Tenuis palatal click
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(Tenuis) palatal click | |
---|---|
ǂ | |
⨎ | |
IPA number | 179 |
Encoding | |
Entity (decimal) | ǂ |
Unicode (hex) | U+01C2 |
Kirshenbaum | c![1] |
Braille | |
Listen | |
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 that represents this sound is ⟨ǂ⟩ (double-barred pipe). A stylistic variant sometimes seen is ⟨⨎⟩ (double-barred esh).
Features[edit]
Features of the tenuis 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 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 central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
Occurrence[edit]
Tenuis palatal clicks are only found in the various Khoisan language families of southern Africa and in the neighboring Yeyi language.
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning |
---|---|---|---|
ǂHaba | ǂHaba | [ǂʰabá] = [ |
'ǂHaba' |
Khoekhoe | ǂgā-amǃnâ | [ǂààʔám̀ᵑǃã̀ã̀] = [ |
'to put in the mouth' |
Naro | Qhomatcã (Qhomaçã) |
[ǃʰomaǂã] = [ʗʰoma |
'Qhomatca' |
Yeyi | shiǂa | [ʃiǂa] = [ʃi |
'scarification' |
Notes[edit]
- ^ Kirshembaum assigns ⟨c!⟩ indifferently to both palatal and alveolar clicks.