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Voiced bilabial click

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Voiced bilabial velar click
ɡ͡ʘ
ᶢʘ
ʘ̬
Voiced bilabial uvular click
ɢ͡ʘ
𐞒ʘ

The voiced bilabial click is a click consonant found in some of the languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a voiced bilabial click with a velar rear articulation is ⟨ɡ͡ʘ⟩ or ⟨ɡ͜ʘ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨ɡʘ⟩, ⟨ᶢʘ⟩ or ⟨ʘ̬⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨ɢ͡ʘ, ɢ͜ʘ, ɢʘ, 𐞒ʘ⟩. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ʘɡ⟩ or ⟨ʘᶢ⟩; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.[1]

Features

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Features of the voiced bilabial 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 bilabial, which means it is articulated with both lips.
  • 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.
  • Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the centrallateral dichotomy does not apply.

Occurrence

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Voiced bilabial clicks only occur in the Tuu and Kx'a families of southern Africa.[2] These sounds are extremely rare and many non-native speakers find it difficult to pronounce. Thus, these sounds are sometimes transliterated as a "g" and a "G" and are pronounced as Velar and Uvular Plosives.

References

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  1. ^ Afrika und Übersee. D. Reimer. 2005. pp. 93–94.
  2. ^ Exter, Mats (2008-11-19). Properties of the Anterior and Posterior Click Closures in N|uu (text.thesis.doctoral thesis) (in German). Universität zu Köln.