Postalveolar click
The
alveolar and
postalveolar clicks are a family of
click consonants found only in
Africa and in the
Damin ritual jargon of
Australia.
The symbol in the
International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the forward articulation of these sounds is . This must be combined with a symbol for the rear articulation to represent an actual speech sound. Attested (post)alveolar clicks include:
* or
voiceless velar (post)alveolar click (may also be aspirated, ejective, affricated,
etc.)
* or
voiced velar (post)alveolar click (may also be breathy voiced, affricated,
etc.)
* or
nasal velar (post)alveolar click (may also be voiceless, aspirated,
etc.)
* or
voiceless uvular (post)alveolar click* or
voiceless uvular (post)alveolar click (commonly prenasalized)
* or
nasal uvular (post)alveolar click The symbol is not an
exclamation mark in origin, but rather a
pipe with a subscript dot, the old diacritic for retroflex consonants.
Features of postalveolar clicks:
* Their
manner of articulation is
click, which means they are produced with two articulatory closures in the oral cavity. The pocket of air trapped between the two closures is rarefied by a "sucking" action of the tongue. The release of the forward closure produces the 'click' sound. In the case of the postalveolar click, the release is sharp, like a
plosive, rather than noisy like an
affricate. The rear closure may be a plosive, nasal, ejective, or affricate, and have any of several
phonations.
* The forward
place of articulation is
alveolar or
postalveolar, depending on the language, and
apical, which means it is articulated with the tip of the tongue against the
alveolar ridge or the roof of the mouth behind the alveolar ridge. (Damin had both articulations as separate
phonemes.) The rear place of articulation may be either
velar or
uvular.
* (Post)alveolar clicks may be either
oral or
nasal, which means air is allowed to escape either through the mouth or the nose.
* They are
central consonants, which means they are produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
* The
airstream mechanism is
velaric ingressive, which means it is produced by movement of air into the mouth by action of the tongue, rather than by the
glottis or the
lungs.
The alveolar clicks are common in
Khoisan languages, the neighboring Nguni languages (e.g.
Zulu,
Xhosa, as well as in
Sesotho).
In the Nguni languages, the
tenuis click is denoted by the letter
q, the
murmured click by
gq, the
aspirated click by
qh, and the
nasal click by
nq. The prenasalized clicks are written
ngq and
nkq.
The other Nguni languages (e.g.
SiSwati and
isiNdebele) have
dental clicks instead.
The alveolar clicks are strongly articulated in the Nguni languages, with a sharp jerk downward of the lower jaw. The effect is rather like the sound of a cork pulled from a wine bottle.
In the Sesotho language, the
tenuis click is denoted by the letter
q, the
aspirated click by
qh, and the
nasal click by
nq.
In Hadza, there are three postalveolar clicks: Tenuis (), nasalized (), and voiceless nasalized with glottal closure ().In the latter click, the glottal stop begins during the occlusion of the click, and is released after the click release, resulting in a delay before the start of the following vowel.
The Hadza postalveolar clicks are unusual in their allophonic variation. They may have a single burst, as in the Khoisan and Bantu languages, but more frequently they are flapped, with the underside of the tip of the tongue striking the floor of the mouth after the release of the click, all in a single "ballistic" motion. In some cases, the click release itself is rather faint, and it is this sub-apical percussive sound that dominates. This allophone has been transcribed as in one publication, but that symbol has also been used for the sub-apical retroflex release in Angolan !Kung.
Audio example of "flapped alveolar click"*
List of phonetics topics
