Nasal alveolar click

An alveolar nasal click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa.^[1] The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a nasal alveolar click with a velar rear articulation is or , commonly abbreviated to , or ; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is or , abbreviated , or . For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are and . Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. or ; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.^[2]

Features

Features of an alveolar nasal click:

Occurrence

Alveolar nasal clicks are found primarily in the various Khoisan language families of southern Africa and in some neighboring Bantu languages such as Yeyi.^[3] They also appear in the Australian ritual language Damin.

Glottalized alveolar nasal click

All Khoisan languages, and a few Bantu languages, have glottalized nasal clicks. These are formed by closing the glottis so that the click is pronounced in silence; however, any preceding vowel will be nasalized.

References

1. ^ Knight, Rachael-Anne (2012-01-26). Phonetics: A Coursebook. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-50419-5.
2. ^ Afrika und Übersee. D. Reimer. 2005. pp. 93–94.
3. ^ Sands, Bonny (2020-09-25). Click Consonants. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-42435-7.