Voiced bilabial click

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Voiced bilabial click
ʘ̬
ᶢʘ
Encoding
Kirshenbaumb!

The voiced bilabial click is a click consonant found in some of the languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʘ̬⟩ or ⟨ᶢʘ⟩.

Features[edit]

Features of the voiced bilabial 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 bilabial, which means it is articulated with both lips.
  • 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.
  • Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the centrallateral dichotomy does not apply.

Occurrence[edit]

Voiced bilabial clicks only occur in the Tuu and Kx'a families of southern Africa.

Language Word IPA Meaning

Notes[edit]