Tenuis alveolar click
Consonantal sound
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A voiceless or more precisely tenuis (post)alveolar click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a tenuis alveolar click with a velar rear articulation is â¨kÍ¡Çâ© or â¨kÍÇâ©, commonly abbreviated to â¨kÇâ©, â¨áµÇâ© or simply â¨Çâ©; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is â¨kÍ¡Êâ© or â¨kÍÊâ©, abbreviated â¨kÊâ©, â¨áµÊâ© or just â¨Êâ©. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are â¨qÍ¡Ç, qÍÇ, qÇ, ð¥Çâ© and â¨qÍ¡Ê, qÍÊ, qÊ, ð¥Êâ©. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. â¨Çkâ© or â¨Çáµâ©; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.[1]
| Tenuis alveolar click | |
|---|---|
| Ç Ê | |
| IPA number | 178 |
| Encoding | |
| Entity (decimal) | ǃâʗ |
| Unicode (hex) | U+01C3âU+0297 |
| Braille |   |
| Unicode character name for Ç is LATIN LETTER RETROFLEX CLICK | |
| Tenuis alveolar velar click | |
|---|---|
| kÇ kÊ | |
| áµÇ áµÊ |
| Tenuis alveolar uvular click | |
|---|---|
| qÇ qÊ | |
| ð¥Ç ð¥Ê |
Features
Features of a tenuis (post)alveolar 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 alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
- 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 that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
- It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
Occurrence
Tenuis alveolar clicks are found primarily in the various Khoisan language families of southern Africa and in some neighboring Bantu languages.
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hadza | laqo | [lakÍÇo] = [laáµÊo] | 'to trip' |
| Khoekhoe | Çgabe | [kÍÇÈwé] = [áµÊÈwé] | 'to speak a Khoisan language' |
| Sesotho | ho qoqa | [hÊkÍÇÉkÍÇÉ] = [hÊáµÊÉáµÊÉ] | 'to chat' |
| Xhosa | iqanda | [iqÍÇanda] = [ið¥Êanda] | 'egg' |
| Zulu | iqaqa | [ÃËqÍÇaËqÍÇá] = [ÃËð¥ÊaËð¥Êá] | 'polecat' |