The voiced palatal click is a click consonant found among the languages of southern Africa.[1] The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a voiced palatal click with a velar rear articulation is ⟨ɡ͡ǂ⟩ or ⟨ɡ͜ǂ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨ɡǂ⟩, ⟨ᶢǂ⟩ or ⟨ǂ̬⟩. Linguists who prefer the old IPA letters use the analogous Beach convention[2] of ⟨ɡ͡𝼋⟩ or ⟨ɡ͜𝼋⟩, abbreviated ⟨ɡ𝼋⟩, ⟨ᶢ𝼋⟩ or ⟨𝼋̬⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨ɢ͡ǂ, ɢ͜ǂ, ɢǂ, 𐞒ǂ⟩ and ⟨ɢ͡𝼋, ɢ͜𝼋, ɢ𝼋, 𐞒𝼋⟩. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ǂɡ⟩ or ⟨ǂᶢ⟩; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.[3]

Voiced palatal velar click
ɡ͡ǂ   ɡ͡𝼋
ᶢǂ   ᶢ𝼋
ǂ̬   ǂ᪶   𝼋̬
Voiced palatal uvular click
ɢ͡ǂ   ɢ͡𝼋
𐞒ǂ   𐞒𝼋

Features

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Features of the voiced palatal 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 palatal, which means it is articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised to the hard palate.
  • Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
  • 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

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Voiced palatal clicks are only found in the various Khoisan language families of southern Africa and in the neighboring Yeyi language.

Language Word IPA Meaning
Naro dtcòo tcgáí
(òo çgáí)
[ᶢǂòː ǂχáí] = [ǂ̬òː ǂχáí] 'torch'
Yeyi uoara [uᶢǂo̯aɾa] = [uǂ̬o̯aɾa] 'chameleon'

References

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  1. ^ Ladefoged, Peter; Traill, Anthony (1994-01-01). "Clicks and their accompaniments". Journal of Phonetics. 22 (1): 33–64. doi:10.1016/S0095-4470(19)30266-9. ISSN 0095-4470.
  2. ^ Beach, Douglas Martyn (1938). The phonetics of the Hottentot language. London: W. Heffer & Sons.
  3. ^ Afrika und Übersee. D. Reimer. 2005. pp. 93–94.