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 𝼋̬ |
Voiced palatal uvular click | |
---|---|
ɢ͡ǂ ɢ͡𝼋 | |
𐞒ǂ 𐞒𝼋 |
Features of the voiced palatal click:
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 (dçòo çgáí) |
[ᶢǂòː ǂχáí] = [ǂ̬òː ǂχáí] | 'torch' |
Yeyi | ugǂoara | [uᶢǂo̯aɾa] = [uǂ̬o̯aɾa] | 'chameleon' |