A 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 or , commonly abbreviated to , or simply ; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is or , abbreviated , or just . 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.
Features Features of a tenuis (post)alveolar click:
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 'to trip' Khoekhoe 'to speak a Khoisan language' Sesotho 'to chat' Xhosa 'egg' Zulu 'polecat'
References