{{Short description|Letter representing a click sound}} [[file:Nama man giving us a lesson in the click language (3694165852).jpg|thumb|A Nama man giving a literacy lesson in Khoekhoegowab that includes click letters]] {{IPA notice}} Various letters have been used to write the click consonants of southern Africa. The precursors of the current IPA letters, ⟨ǀ⟩ ⟨ǁ⟩ ⟨ǃ⟩ ⟨ǂ⟩, were created by Karl Richard Lepsius<ref>{{cite book|first=C. R.|last=Lepsius|year=1855|title=Das allgemeine linguistische Alphabet: Grundsätze der Übertragung fremder Schriftsysteme und bisher noch ungeschriebener Sprachen in europäische Buchstaben|location=Berlin|publisher=Verlag von Wilhelm Hertz}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=C. R.|last=Lepsius|year=1863|title=Standard Alphabet for Reducing Unwritten Languages and Foreign Graphic Systems to a Uniform Orthography in European Letters|edition=2nd|location=London/Berlin}}</ref> and used by Wilhelm Bleek<ref>{{cite book|last=Bleek|first=Wilhelm|title=A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages|location=London|publisher=Trübner & Co.|volume=(1862: Part I; 1869: Part II)}}</ref> and Lucy Lloyd, who added {{angbr IPA|ʘ}}. Also influential was Daniel Jones, who promoted the letters ⟨ʇ⟩ ⟨ʖ⟩ ⟨ʗ⟩ ⟨ʞ⟩ that were part of the IPA from 1921 to 1989, and were used by Clement Doke<ref name="doke25">{{cite journal|first=Clement M.|last=Doke|year=1925|title=An outline of the phonetics of the language of the ʗhũ̬꞉ Bushman of the North-West Kalahari|journal=Bantu Studies|volume=2|pages=129–166|doi=10.1080/02561751.1923.9676181|url=https://archive.org/details/african-studies_1923-1926_2/page/144/mode/1up}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Clement M.|last=Doke|orig-year=1926|year=1969|title=The phonetics of the Zulu language|location=Johannesburg|publisher=University of the Witwatersrand Press|url=https://storage.lib.uchicago.edu/pres/2009/pres2009-0344.pdf|series=Journal of Bantu Studies|volume=2}}</ref> and Douglas Beach.<ref name=Beach>{{cite book|first=Douglas Martyn|last=Beach|year=1938|title=The phonetics of the Hottentot language|publisher=W. Heffer & Sons|location=London}}</ref>
Individual languages have had various orthographies, usually based on either the Lepsius alphabet or on the Latin alphabet. They may change over time or between countries. Latin letters, such as ⟨c⟩ ⟨x⟩ ⟨q⟩ ⟨ç⟩, have case forms; the pipe letters ⟨ǀ⟩ ⟨ǁ⟩ ⟨ǃ⟩ ⟨ǂ⟩ do not.{{efn|The original Lepsius pipe letters actually did have case forms. For example, {{harvtxt|Lepsius|1855|p=49}} wrote ''Amaxhosa'' and ''Xhosa'' as ''Amaııósa'' and ''𝖨𝖨ósa''.}}
==Multiple systems== thumb|The clicks of Xhosa, in the Lepsius alphabet of 1854. The {{Angbr|ṅ}} is equivalent to {{Angbr IPA|ŋ}}. The pipe with the acute accent was soon replaced with {{Angbr IPA|ǂ}}.|class=skin-invert-image [[File:Sundevall click letters (italic).png|thumb|The click letters created by Carl Jakob Sundevall in 1855 (right column), along with the corresponding Lepsius letters (center).<ref name="sundleps55" />]]
By the early 19th century, the otherwise unneeded letters ⟨c⟩ ⟨x⟩ ⟨q⟩ were used as the basis for writing clicks in Zulu by British and German missions.{{efn|name=Schreuder}} However, for general linguistic transcription this was confusing, as each of these letters had other uses. There were various ''ad hoc'' attempts to create dedicated letters—often iconic symbols—for click consonants, with the most successful being those of the Standard Alphabet by Lepsius, which were based on a single symbol (pipe, double pipe, pipe-acute, pipe-sub-dot) and from which the modern Khoekhoe letters ⟨ǀ⟩ ⟨ǁ⟩ ⟨ǃ⟩ ⟨ǂ⟩ descend.
[[File:Doke_ʗhũ_clicks.png|thumb|upright=2|The 1925 Doke orthography for {{IPA|ʗhũ̬ː|cat=no}} (ǃXũ). Note that "alveolar" (2nd column) and "palato-alveolar" (3rd column) correspond to modern palatal {{IPA|[ǂ]}} and alveolar {{IPA|[ǃ]}}, as can be confirmed with the rendition of the language ǃXũ as {{angbr IPA|ʗhũ̬ː}}. The letters in the first, third and fifth columns had earlier been used for Zulu. The voiced dental click has the letter {{Angbr IPA|ɣ}} that would later be used by the IPA for a voiced velar fricative.<br>Though not clear from this image, the descenders on the nasal clicks that bend to the right bear rings, while those that bend to the left are tails as in IPA {{IPA|ŋ}} and {{IPA|ɲ}}. That is, the nasal click letters are, respectively, ''n'' with a ring on the right leg, ''ŋ'' with a ring on the left leg, ''n'' with a ring on the left leg, ''ɲ'' with a ring on the right leg, and ''n'' with rings on both legs, or, in the order of the main table, File:Doke bilabial nasal click.svgFile:Doke dental nasal click.svgFile:Doke alveolar nasal click.svgFile:Doke lateral nasal click.svgFile:Doke palatal nasal click.svgFile:Doke retroflex nasal click.svg.|class=skin-invert-image]]
During the First World War, Daniel Jones adopted the equivalent letters {{IPA|⟨ʇ⟩ ⟨ʖ⟩ ⟨ʗ⟩ ⟨ʞ⟩}} in response to a 1914 call to fill this gap in the IPA, and these were published in 1921; they were formally accepted by the IPA in 1928 (see {{slink|History of the International Phonetic Alphabet|1921 chart|1928 revisions|nopage=y}}).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Breckwoldt |first=G. H. |year=1972 |chapter=A Critical Investigation of Click Symbolism |editor1-last=Rigault |editor1-first=André |editor2-last=Charbonneau |editor2-first=René |title=Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Phonetic Sciences |location=The Hague and Paris |publisher=Mouton |pages=285 |doi=10.1515/9783110814750-017 |isbn=9783110814750 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/proceedingsactes0000inte/page/281/mode/1up }}</ref>
In 1875, if not earlier, Wilhelm Bleek created or adopted the letter {{Angbr IPA|ʘ}} for bilabial clicks.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bleek |first=W. H. I |url=https://archive.org/details/briefaccountofbu00blee |title=A brief account of Bushman folk-lore and other texts |publisher=Trübner & Co. |year=1875 |location=London}}</ref> It would be used more extensively by Lucy Lloyd in 1911<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bleek |first1=Wilhelm H. I. |title=Specimens of Bushman Folklore |last2=Lloyd |first2=L. C. |publisher=George Allen & Company |year=1911 |location=London}}</ref> and added to the IPA in 1976.
Clement Doke expanded on Jones' letters in 1923. Based on an empirically informed conception of the nature of click consonants, he analyzed voiced and nasal clicks as separate consonants, much as the voiced plosives {{IPA|[b d ɡ]}} and nasals {{IPA|[m n ŋ]}} are considered separate consonants from the voiceless plosives {{IPA|[p t k]}}, and so he created letters for voiced and nasal clicks. (Like other researchers, Doke did not use the palatal click letter from the IPA. Jones had called it "velar", and people took it as having that value rather than its intended one.) Doke was the first to report retroflex clicks, and created letters for them as well.
thumb|The clicks of Khoekhoe in the Beach alphabet of 1938. The columns are (left to right) dental, alveolar, lateral and palatal. In modern orthography, the rows are ''Ʞg Ʞn Ʞkh Ʞ Ʞh'', where Ʞ is used to represent any click letter (any column).|class=skin-invert-image
Douglas Beach would publish a somewhat similar system in his phonetic description of Khoekhoe. Because Khoekhoe had no voiced clicks, he only created new letters for the four nasal clicks. Like Doke, he didn't use Jones' "velar" click letter, but created one of his own, {{Angbr IPA|𝼋}}, based on the Lepsius letter {{Angbr IPA|ǂ}} modified to better fit the design of the IPA.
{|class="wikitable skin-invert-image" style="text-align:center" |+ Letters for click types |- !colspan=2 scope="col"| !scope="col"| bilabial !scope="col"| dental ! scope="col" | alveolar ! scope="col" | lateral !scope="col"| palatal ! colspan="2" scope="col" | retroflex |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Wuras ms<ref>''Katechismus'' (Catechism of the ǃKora language), undated manuscript revision of 1815 edition, which did not have a coherent transcription for clicks.</ref> | 8 || ∧ || ∩ || ⨅ || ⅂ || colspan="2" | |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Boyce (1834)<ref name="Boyce">{{Cite book |author=William Binnington Boyce |year=1834 |title=A grammar of the Kafir language |location=London }}</ref> | || c || q || x || qc{{efn|Identified by Lepsius as equivalent to his {{Angbr|ǀ́}}}} || colspan="2" | |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Knudsen (1846)<ref>{{Cite book |author=Hans Christian Knudsen |year=1846 |title=.{{okina}}Gai.꞉Hoas sada {{okina}}Kub Jesib Kristib dis, .zi {{hamza}}Naizannati |location=Cape Town }}</ref> | || ꞏ || {{Okina}} || {{Hamza}} || ꞉ || colspan="2" | |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Schreuder (1850)<ref>{{Cite book |author=HPS Schreuder |year=1850 |title=Grammatik for Zulu-Sproget |publisher= |location=Christiania }}</ref> | || ϟ || ϟ̈͛{{efn|name=Schreuder}} || ϟ͛{{efn|name=Schreuder|thumb|upright=0.5|Zulu click letters of the Norwegian mission|class=skin-invert-image The Norwegian mission to the Zulu used {{Angbr|ϟ}} (a ''z''-like zig-zag) for ''c'' (perhaps related to the use of both ''z'' and ''c'' for dental affricates), a double {{Angbr|ϟ}} (a ''ξ''-like ''qoppa'' zigzag) for ''x'' (perhaps not coincidentally, Greek ''ξ'' is transcribed ''x''), and the same letter with an umlaut for ''q''.}} || || colspan="2" | |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Lepsius (1853) | || {{IPA|ǀc}} || {{IPA|ǀʞ}} || {{IPA|ǀx}} || {{IPA|ǀɔ}} || colspan="2" | |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Lepsius (1854){{efn|The Lepsius letter is a short vertical pipe, with neither ascender nor descender—that is, of the same height as the letter {{angbr|n}}, similar to {{angbr|ı}}—nor serifs. In Krönlein's work, it has a short ascender, giving it the height of a capital or the lowercase letter {{angbr|t}}; moreover in Krönlein, the four pipe letters are always inclined, like the letters in italic and oblique type. Bleek 1875 and Lloyd 1911 also used capital-height letters, so they would harmonize with titles and other all-capital text, but kept them upright except in italic text.}} | || {{IPA|ǀ}} || {{IPA|ǀ̣}} || {{IPA|ǁ}} || {{IPA|ǀ́}} {{efn|The double-barred pipe was proposed by the Rhenish Mission Conference in 1856 and quickly replaced Lepsius's pipe with acute accent.<ref>Brugman, 2009, ''Segments, Tones and Distribution in Khoekhoe Prosody''. PhD dissertation, Cornell.</ref> Sundevall (1855/56) displays the letter as {{angbr IPA|ǀ̇}}.}} || colspan="2" | |- !rowspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"|Sundevall {{nowrap|(1855/56)}}<ref name="sundleps55" /> ! capital | || File:Unicode 0x03A8.svg || File:Sundevall cerebral capital.svg || File:Sundevall lateral capital.svg || File:Sundevall palatal capital.svg || colspan="2" | |- ! lowercase | || File:Sundevall dental click.svg || File:Sundevall cerebral click.svg || File:Sundevall lateral click.svg || File:Sundevall palatal click.svg || colspan="2" | |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Bleek (1857) | || c || q || x || ɔ || colspan="2" | |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Tindall (1858)<ref>Tindall (1858) ''A grammar and vocabulary of the Namaqua-Hottentot language''</ref>{{efn|Tindall's full paradigm is:<br /> c ch ck cg ckh cn<br /> q qh qk qg qkh qn<br /> x xh xk xg xkh xn<br /> v vh vk vg vkh vn}} | || c || q || x || v || colspan="2" | |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Palaeotype (1869) | || {{tdir|t|5}} || ↊ || {{tdir|t|7}} || {{tdir|t|4}} || colspan="2" | |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| ''Anthropos'' (1907) | {{tdir|t|p}}{{efn|In the ''Anthropos'' journal turned ''p'' is distinguishable from ''d'' by the difference in the top serifs, the shape of the bowl and the bottom terminal in the italic font used.}} || {{IPA|ʇ̯}} || {{IPA|ʇ}} || {{IPA|ʇ̪}} (<small>''or''</small> {{IPA|ʇ̰}}) || {{IPA|ɔ}}<br/> || {{IPA|ʇ̣}} |<small>+velar {{IPA|ʞ}}</small> |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Lloyd (1911) | {{IPA|ʘ}} || {{IPA|ǀ}} || {{IPA|ǃ}} || {{IPA|ǁ}} || {{IPA|ǂ}} || colspan="2" | |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Johnston (1913/19)<ref>{{cite book |last=Johnston |first=Harry |year=1913 |title=Phonetic Spelling: A Proposed Universal Alphabet for the Rendering of English, French, German and All Other Forms of Speech |page=43 |publisher=Cambridge |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Phonetic_Spelling/B2pMAAAAMAAJ}}<br>{{cite book |last=Johnston |first=Harry |year=1919 |title=A comparative study of the Bantu and semi-Bantu languages |volume=1 |page=44 |publisher=Oxford |url=https://archive.org/details/comparativestudy01johnuoft}}</ref> | || {{IPA|{{tdir|r|ʖ}}}} <small>''or''</small> {{IPA|c̓}} || <sub><big>{{IPA|ʕ}}</big></sub> ''<small>or</small>'' {{IPA|q̓}}{{efn|The letters for the 'palatal' (i.e. alveolar) and lateral clicks have descenders, analogous to {{angbr|q}} and unlike the glottal stop letter, while those for the dental and lateral clicks have ascenders.}} || <sub><big>{{IPA|ʔ}}</big></sub> ''<small>or</small>'' {{IPA|x̓}} || {{IPA|ʖ}} ''<small>or</small>'' {{IPA|q̓c̓}} || colspan="2" | |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Jones (1921)<ref>[https://archive.org/details/ecriturephonetiqueinternationale1921/page/n9/mode/2up ''L'écriture phonétique internationale'' (2nd ed.)]</ref> | || {{IPA|ʇ}} || {{IPA|ʗ}} || {{IPA|ʖ}} || {{IPA|ʞ}}<br /> <small>('velar')</small>|| colspan="2" | |- align=center !rowspan=3 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Doke (1925)<ref name="doke25" /> !tenuis | || {{IPA|ʇ}} || {{IPA|ʗ}} || {{IPA|ʖ}} || 16px|alt=🡣 || colspan="2" | {{IPA|ψ}}{{efn|name=Doke (1925)}} |- !voiced | || {{IPA|ɣ}}{{efn|Bleek (1923:73) renders the letter as a baby gamma {{angbr IPA|alt=ɤ}}.<ref name="bleek23">{{cite journal |last=Bleek |first=D. F. |title=Note on Bushman Orthography |year=1923 |pages=71–74 |journal=Bantu Studies |volume=2 |issue=1 |doi=10.1080/02561751.1923.9676174}}</ref> {{angbr IPA|ɣ}} for the voiced velar fricative was not yet in the IPA; it was first used by Jones in 1928.}} || {{IPA|𝒬}} || {{IPA|➿︎}} || 16px|alt=🡡 || colspan="2" | {{IPA|{{tdir|i|ψ}}}} |- !nasal | || File:Doke dental nasal click.svg || File:Doke alveolar nasal click.svg || File:Doke lateral nasal click.svg || File:Doke palatal nasal click.svg || colspan="2" | File:Doke retroflex nasal click.svg |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Engelbrecht (1928)<ref>J.A. Engelbrecht, 1928, ''Studies oor Korannataal''. Annale van die Universiteit van Stellenbosch. Cape Town.</ref> | || c || q || x || ç || colspan="2" | |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Tucker (1929)<ref>Archibald Norman Tucker, 1929, [https://archive.org/details/comparativephone0000tuck ''The comparative phonetics of the Suto-Chuana group of Bantu languages''], London.</ref> | {{IPA|ʘ}} || {{IPA|ʇ}} || {{IPA|ʗ}} || {{IPA|ʖ}} || {{IPA|ʇ̵}} || colspan="2" | |- ! rowspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Beach (1938) || oral | || {{IPA|ʇ}} || {{IPA|ʗ}} || {{IPA|ʖ}} || {{IPA|𝼋}} || colspan="2" | |- ! nasal | || {{IPA|𝼍}} || {{IPA|𝼏}} || {{IPA|𝼎}} || {{IPA|𝼌}} || colspan="2" | |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Pienaar (1938)<ref>{{cite book|first=Pierre de Villiers|last=Pienaar|chapter=Click formation and distribution|title=Proceedings of the 3rd International Congress of Phonetic Sciences|location=Gent|publisher=Rijksuniversiteit Gent|pages=344–353|year=1938|url=https://www.coli.uni-saarland.de/groups/FK/speech_science/icphs/ICPhS1938/p03_344.pdf}}</ref> | {{IPA|ʘ}} || {{IPA|ǀ}} || {{IPA|ǃ}} || {{IPA|ǁ}} || {{IPA|ǂ}} || colspan="2" | {{IPA|⦀}} |- ! rowspan="3" style="text-align: left;" |Smalley (1963)<ref>William Smalley (1968) ''Manual of Articulatory Phonetics''. New York: Practical Anthropology.</ref> ! style="text-align: left;" |tenuis |p<small style="font-size:80%"><sup>←</sup></small>{{efn|The diacritic in Smalley is actually a superscript leftward arrow, but it is not supported by Unicode.}} |ṱ<small style="font-size:80%"><sup>←</sup></small> |t<small style="font-size:80%"><sup>←</sup></small> |tȽ<small style="font-size:80%"><sup>←</sup></small> |c<small style="font-size:80%"><sup>←</sup></small> | colspan="2" |ṭ<small style="font-size:80%"><sup>←</sup></small> |- ! style="text-align: left;" |voiced |b<small style="font-size:80%"><sup>←</sup></small> |ḓ<small style="font-size:80%"><sup>←</sup></small> |d<small style="font-size:80%"><sup>←</sup></small> |dȽ<small style="font-size:80%"><sup>←</sup></small> |j<small style="font-size:80%"><sup>←</sup></small> | colspan="2" |ḍ<small><sup>←</sup></small> |- ! style="text-align: left;" |nasal |m<small style="font-size:80%"><sup>←</sup></small> |ṋ<small style="font-size:80%"><sup>←</sup></small> |n<small style="font-size:80%"><sup>←</sup></small> |nȽ<small style="font-size:80%"><sup>←</sup></small> |ñ<small style="font-size:80%"><sup>←</sup></small> | colspan="2" |ṇ<small style="font-size:80%"><sup>←</sup></small> |- !rowspan=3 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| UPSID<br>(1981–1984)<ref>Ian Maddieson (1984) Patterns of sounds. Cambridge University Press.</ref> ! Khoekhoe | || {{IPA|ʇ̪ˢ}} || {{IPA|ʇ}}|| {{IPA|ʖ𐞛}} || {{IPA|ʇ̠}}{{efn|name=palatoalveolar|Identified as palato-alveolar.}}|| colspan="2" | |- ! ǃKung | || {{IPA|ʇ̪ˢ}} || {{IPA|ʇ}} || {{IPA|ʗ𐞠}}{{efn|Identified as palatal lateral. UPSID distinguishes affricated from abrupt clicks by adding a superscript fricative letter. The dedicated extIPA letter {{angbr IPA|𝼆}} was not yet available.}} || {{IPA|ʗ}} || colspan="2" | |- ! Zulu | || {{IPA|ʇˢ}} || {{IPA|ʇ̠}}{{efn|name=palatoalveolar}} || {{IPA|ʖ𐞛}} || || colspan="2" | |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| ARA proposal (1982) | ω || ʈ || ɖ || λ || ç || colspan="2" | |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Matte & Omark (1984)<ref>Larry Mattes & Donald Omark (1984) Speech and language assessment for the bilingual handicapped. College-Hill Press, San Diego.</ref> | {{IPA|ɋ}} || {{IPA|ʇ}} || {{IPA|ʗ}} || {{IPA|ʖ}} || {{IPA|𝼋}} || colspan="2" | |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Current IPA (1989) | {{IPA|ʘ}} || {{IPA|ǀ}} || {{IPA|ǃ}} || {{IPA|ǁ}} || {{IPA|ǂ}} || colspan="2" | {{IPA|𝼊}}{{efn|The letter {{Angbr IPA|𝼊}} ({{IPA|ǃ̢}}) is 'implicit' in the IPA but is not included in the summary IPA chart. It is uncommon, and ''ad hoc'' {{Angbr IPA|‼}} is often used in the literature.}} |- ! colspan="9" | Substitutions |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Typewriter substitutions | @ || / || <nowiki>!</nowiki> || // || <nowiki>=</nowiki> or ≠{{efn|On a typewriter, ≠ can be composed by overlaying a slash over an equal sign.}} || colspan="2" | <nowiki>!!</nowiki> |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Hales & Nash (1997; nasal) | m! || nh! || n! || || (ny!)<!--theoretical--> || colspan="2" | rn! |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Linguasphere (1999) | p' || c' || q' || l' || t' || colspan="2" | |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Lingvarium (ca. 2005) |пъ || цъ || къ || лъ || чъ || colspan="2" | |- ! colspan="9" | Other writing systems |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left" |Mwangwego (by 1997) | | |x20px |x20px | | colspan="2" | |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Ditema script (2014) | 40px || 40px || 40px || 40px || 40px || colspan="2" | |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| N'ko script (2015)<ref>{{Cite web |author1=Boubacar Diakite |author2=Neil Patel |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2025/25081-nko-phonetic-extensions.pdf |title=Revised Proposal to Encode N'ko Phonetic Extensions for Malian Languages |publisher=ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2, Document L2/25-081 |date=2025-02-21}}</ref>{{efn|name=nko|As N'ko click letters are not supported by Unicode as of 2025, here they are substituted with Arabic diacritical dots, combined above the Arabic ''tatweel'' joiner (U+0640). In actual N'ko, they are each a connecting horizontal stroke with similar dots above.}} |style="font-size:150%"| ــ﮲ ||style="font-size:150%"| ــ﮽ || style="font-size:150%" | ــ﮴ || style="font-size:150%" | ــ﮶ || style="font-size:150%" | ــ﮸ || colspan="2" style="font-size:150%" | |- !colspan=2 scope="row" style="text-align:left"| Luo (Botswana, post-2012) | || || 12px || || || colspan="2" | |}
The African reference alphabet proposal has apparently never been used, while the Linguasphere and Lingvarium transcriptions are typewriter substitutions specific to those institutions.{{efn|''Linguasphere'' found the Khoisanist/IPA letters to be impractical for sorting and with their database, and so substituted them with ''p', c', q', l', t'.'' These occur with the usual accompaniments, for sequences such as ''L'xegwi, Nc'hu, C'qwi,'' and ''Q'xung''. ''Lingvarium'' did something similar for Cyrillic.}}
Besides the difference in letter shape (variations on a pipe for Lepsius, modifications of Latin letters for Jones), there was a conceptual difference between them and Doke or Beach: Lepsius used one letter as the base for all click consonants of the same place of articulation (called the 'influx'), and added a second letter or diacritic for the manner of articulation (called the 'efflux'), treating them as two distinct sounds (the click proper and its accompaniment),{{efn|Lepsius explained his system as follows: {{blockquote|Essential to the [clicks] is the peculiarity of stopping in part, and even drawing back the breath, which appears to be most easily expressed by a simple bar ''𝗅''. If we connect with this our common marks for the cerebral [i.e. retroflex: the sub-dot] or the palatal [i.e. the acute accent], a peculiar notation is wanted only for the ''lateral'', which is the strongest sound. We propose to express it by two bars ''𝗅𝗅''. As the gutturals [i.e. posterior articulations] evidently do not unite with the clicks into one sound, but form a compound sound, we may make them simply to follow, as with the diphthongs. <br>frameless|upright|class=skin-invert |Lepsius (1863:80–81)}}}} whereas Doke used a separate letter for each tenuis, voiced, and nasal click, treating each as a distinct consonant, following the example of the Latin alphabet, where the voiced and nasal occlusives also treated as distinct consonants (''p b m, t d n, c j ñ, k g ŋ'').
Doke's nasal-click letters were based on the letter {{Angbr IPA|n}}, continuing the pattern of the pulmonic nasal consonants {{Angbr IPA|m ɱ n ɲ ɳ ŋ ɴ}}. For example, the letters for the palatal and retroflex clicks are ⟨ŋ⟩ ⟨ɲ⟩ with a curl on their free leg: ⟨class=skin-invert-image⟩ ⟨class=skin-invert-image⟩. The voiced-click letters are more individuated, a couple were simply inverted versions of the tenuis-click letters. The tenuis–voiced pairs were dental {{Angbr IPA|ʇ ɣ}} (the letter {{Angbr IPA|ɣ}} had not yet been added to the IPA for the voiced velar fricative), alveolar {{Angbr IPA|ʗ 𝒬}}, retroflex {{Angbr IPA|ψ {{tdir|i|ψ}}}},{{efn|name=Doke (1925)|In Doke's publications there is no ascender on the middle stroke (x18px|class=skin-invert, x14px|baseline|class=skin-invert), as in some sans-serif ('grotesk') fonts like the Arial font.}} palatal {{Angbr IPA|16px|class=skin-invert|alt=🡣16px|class=skin-invert|alt=🡡}} and lateral {{Angbr IPA|ʖ ➿︎}}. A proposal to add Doke's letters to Unicode was not approved.<ref name="N2790">{{Cite web |author=Michael Everson |author-link=Michael Everson |publisher=ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2, Document N2790 |title=Proposal to add phonetic click characters to the UCS|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2004/04232-bantu-click.pdf |date=2004-06-10 |access-date=2013-10-07}}</ref>
<gallery heights="30px" class=skin-invert-image> File:ʖhapopen ʇʔoas.png|The Nama name ''ǁhapopen ǀoas'' (''ʖhapopen ʇʔoas''), from Beach's phonology. File:Khoekhoe words ǂae ǂʔui.png|The Khoekhoe word ''ǂgaeǂui'' (''𝼋ae-𝼋ʔui''), illustrating Beach's distinctive form of the letter ''ǂ''. File:Khoekhoe ǁnau.png|The Khoekhoe word ''ǁnau'' (''𝼎au''), illustrating the curled tail Beach used to indicate nasal clicks. </gallery>
Beach wrote on Khoekhoe and so had no need for letters for the voiced clicks; he created letters for nasal clicks by adding a curl to the bottom of the tenuis-click letters: {{Angbr IPA|𝼌 𝼏 𝼍 𝼎}}.
Doke and Beach both wrote aspirated clicks with an ''h'', {{Angbr IPA|ʇh ʗh ʖh 𝼋h}}, and the glottalized nasal clicks as an oral click with a glottal stop, {{Angbr IPA|ʇʔ ʗʔ ʖʔ 𝼋ʔ}}. Beach also wrote the affricate contour clicks with an ''x'', {{Angbr IPA|ʇx ʗx ʖx 𝼋x}}.
The only other scripts to have letters for clicks are N'ko in Mali and Luo script in Botswana, which include them for paralexical use,{{efn|name=nko}} and the experimental Ditema tsa Dinoko script, which uses them lexically.
==Transcribing voiced and nasal clicks, and the velar–uvular distinction== Doke had run "admirable" experiments establishing the nature of click consonants as unitary sounds. Nonetheless, Bleek in his highly influential work on Bushman languages rejected Doke's orthography on theoretical grounds, arguing that each of Doke's letters stood for two sounds, "a combination of the implosive sound with the sound made by the expulsion of the breath" (that is, influx plus efflux), and that it was impossible to write the clicks themselves in Doke's orthography, as "we cannot call [the implosive sounds] either unvoiced, voiced, or nasal."<ref name="bleek23" /> Bleek therefore used digraphs based on the Lepsius letters, as Lepsius himself had done for the same reason. However, linguists have since come down on the side of Doke and take the two places of articulation to be inherent in the nature of clicks, because both are required to create a click: the 'influx' cannot exist without the 'efflux', so a symbol for an influx has only theoretical meaning just as a symbol like {{angbr IPA|D}} for 'alveolar consonant' does not indicate any actual consonant. Regardless, separate letters like Doke's and Beach's were never provided by the IPA, and today linguists continue to resort to digraphs or diacritics in a way that is not used for non-click consonants. (For example, no-one transcribes an alveolar nasal stop {{IPA|[n]}} as either {{angbr IPA|ⁿt}} or {{angbr IPA|t̃}}, analogous to the way one writes a dental nasal click as {{angbr IPA|ⁿǀ}} or {{angbr IPA|ǀ̃}}, or in the older tradition as {{angbr IPA|ⁿʇ}} or {{angbr IPA|ʇ̃}}.)
Summarized below are the common means of representing voicing, nasalization and dorsal place of articulation, from Bleek's digraphs reflecting an analysis as co-articulated consonants, to those same letters written as superscripts to function as diacritics, reflecting an analysis as unitary consonants, to the combining diacritics for voicing and nasalization. Because the last option does not indicate the posterior place of articulation, it does not directly distinguish velar from uvular clicks. However, the IPA guttural diacritic could be used for the more guttural uvular series. The letter {{angbr IPA|Ʞ}} is used here as a wildcard for any click letter.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" ! rowspan="2" | !! colspan="3" | Velar !! colspan="3" | Uvular |- ! Tenuis !! Voiced !! Nasal !! Tenuis !! Voiced !! Nasal |- ! Coarticulation analysis | {{IPA|k͜Ʞ}} || {{IPA|ɡ͜Ʞ}} || {{IPA|ŋ͜Ʞ}} || {{IPA|q͜Ʞ}} || {{IPA|ɢ͜Ʞ}} || {{IPA|ɴ͜Ʞ}} |- ! Superscript diacritics, unitary analysis | {{IPA|ᵏꞰ}} || {{IPA|ᶢꞰ}} || {{IPA|ᵑꞰ}} || {{IPA|𐞥Ʞ}} || {{IPA|𐞒Ʞ}} || {{IPA|ᶰꞰ}} |- ! Combining diacritics, unitary analysis | {{IPA|Ʞ}} || {{IPA|Ʞ̬}} || {{IPA|Ʞ̬̃}} || {{IPA|Ʞ̴}} || {{IPA|Ʞ̴̬}} || {{IPA|Ʞ̴̬̃}} |}
A distinction may be made between {{angbr IPA|ᵏꞰ}} for an inaudible rear articulation, {{angbr IPA|Ʞᵏ}} for an audible one, and {{angbr IPA|Ʞ͜k}} for a notably delayed release of the rear articulation; for aspirated clicks these are {{angbr IPA|ᵏꞰʰ}}, {{angbr IPA|Ʞᵏʰ}}, {{angbr IPA|Ʞ͜kʰ}}.
{{wiktionary|◌᪶}} In the older literature, voicing is commonly marked by a wavy diacritic under the click letter, thus: {{IPA|ʘ᪶ ǀ᪶ ǃ᪶ ǁ᪶ ǂ᪶ }}.{{cn|date=January 2026}}
==Historical orthographies== Written languages with clicks generally use an alphabet either based on the Lepsius alphabet, with multigraphs based on the pipe letters for clicks, or on the Zulu alphabet, with multigraphs based on ''c q x'' for clicks. In the latter case, there have been several conventions for the palatal clicks. Some languages have had more than one orthography over the years. For example, Khoekhoe has had at least the following, using dental clicks as an example:
{|class="wikitable" |+Khoekhoe orthographies<br>(illustrated with dental clicks) |- !Modern |ǀguis ||ǀa ||ǀham ||ǀnu |- !Beach (1938) |ʇuis ||ʇʔa ||ʇham ||𝼍u |- !Tindall (1858) |cguis|| ca|| cham|| cnu |}
Historical roman orthographies have been based on the following sets of letters:
{| class=wikitable |+ Latin letters for tenuis clicks ! !!dental!!alveolar!!lateral!!palatal |- align=center ! Xhosa (1834)<ref name="Boyce"/> |c||q||x||qc{{efn|reported from a few words, not used in modern publication}} |- align=center ! Khoekhoe (1858) |c||q||x||v |- align=center ! Juǀʼhoan (1987–1994) |c||q||x||ç |- align=center ! Naro (2001–present) |c||q||x||tc{{efn|a typewriter-friendly variant of the Juǀʼhoan convention of ''ç'', which had initially been used for Naro as well.}} |}
There are two principal conventions for writing the manners of articulation (the 'effluxes'), which are used with both the Lepsius and Zulu orthographies. One uses ''g'' for voicing and ''x'' for affricate clicks; the other uses ''d'' for voicing and ''g'' for affricate clicks. Both use ''n'' for nasal clicks, but these letters may come either before or after the base letter. For simplicity, these will be illustrated across various orthographies using the lateral clicks only.
{| class=wikitable |+ Conventions for click manners (illustrated on lateral clicks) ! colspan=2| !!tenuis!!voiced!!nasal!!glottalized!!aspirated!!affricated!!affricated<br>ejective!!voiceless <br>nasal!!murmured!!murmured <br>nasal |- align=center ! Zulu ||> ca. 1850 |x||xg{{efn|slack voiced}}||xn||||xh||colspan=5| |- align=center ! rowspan=2| Khoekhoe || modern |ǁg ||rowspan=2| ||ǁn ||ǁ ||rowspan=2| ||ǁkh ||rowspan=2| ||ǁh ||rowspan=2 colspan=2| |- align=center !1858 |xg{{efn|As well as possible {{angbr|xk}}, which is conflated with ''xg'' in the modern language}}||xn||x ||xkh ||xh |- align=center ! Naro ||> 2001 |x ||dx ||nx ||xʼ ||xh ||xg ||xgʼ||colspan=3| |- align=center ! rowspan=3| Juǀʼhoan !! modern |rowspan=2| ǁ ||rowspan=2| gǁ ||rowspan=2| nǁ ||rowspan=2| ǁʼ ||rowspan=2| ǁh ||rowspan=2| ǁx, gǁx || ǁk, gǁk ||rowspan=2| ǁʼh ||rowspan=2| gǁh || nǁh |- align=center ! 1975 | ǁxʼ, gǁxʼ || nǁʼh |- align=center ! 1987 | x || dx || nx || xʼ || xh || xg, dxg || xgʼ, dxgʼ || xʼh || dxh || nxh
|- align=center ! colspan=2| Hadza |x{{efn|Or {{angbr|gx}} when preceded by {{angbr|n}}, in which position it tends to be voiced.}} || ||nx ||xx ||xh ||colspan=5| |- align=center ! colspan=2| Sandawe |x ||gx ||nx ||xʼ ||xh ||colspan=5| |}
== Gallery == The following systems are presented in the same order: bilabial ('ɋ'), dental ('c'), lateral ('x'), alveolar ('q'), palatal ('v') and retroflex ('‼'), with gaps for missing letters.
The Zulu click letters of the Norwegian mission: <gallery class=skin-invert-image> Unicode 0x0020.svg Qoppa.svg|{{center|c}} Double qoppa.svg|{{center|x}} Dotted double qoppa.svg|{{center|q}} Unicode 0x0020.svg Unicode 0x0020.svg </gallery>
Lepsius's click letters (lower case; upper case are taller): <gallery class=skin-invert-image> Unicode 0x0020.svg Lepsius dental click.svg|{{center|c}} Lepsius lateral click.svg|{{center|x}} Lepsius cerebral click.svg|{{center|q}} Lepsius palatal click.svg|{{center|v}} Unicode 0x0020.svg </gallery>
Sundevall's capital click letters:<ref name="sundleps55">{{cite journal |last=Sundevall |first=Carl J. |author-link=Carl Jakob Sundevall |title=Om phonetiska bokstäfver |journal=Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar |url=https://archive.org/details/kungligasvenskav01kung|pages=following 92, tables I-III |publisher=Almqvist & Wiksell |place=Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm |year=1855–1856 |lang=sv}}</ref> <gallery class=skin-invert-image> Unicode 0x0020.svg Unicode 0x03A8.svg|{{center|c}} Sundevall lateral capital.svg|{{center|x}} Sundevall cerebral capital.svg|{{center|q}} Sundevall palatal capital.svg|{{center|v}} Unicode 0x0020.svg </gallery>
Sundevall's lowercase click letters: <gallery class=skin-invert-image> Unicode 0x0020.svg Sundevall dental click.svg|{{center|c}} Sundevall lateral click.svg|{{center|x}} Sundevall cerebral click.svg|{{center|q}} Sundevall palatal click.svg|{{center|v}} Unicode 0x0020.svg </gallery>
Bleek's and Lloyd's proportions: <gallery class=skin-invert-image> Bleek bilabial click letter.svg|{{center|ɋ}} Bleek dental click letter.svg|{{center|c}} Bleek lateral click letter.svg|{{center|x}} Bleek cerebral click letter.svg|{{center|q}} Bleek palatal click letter.svg|{{center|v}} Unicode 0x0020.svg </gallery>
Jones's IPA letters: <gallery class=skin-invert-image> Unicode 0x0020.svg IPA Unicode 0x0287.svg|{{center|c}} IPA Unicode 0x0296.svg|{{center|x}} IPA Unicode 0x0297.svg|{{center|q}} IPA Unicode 0x029E.svg|{{center|v}} Unicode 0x0020.svg </gallery>
Doke's letters for voiceless clicks: <gallery class=skin-invert-image> Unicode 0x0020.svg IPA Unicode 0x0287.svg|{{center|c}} IPA Unicode 0x0296.svg|{{center|x}} IPA Unicode 0x0297.svg|{{center|q}} Doke palatal click.svg|{{center|v}} Unicode 0x03C8.svg|{{center|‼}} </gallery>
Doke's letters for voiced clicks: <gallery class=skin-invert-image> Unicode 0x0020.svg IPA Unicode 0x0263.svg|{{center|gc}} Double gamma.svg|{{center|gx}} Calligraphic Q.svg|{{center|gq}} Doke palatal voiced click.svg|{{center|gv}} Turned psi.svg|{{center|g‼}} </gallery> <gallery class=skin-invert-image> Unicode 0x0020.svg Unicode 0x27B0.svg|{{center|gc (variant)}} Double loop.svg|{{center|gx (variant)}} Unicode 0x0020.svg Unicode 0x0020.svg Unicode 0x0020.svg </gallery>
Doke's letters for nasal clicks: <gallery class=skin-invert-image> Unicode 0x0020.svg Doke dental nasal click.svg|{{center|nc}} Doke lateral nasal click.svg|{{center|nx}} Doke alveolar nasal click.svg|{{center|nq}} Doke palatal nasal click.svg|{{center|nv}} Doke retroflex nasal click.svg|{{center|n‼}} </gallery> (To fit later IPA conventions, file:Doke retroflex nasal click.svg would be used for the palatal and file:Doke retroflex nasal click (modernized).svg for the retroflex.)
Tucker's letters: <gallery class=skin-invert-image> Unicode 0x0020.svg IPA Unicode 0x0287.svg|{{center|c}} IPA Unicode 0x0296.svg|{{center|x}} IPA Unicode 0x0297.svg|{{center|q}} Turned t with stroke.svg|{{center|v}} Unicode 0x0020.svg </gallery> (To write nasal clicks, these take a combining tilde above.)
Beach's letters for voiceless clicks: <gallery class=skin-invert-image> Unicode 0x0020.svg IPA Unicode 0x0287.svg|{{center|c}} IPA Unicode 0x0296.svg|{{center|x}} IPA Unicode 0x0297.svg|{{center|q}} U+1DF0B.svg|{{center|v}} Unicode 0x0020.svg </gallery>
Beach's letters for nasal clicks: <gallery class=skin-invert-image> Unicode 0x0020.svg U+1DF0D.svg|{{center|nc}} U+1DF0E.svg|{{center|nx}} U+1DF0F.svg|{{center|nq}} U+1DF0C.svg|{{center|nv}} Unicode 0x0020.svg </gallery>
Matte & Omark click letters: <gallery class=skin-invert-image> Unicode 0x024B.svg|{{center|ɋ}} IPA Unicode 0x0287.svg|{{center|c}} IPA Unicode 0x0296.svg|{{center|x}} IPA Unicode 0x0297.svg|{{center|q}} U+1DF0B.svg|{{center|v}} Unicode 0x0020.svg </gallery>
Post-Kiel IPA (baseline, e.g. 1989): <gallery class=skin-invert-image> IPA Unicode 0x0298.svg|{{center|ɋ}} IPA Unicode 0x01C0 alt.svg|{{center|c}} IPA Unicode 0x01C1 alt.svg|{{center|x}} IPA Unicode 0x01C3.svg|{{center|q}} IPA Unicode 0x01C2 alt.svg|{{center|v}} IPA Unicode 1xDF0A.svg|{{center|‼}} </gallery> ({{angbr IPA|𝼊}} was "implied" by the IPA and would be officially supported later.)
Post-Kiel IPA (with descenders, e.g. 2020): <gallery class=skin-invert-image> IPA Unicode 0x0298.svg|{{center|ɋ}} IPA Unicode 0x01C0.svg|{{center|c}} IPA Unicode 0x01C1.svg|{{center|x}} IPA Unicode 0x01C3.svg|{{center|q}} IPA Unicode 0x01C2.svg|{{center|v}} IPA Unicode 1xDF0A.svg|{{center|‼}} </gallery>
Mwangwego akshara (with inherent {{IPA|/a/}}): <gallery class=skin-invert-image> Unicode 0x0020.svg Unicode 0x0020.svg Mwangwego lateral click.png|{{center|xa}} Mwangwego alveolar click.png|{{center|qa}} Unicode 0x0020.svg Unicode 0x0020.svg </gallery>
Ditema syllabics letters: <gallery class=skin-invert-image> DtsD_Example_BilabialClick.svg|{{center|ɋh}} DtsD_Example_DentalClick.svg|{{center|ch}} DtsD_Example_LateralClick.svg|{{center|xh}} DtsD_Example_AlveolarClick.svg|{{center|qh}} DtsD_Example_PalatalClick.svg|{{center|vh}} Unicode 0x0020.svg </gallery>
Nko phonetic letters: <gallery class=skin-invert-image> Nko bilabial click.svg|{{center|ɋ}} Nko dental click.svg|{{center|c}} Nko lateral click.svg|{{center|x}} Nko alveolar click.svg|{{center|q}} Nko palatal click.svg|{{center|v}} Unicode 0x0020.svg </gallery>
== Notes == {{notelist}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
Category:Click consonants Category:Click languages Category:Latin-script letters Category:Phonetic transcription symbols Category:Phonetic alphabets