The voiced palatal click is a click consonant found among the languages of southern Africa.^[1] The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a voiced palatal click with a velar rear articulation is ⟨ɡ͡ǂ⟩ or ⟨ɡ͜ǂ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨ɡǂ⟩, ⟨ᶢǂ⟩ or ⟨ǂ̬⟩. Linguists who prefer the old IPA letters use the analogous Beach convention^[2] of ⟨ɡ͡𝼋⟩ or ⟨ɡ͜𝼋⟩, abbreviated ⟨ɡ𝼋⟩, ⟨ᶢ𝼋⟩ or ⟨𝼋̬⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨ɢ͡ǂ, ɢ͜ǂ, ɢǂ, 𐞒ǂ⟩ and ⟨ɢ͡𝼋, ɢ͜𝼋, ɢ𝼋, 𐞒𝼋⟩. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ǂɡ⟩ or ⟨ǂᶢ⟩; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.^[3]

Features[edit]

Features of the voiced palatal click:

• The airstream mechanism is lingual ingressive (also known as velaric ingressive), which means a pocket of air trapped between two closures is rarefied by a "sucking" action of the tongue, rather than being moved by the glottis or the lungs/diaphragm. The release of the forward closure produces the "click" sound. Voiced and nasal clicks have a simultaneous pulmonic egressive airstream.
• 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 voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• 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[edit]

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

References[edit]