Tenuis palatal click

Main article: Palatal click

The voiceless or more precisely tenuis palatal click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa.

The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a tenuis palatal click with a velar rear articulation is ⟨k͡ǂ⟩ or ⟨k͜ǂ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨kǂ⟩, ⟨ᵏǂ⟩ or simply ⟨ǂ⟩. Linguists who prefer the old IPA letters use the analogous Beach convention² of ⟨k͡𝼋⟩ or ⟨k͜𝼋⟩, abbreviated ⟨k𝼋⟩, ⟨ᵏ𝼋⟩ or just ⟨𝼋⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨q͡ǂ, q͜ǂ, qǂ, 𐞥ǂ⟩ and ⟨q͡𝼋, q͜𝼋, q𝼋, 𐞥𝼋⟩.

Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ǂk⟩ or ⟨ǂᵏ⟩; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.³

Features

Features of the tenuis palatal click:

• Its airstream mechanism is lingual (click), which means it is produced with a double closure made by the tongue, the tip or blade making contact with the alveolar ridge or the back of the upper teeth, and the back of the tongue making contact with the soft palate or upper throat. The enclosed pocket of air is evacuated by the tongue, creating a negative pressure (hence "click").
• Its place of articulation is palatal, which means it is articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised to the hard palate.
• Its phonation is tenuis, which means it is unaspirated, voiceless, and unglottalized.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.

Occurrence

Tenuis palatal clicks are only found in the various Khoisan language families of southern Africa and in the neighboring Yeyi language.

References

Categories: Click consonants | Palatal consonants | Oral consonants | Central consonants | Tenuis consonants