The voiced lateral click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa.^[1] The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a voiced lateral click with a velar rear articulation is ⟨ɡ͡ǁ⟩ or ⟨ɡ͜ǁ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨ɡǁ⟩, ⟨ᶢǁ⟩ or ⟨ǁ̬⟩; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is ⟨ɡ͡ʖ⟩ or ⟨ɡ͜ʖ⟩, abbreviated ⟨ɡʖ⟩, ⟨ᶢʖ⟩ or ⟨ʖ̬⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨ɢ͡ǁ, ɢ͜ǁ, ɢǁ, 𐞒ǁ⟩ and ⟨ɢ͡ʖ, ɢ͜ʖ, ɢʖ, 𐞒ʖ⟩. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ǁɡ⟩ or ⟨ǁᶢ⟩; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.^[2]

In languages which use the Bantu letters for clicks, this is most commonly written ⟨gx⟩, but it is written ⟨dx⟩ in those languages that use ⟨g⟩ for the uvular fricative.

Features[edit]

Features of the voiced lateral 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 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 lateral consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream over the sides of the tongue, rather than down the middle.

Occurrence[edit]

Voiced lateral clicks are found primarily in the various Khoisan language families of southern Africa and in some neighboring Bantu languages.

References[edit]