A voiceless or more precisely tenuis lateral click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a tenuis lateral click with a velar rear articulation is or , commonly abbreviated to , or just ; 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 lateral click:
Occurrence Tenuis lateral clicks are found primarily in the various Khoisan language families of southern Africa and in some neighboring Bantu languages.
Language Word IPA Meaning Hadza exekeke 'to listen'Khoekhoeǂamǁgû 'to inadvertently bite a hard object'Zulu xoxa 'to converse'
References