- Lateral clicks
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Alveolar lateral click
(plain)ǁ ʖ Image 
IPA number 180 Encoding Entity (decimal) ǁUnicode (hex) U+01C1 X-SAMPA |\|\Kirshenbaum tl!Sound
Voiced alveolar lateral click ǁ̬ ᶢǁ ʖ̬ ᶢʖ Encoding Kirshenbaum dl!Alveolar nasal lateral click ǁ̃ ᵑǁ ʖ̃ ᵑʖ Encoding Kirshenbaum nl!The lateral clicks are a family of click consonants found only in African languages. The clicking sound used by equestrians to urge on their horses is a lateral click, although it is not a speech sound in that context. Alveolar lateral clicks are found throughout southern Africa and in two languages in Tanzania.
Contents
Alveolar lateral clicks
Most lateral clicks are alveolar. These are found in all Khoisan languages as well as in several Bantu languages. The only languages with non-alveolar lateral clicks are in the Juu family (see below).
The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the place of articulation of these sounds is ǁ, a double pipe. Prior to 1989, [ʖ] was the IPA representation of the tenuis alveolar lateral click, and this is still preferred by some phoneticians, as the pipe may be confounded with prosody marks and, in some fonts, with a double el. Either letter may be combined with a second letter to indicate the manner of articulation, though this is commonly omitted for tenuis clicks, and increasingly a diacritic is used instead. Common alveolar lateral clicks are:
IPA I IPA II Description [ǁ] or [ʖ] tenuis alveolar lateral click [ǁʰ] or [ʖʰ] aspirated alveolar lateral click [ǁ̬] or [ʖ̬] [ᶢǁ] or [ᶢʖ] voiced alveolar lateral click [ǁ̃] or [ʖ̃] [ᵑǁ] or [ᵑʖ] nasal alveolar lateral click [ǁ̥̃ʰ] or [ʖ̥̃ʰ] [ᵑ̊ǁʰ] or [ᵑ̊ʖʰ] aspirated nasal alveolar lateral click [ǁˀ, ǁ̥̃ˀ] or [ʖˀ, ʖ̥̃ˀ] [ᵑ̊ǁˀ] or [ᵑ̊ʖˀ]) glottalized nasal alveolar lateral click The last is what is heard in the sound sample above, as non-native speakers tend to glottalize clicks to avoid nasalizing them.
Features
Features of alveolar lateral clicks:
- The basic articulation may be voiced, nasal, aspirated, glottalized, etc.
- The forward place of articulation is apical alveolar, which means it is articulated with the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge. The release is a noisy, affricate-like sound in southern Africa, but abrupt in Hadza and Sandawe in East Africa.
- Clicks may be oral or nasal, which means that the airflow is either restricted to the mouth, or passes through the nose as well.
- They are lateral consonants, which means they are produced by releasing the airstream at the side of the tongue, rather than in the middle. Some speakers pronounce them on one side of the mouth, some on both.
- The airstream mechanism is lingual ingressive (aka 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.
Occurrence
English does not have a lateral click (or any click consonant, for that matter) as a phoneme, but a plain alveolar lateral click does occur as an interjection, usually written tchick! or tchek! (and often reduplicated tchick-tchick!), used to urge a horse to move.
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes ǃKung [ᵑǁàŋ] – [ʖ̃àŋ] 'marama bean' Hadza [ʔeǁekeke] – [ʔeʖekeke] 'to listen' [naǁʰi] – [naʖʰi] 'to crowd' [koᵑǁa] – [koʖ̃a] 'to be a pair' [ɬaᵑǁˀa] – [ɬaʖ̃ˀa] 'a split, fork' Xhosa isiXhosa [isiǁʰosa] – [isiʖʰosa] 'Xhosa language' Contrasts tenuis, murmured, aspirated, and nasal lateral clicks. !Xóõ ǁnáã [ᵑǁɑ́ɑ̃] – [ʖ̃ɑ́ɑ̃] 'grewia berry' Zulu xoxa [ˈǁɔːǁa] – [ˈʖɔːʖa] 'to converse' Dental lateral clicks
Dental lateral click ǁ̻ ǀǀǀ Encoding Kirshenbaum t_l!In addition to alveolar articulations, dental lateral clicks are reported from speakers of an Angolan ǃXũũ dialect now residing in Mangetti Dune, Namibia. These include at least voiceless, voiced, and nasal phonations, and are reflexes of the retroflex clicks of Proto-Juu. They are provisionally written with three pipes, ⟨ǀǀǀ⟩, rather than the two of the alveolar lateral ⟨ǁ⟩. They are laminal alveolar or denti-alveolar, [ǁ̻], while the clicks transcribed as ⟨ǁ⟩ are apical postalveolar, [ǁ̺].
Contrasting lateral clicks in Mangetti Dune ǃXũũ:
[ᵑǁàŋ] 'marama bean' [ᵑǁ̻àŋ] 'eland' [ᵑǃáŋ] 'inside' References
- Pullum, Geoffrey K.; Ladusaw, William A. (1996). Phonetic Symbol Guide. University of Chicago Press. pp. 178.
See also
- Alveolar clicks
- Bilabial clicks
- Dental clicks
- Palatal clicks
- Retroflex clicks
- List of phonetics topics
International Phonetic Alphabet IPA topics IPA International Phonetic Association · History of the IPA · Kiel convention (1989) · Journal of the IPA (JIPA) · Naming conventionsPhonetics Special topics Encodings Consonants IPA pulmonic consonants chartchart image • 
audioPlace → Labial Coronal Dorsal Radical Glottal ↓ Manner Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Postalv. Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Epiglottal Glottal Nasal m ɱ n̪ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ Plosive p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Fricative ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Approximant ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Trill ʙ r ɽ͡r ʀ я * Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̯ Lateral Fric. ɬ ɮ ɭ˔̊ ʎ̥˔ ʟ̝̊ Lateral Appr. l ɭ ʎ ʟ Lateral flap ɺ ɺ̠ ʎ̯ Non-pulmonic consonants Clicks ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ Implosives ɓ ɗ ʄ ᶑ ɠ ʛ Ejectives pʼ tʼ cʼ ʈʼ kʼ qʼ fʼ θʼ sʼ ɬʼ xʼ χʼ tsʼ tɬʼ cʎ̝̥ʼ tʃʼ ʈʂʼ kxʼ kʟ̝̊ʼ Affricates p̪f ts dz tʃ dʒ tɕ dʑ ʈʂ ɖʐ tɬ dɮ cç ɟʝ Co-articulated consonants Fricatives ɕ ʑ ɧ Approximants ʍ w ɥ ɫ Stops k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m These tables contain phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, left—right represent the voiceless—voiced consonants. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible. * Symbol not defined in IPA. Chart image Vowels Vowels: IPA help • chart • chart with audio • viewCategories:- Alveolar consonants
- Click consonants
- Lateral consonants
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