Tenuis lateral velar click | |
---|---|
k͡ǁ k͡ʖ | |
ᵏǁ ᵏʖ | |
ǁ ʖ | |
IPA Number | 180, 203 |
Encoding | |
Entity (decimal) | ǁʖ |
Unicode (hex) | U+01C1 U+0296 |
Braille | ![]() ![]() |
Tenuis lateral uvular click | |
---|---|
q͡ǁ q͡ʖ | |
𐞥ǁ 𐞥ʖ |
The voiceless or more precisely tenuis lateral click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a tenuis lateral click with a velar rear articulation is ⟨k͡ǁ⟩ or ⟨k͜ǁ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨kǁ⟩, ⟨ᵏǁ⟩ or just ⟨ǁ⟩; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is ⟨k͡ʖ⟩ or ⟨k͜ʖ⟩, abbreviated ⟨kʖ⟩, ⟨ᵏʖ⟩ or just ⟨ʖ⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨q͡ǁ, q͜ǁ, qǁ, 𐞥ǁ⟩ and ⟨q͡ʖ, q͜ʖ, qʖ, 𐞥ʖ⟩. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ǁk⟩ or ⟨ǁᵏ⟩; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.[2]
Features
[edit]Features of the tenuis 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 voiceless, unaspirated, and unglottalized, which means it is produced without vibration or constriction of the vocal cords, and any following vowel starts without significant delay.
- 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]Tenuis lateral clicks are found primarily in the various Khoisan language families of southern Africa and in some neighboring Bantu languages.
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning |
---|---|---|---|
Hadza | exekeke | [ʔek͜ǁekeke] = [ʔeᵏʖekeke] | 'to listen' |
Khoekhoe | ǂamǁgû | [ŋ͜ǂ͡ʔàm̀k͜ǁṹṹ] = [ᵑǂˀàm̀ᵏʖṹṹ] | 'to inadvertently bite a hard object' |
Xhosa | inxeba | [íŋk͜ǁeːɓa] = [íŋᵏʖeːɓa] | 'wound' (noun) |
Zulu | xoxa | [k͜ǁɔːk͜ǁa] = [ᵏʖɔːᵏʖa] | 'to converse' |
References
[edit]- ^ Kirshenbaum, Evan. "FAQ: Representing IPA Phonetics in ASCII (Appendix D)".
- ^ Afrika und Übersee. D. Reimer. 2005. pp. 93–94.