟨qg xg cg çg⟩ and ⟨dqg dxg dcg dçg⟩; in Naro, they are (voiceless) ⟨qg xg cg tcg⟩, and in Khoekhoe ⟨ǃkh ǁkh ǀkh ǂkh⟩. In the IPA, the two series of linguo-pulmonic affricates may be written ⟨ǃ͡χ⟩ and ⟨ǃ͡ʁ⟩, though with a cluster analysis they would be ⟨ǃq͡χ⟩ and ⟨ǃɢ͡ʁ⟩.

These clicks are affricates at the posterior place of articulation; they are independent of the fricated alveolar clicks, which are affricates at their anterior place of articulation, a manner which does not affect the airstream. The fricated alveolar clicks may be lingual or linguo-pulmonic—that is, they may be affricates at both places of articulation, or at one.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ In Naumann's analysis, not just contour clicks but 20 others are analyzed as clusters.
  2. ↑ There are other complex consonants, such as the labial–velars [k͡p], [ɡ͡b], and [ŋ͡m], but in such cases the two places of articulation are not independent.
  3. ↑ Aspirated affricates are common—English ch is one—but those are true affricates, with the two elements made in the same location.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manner of articulation</span> Configuration and interaction of the articulators when making a speech sound

In articulatory phonetics, the manner of articulation is the configuration and interaction of the articulators when making a speech sound. One parameter of manner is stricture, that is, how closely the speech organs approach one another. Others include those involved in the r-like sounds, and the sibilancy of fricatives.

In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases.

An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation. It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair. English has two affricate phonemes, and, often spelled ch and j, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pharyngealization</span> Articulation of consonants or vowels

Pharyngealization is a secondary articulation of consonants or vowels by which the pharynx or epiglottis is constricted during the articulation of the sound.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taa language</span> Tuu language of southwestern Botswana and eastern Namibia

Taa, also known as ǃXóõ, is a Tuu language notable for its large number of phonemes, perhaps the largest in the world. It is also notable for having perhaps the heaviest functional load of click consonants, with one count finding that 82% of basic vocabulary items started with a click. Most speakers live in Botswana, but a few hundred live in Namibia. The people call themselves ǃXoon or ʼNǀohan, depending on the dialect they speak. The Tuu languages are one of the three traditional language families that make up the Khoisan languages.

Dentalclicks are a family of click consonants found, as constituents of words, only in Africa and in the Damin ritual jargon of Australia.

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.

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".

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juǀʼhoan language</span> Kxa language spoken in Southern Africa

Juǀʼhoan, also known as Southern or Southeastern ǃKung or ǃXun, is the southern variety of the ǃKung dialect continuum, spoken in northeastern Namibia and the Northwest District of Botswana by San Bushmen who largely identify themselves as Juǀʼhoansi. Several regional dialects are distinguished: Epukiro, Tsumǃkwe, Rundu, Omatako and ǂKxʼauǁʼein, with Tsumǃkwe being the best described and often taken as representative.

Implosive consonants are a group of stop consonants with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. That is, the airstream is controlled by moving the glottis downward in addition to expelling air from the lungs. Therefore, unlike the purely glottalic ejective consonants, implosives can be modified by phonation. Contrastive implosives are found in approximately 13% of the world's languages.

Dahalo is an endangered Cushitic language spoken by at most 400 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 regular 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.

In phonetics, contour describes speech sounds that behave as single segments but make an internal transition from one quality, place, or manner to another. Such sounds may be tones, vowels, or consonants.

Nasal clicks are click consonants pronounced with nasal airflow. All click types have nasal variants, and these are attested in four or five phonations: voiced, voiceless, aspirated, murmured, and—in the analysis of Miller (2011)—glottalized.

Ejective-contour clicks, also called sequential linguo-glottalic consonants, are consonants that transition from a click to an ejective sound, or more precisely, have an audible delay between the front and rear release of the click. All click types have linguo-glottalic variants, which occur as both stops and affricates, and may be voiced. At least a voiceless linguo-glottalic affricate is attested from all Khoisan languages of southern Africa, as well as from the Bantu language Yeyi from the same area, but they are unattested elsewhere.

References

  1. ↑ Nakagawa, 2006. Aspects of the phonetic and phonological structure of the G|ui language. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Witwatersrand.
  2. ↑ Naumann, Christfied (2008). "The Consonantal System of West ǃXoon". 3rd International Symposium on Khoisan Languages and Linguistics. Riezlern.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.