Tenuis alveolar click
In this article, we will delve into the fascinating world of Tenuis alveolar click, exploring its importance, its impact on society and its relevance today. Tenuis alveolar click is a topic that has captured the attention of people of all ages and from different fields, from politics to pop culture. Over the years, Tenuis alveolar click has proven to be a topic of great interest to both experts in the field and the general public, generating debates and reflections that have influenced our way of thinking and acting. In this article, we will analyze the value of Tenuis alveolar click and how it has evolved over time, addressing its impact on society and its relevance in the modern world.
| Tenuis alveolar velar click | |
|---|---|
| k͡ǃ k͡ʗ | |
| ᵏǃ ᵏʗ | |
| ǃ ʗ | |
| IPA Number | 178 |
| Encoding | |
| Entity (decimal) | ǃʗ |
| Unicode (hex) | U+01C3 U+0297 |
| Braille |   |
| Unicode character name for ǃ is LATIN LETTER RETROFLEX CLICK | |
| Tenuis alveolar uvular click | |
|---|---|
| q͡ǃ q͡ʗ | |
| 𐞥ǃ 𐞥ʗ |
The 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 ⟨k͡ǃ⟩ or ⟨k͜ǃ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨kǃ⟩, ⟨ᵏǃ⟩ or simply ⟨ǃ⟩; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is ⟨k͡ʗ⟩ or ⟨k͜ʗ⟩, abbreviated ⟨kʗ⟩, ⟨ᵏʗ⟩ or just ⟨ʗ⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨q͡ǃ, q͜ǃ, qǃ, 𐞥ǃ⟩ and ⟨q͡ʗ, q͜ʗ, qʗ, 𐞥ʗ⟩. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ǃk⟩ or ⟨ǃᵏ⟩; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.
Features
Features of the 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 air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
- It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center 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 | = | 'to trip' |
| Khoekhoe | ǃgabe | = | 'to speak a Khoisan language' |
| Sesotho | ho qoqa | = | 'to chat' |
| Xhosa | iqanda | = | 'egg' |
| Zulu | iqaqa | = | 'polecat' |
References
- ^ Kirshenbaum assigns ⟨c!⟩ indifferently to both alveolar and palatal clicks.
- ^ Afrika und Übersee. D. Reimer. 2005. pp. 93–94.
