Alveolar click

{{Short description|Click consonant sound}} {{hatnote|Not to be confused with the retroflex clicks or palatal clicks. Unicode uses the obsolete descriptions of "retroflex click" for the alveolar-click character {{angbr IPA|ǃ}} and "alveolar click" for the palatal-click character {{angbr IPA|ǂ}}.}} {{Other uses of|!|! (disambiguation)}} {{Infobox IPA |above={{nowrap|Alveolar click type}} |ipa symbol =ǃ{{nbsp|3}}ʗ |ipa number=178, 202 |decimal1=451 |decimal2=663 |imagefile=IPA Unicode 0x01C3.svg |sound=Postalveolar click.ogg |xsampa=!\ |braille=and |braille2=t }} {{Infobox IPA |above={{nowrap|Tenuis alveolar click}} (velar) |ipa symbol=kǃ{{nbsp|3}}kʗ |ipa symbol2=ᵏǃ{{nbsp|3}}ᵏʗ |ipa symbol3=ǃ{{nbsp|3}}ʗ }} {{Infobox IPA|above=Voiced alveolar click (velar) |ipa symbol=ɡǃ{{nbsp|3}}ɡʗ |ipa symbol2=ᶢǃ{{nbsp|3}}ᶢʗ |ipa symbol3=ǃ̬{{nbsp|3}}ʗ̬ }} {{Infobox IPA|above=Alveolar nasal click (velar) |ipa symbol=ŋǃ{{nbsp|3}}ŋʗ |ipa symbol2=ᵑǃ{{nbsp|3}}ᵑʗ |ipa symbol3=ǃ̃{{nbsp|3}}ʗ̃ }} {{Infobox IPA |above={{nowrap|Tenuis alveolar click}} (uvular) |ipa symbol=qǃ{{nbsp|3}}qʗ |ipa symbol2=𐞥ǃ{{nbsp|3}}𐞥ʗ }} {{Infobox IPA|above=Voiced alveolar click (uvular) |ipa symbol=ɢǃ{{nbsp|3}}ɢʗ |ipa symbol2=𐞒ǃ{{nbsp|3}}𐞒ʗ }} {{Infobox IPA|above=Alveolar nasal click (uvular) |ipa symbol=ɴǃ{{nbsp|3}}ɴʗ |ipa symbol2=ᶰǃ{{nbsp|3}}ᶰʗ }}

The '''alveolar''' or '''postalveolar clicks''' are a family of click consonants found only in Africa and in the Damin ritual jargon of Australia. The tongue is more or less concave (depending on the language), and is pulled down rather than back as in the palatal clicks, making a hollower sound than those consonants.

The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the place of articulation of these sounds is {{angbr IPA|ǃ}}. The symbol is not an exclamation mark in origin, but rather a vertical bar with a subscript dot, the dot being the old diacritic for retroflex consonants, as the articulation corresponds to some conceptions of a retroflex consonant (but see retroflex clicks). Prior to 1989, {{angbr IPA|ʗ}} (stretched c) was the IPA letter for the alveolar clicks, and this is still preferred by some phoneticians. The tail of {{angbr IPA|ʗ}} may be the tail of retroflex consonants in the IPA, and thus analogous to the underdot of {{angbr IPA|ǃ}}.<ref>Pullum & Ladusaw, ''Phonetic Symbol Guide,'' p. 34</ref> Either letter may be combined with a second letter or a diacritic to indicate voicing and the manner of articulation, though this is commonly omitted for tenuis clicks.

== Alveolar click consonants and their transcription ==

In official IPA transcription, the click letter is combined with a {{angbr IPA|k ɡ ŋ q ɢ ɴ}} via a tie bar, though {{angbr IPA|k}} is frequently omitted. Many authors instead use a superscript {{angbr IPA|k ɡ ŋ q ɢ ɴ}} without the tie bar, again often neglecting the {{angbr IPA|k}}. Either letter, whether baseline or superscript, is usually placed before the click letter, but may come after when the release of the velar or uvular occlusion is audible. A third convention is the click letter with diacritics for voicelessness, voicing and nasalization; this would require something like the guttural diacritic {{IPA|◌̴}} to distinguish uvular–alveolar clicks. Common alveolar clicks in these three transcriptions are:

{| class="wikitable" ! Trans. I !! Trans. II !! Trans. III !! Description |- ! colspan=4| (velar) |- | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|k͜ǃ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ᵏǃ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ǃ}} | ''tenuis alveolar click'' |- | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|k͜ǃʰ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ᵏǃʰ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ǃʰ}} | ''aspirated alveolar click'' |- | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ɡ͜ǃ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ᶢǃ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ǃ̬}} | ''voiced alveolar click'' |- | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ŋ͜ǃ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ᵑǃ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ǃ̬̃}} | ''alveolar nasal click'' |- | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ŋ̊͜ǃʰʰ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ᵑ̥ǃʰʰ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ǃ̥̃ʰʰ}} | ''aspirated alveolar nasal click'' |- | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ŋ͜ǃˀ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ᵑǃˀ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ǃ̃ˀ}} | ''glottalized alveolar nasal click'' |- ! colspan=4| (uvular) |- | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|q͜ǃ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|𐞥ǃ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center" | {{angbr IPA|ǃ̴}} | ''tenuis alveolar click'' |- | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|q͜ǃʰ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|𐞥ǃʰ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center" | {{angbr IPA|ǃ̴ʰ}} | ''aspirated alveolar click'' |- | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ɢ͜ǃ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|𐞒ǃ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center" | {{angbr IPA|ǃ̴̬}} | ''voiced alveolar click'' |- | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ɴ͜ǃ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ᶰǃ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center" | {{angbr IPA|ǃ̴̬̃}} | ''alveolar nasal click'' |- | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ɴ̥͜ǃʰʰ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ᶰ̥ǃʰʰ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center" | {{angbr IPA|ǃ̴̥̃ʰʰ}} | ''aspirated alveolar nasal click'' |- | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ɴ͜ǃˀ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ᶰǃˀ}} | style="font-size:24px" align="center" | {{angbr IPA|ǃ̴̃ˀ}} | ''glottalized alveolar nasal click'' |}

The last can be heard in the sound sample at right; non-native speakers tend to ''glottalize'' clicks to avoid nasalizing them. The nasal click may also be heard at the right.

In the orthographies of individual languages, the letters and digraphs for alveolar clicks may be based on either the vertical bar symbol of the IPA, {{angbr IPA|ǃ}}, or on the Latin {{angbr|q}} of Bantu convention. Khoekhoe and most Bushman languages use the former; Naro, Sandawe, and Zulu use the latter.

==Features== Features of postalveolar clicks:

{{click manner}} *The forward place of articulation is alveolar or postalveolar, depending on the language, and apical, which means it is articulated with the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge or the roof of the mouth behind the alveolar ridge. (Damin contrasted these two articulations as separate phonemes.) The release is a sharp, plosive sound in southern Africa, but in Sandawe it may be percussive, with the underside of the tip of the tongue striking the floor of the mouth after the release of the click (see below), and in Hadza the release is often quite weak. {{oral-nasal}} {{Median click}} {{lingual airstream}}

==Occurrence== English does not have an alveolar click (or any other click consonant) as a phoneme, but a plain alveolar click does occur in mimesis, as a sound children use to imitate a horse trotting.<ref>Tucker ''et al.'' (1977), ''The East-African Click Languages: A Phonetic Comparison''</ref>

{| class="wikitable" !colspan=2| Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! Notes |- |colspan=2| !Kung | '''''nǃ'''an'' |align=center| {{IPA|[ᵑǃáŋ] {{=}} [ʗ̃áŋ]}} | 'inside' | |- |colspan=2 rowspan=4| Hadza | {{lang|hts|la'''q'''o}} |align=center| {{IPA|[laᵏǃo] {{=}} [laʗ̊o]}} | 'to trip' | |- | {{lang|hts|ke'''qh'''ena}} |align=center| {{IPA|[keᵏǃʰena] {{=}} [keʗ̊ʰena]}} | 'to be slow' | |- | {{lang|hts|he'''nq'''ee}} |align=center| {{IPA|[ɦeᵑǃeʔe] {{=}} [ɦeʗ̃eʔe]}} | 'dead leopard' | |- | {{lang|hts|te'''qq'''e}} |align=center| {{IPA|[teᵑǃˀe] {{=}} [teʗ̃ˀe]}} | 'to carry' | |- |colspan=2| Sandawe | {{lang|sad|'''gq'''okomi}} |align=center| {{IPA|[ᶢǃokomi] {{=}} [ʗ̬okomi]}} | 'greater kudu' | may have a slapped release: {{IPA|[ǃ̬͡¡okomi] {{=}} [ʗ̬͡¡okomi]}} |- |colspan=2| Sotho | {{lang|st|ho '''q'''o'''q'''a}} |align=center| {{IPA|[hoᵏǃɔᵏǃɑ] {{=}} [hoʗ̊ɔʗ̊ɑ]}} | 'to chat/converse' | Contrasts with murmured, aspirated, and alveolar nasal clicks. See Sotho phonology |- |colspan=2| Xhosa | {{lang|xh|i'''q'''anda}} |align=center| {{IPA|[iᵏǃanda] {{=}} [iʗ̊anda]}} | 'egg' | Contrasts with murmured, aspirated, and alveolar nasal clicks |- |colspan=2| ǃXóõ | {{lang|nmn-Latn|'''ǃ'''qhàà}} |align=center| {{IPA|[ǃ͡qʰɑ̀ː] {{=}} [ʗ͡qʰɑ̀ː]}} | 'water' | An aspirated linguo-pulmonic stop |- |colspan=2| Zulu | {{lang|zu|i'''q'''a'''q'''a}} |align=center| {{IPA|[iːᵏǃáːᵏǃa]}} {{=}} {{IPA|[iːʗ̊áːʗ̊a]}} | 'polecat' | Contrasts with murmured, aspirated, and alveolar nasal clicks. |}

==Percussive release== {{Infobox IPA |above=Percussive alveolar click (tenuis velar) |ipa symbol=ᵏǃ¡{{nbsp|3}}ᵏʗ¡ |ipa symbol2=kǃꜞ{{nbsp|3}}kʗꜞ |ipa symbol3=ǃ¡ |ipa-number=|decimal= }} {{Infobox IPA |above=Percussive palatal click (nasal velar) |ipa symbol=ᵑǂ¡{{nbsp|3}}ᵑ𝼋¡ |ipa symbol2=ŋǂꜞ{{nbsp|3}}ŋ𝼋ꜞ |ipa-number=|decimal= }}

In Sandawe, alveolar clicks commonly have a ballistic release, with the underside of the tip of the tongue subsequently striking the floor of the mouth.<ref>Wright, Richard, Ian Maddieson, Peter Ladefoged, Bonny Sands (1995). "A phonetic study of Sandawe clicks", ''UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics'', No. 91: Fieldwork Studies in Targeted Languages III.</ref> This allophone has been called "slapped" or "flapped" (not to be confused with flap consonants, such as the reduced alveolar clicks of Hadza). Sometimes the percussive slap is louder than the release, resulting in a sound that has been characterized as a "cluck". The symbol for the sublingual percussive component is {{angbr IPA|¡}} in the extensions to the IPA; a slapped click is therefore transcribed {{angbr IPA|ǃ͡¡}} or {{angbr IPA|ǃꜞ}} (or {{angbr IPA|ʗ͡¡, ʗꜞ}}). The percussive allophones of the five Sandawe alveolar clicks are {{IPA|[ᵏǃ͡¡, ᵏǃ͡¡ʰ, ᶢǃ͡¡, ᵑǃ͡¡, ᵑǃ͡¡ˀ]}} (or {{IPA|[ᵏʗꜞ ᵏʗꜞʰ ᶢʗꜞ ᵑʗꜞ ᵑʗꜞˀ]}} etc.).

Clement Doke also noted a palatal click with slapped release, {{IPA|[ᵑǂ¡]}}.<ref>Clement Doke (1925) An outline of the phonetics of the language of the ʗhũ̬꞉ Bushman of the North-West Kalahari. ''Bantu Studies'' 2: 129–166.</ref>

Nasal clicks that fit this description are used in nursery rhymes by speakers of Gan Chinese and of Mandarin, with varying degrees of competence.<ref>Geoffrey Nathan, 'Clicks in a Chinese Nursery Rhyme', JIPA (2001) 31/2.</ref> See Chinese click sounds for details.

{| class="wikitable" !colspan=2| Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! Notes |- |colspan=2| Sandawe | {{lang|sad|'''gq'''okomi}} |align=center| {{IPA|[ǃ̬͡¡okomi] {{=}} [ʗ̬͡¡okomi]}} | 'greater kudu' | common variant of {{IPA|[ᶢǃokomi] {{=}} [ʗ̬okomi]}} |}

=={{anchor|"Fricated" alveolar click}}"Fricated" alveolar clicks== A series of clicks in Ekoka !Kung have been variously described as retroflex or fricated palatal clicks.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{phoible|ǃ}}

Category:Alveolar consonants Category:Click consonants Category:Percussive consonants