Alveolar nasal click

Alveolar nasal click
ǃ̃
ᵑǃ
ʗ̃
ᵑʗ
Encoding
Kirshenbaum	n.! (n^!)[1]

The (post)alveolar nasal click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ǃ̃⟩ or ⟨ᵑǃ⟩; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is ⟨ʗ̃⟩ or ⟨ᵑʗ⟩.

Features

Features of the (post)alveolar nasal 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 alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.

• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.

• It is a nasal consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the nose, either exclusively (nasal stops) or in addition to through the mouth.

• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.

Occurrence

Alveolar nasal clicks are found primarily in the various Khoisan language families of southern Africa and in some neighboring Bantu languages.

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning
ǃKung	nǃan	[ᵑǃáŋ] = [ʗ̃áŋ]	'inside'
Damin	n!2u	[ᵑǃᵑǃu] = [ʗ̃ʗ̃u]	'water'
Hadza	henqee	[ɦeŋᵑǃeʔe] = [ɦeŋʗ̃eʔe]	'dead leopard'
Khoekhoe	xuruǃomǃnâ	[xȕɾúᵑǃˀóm̀ᵑǃã̀ã̀] = [xȕɾúʗ̃ˀóm̀ʗ̃ã̀ã̀]	'to yank at something'
Zulu	inqola	[iᵑǃɔ́ːla] = [iʗ̃ɔ́ːla]	'cart'

Glottalized alveolar nasal click

Glottalized alveolar nasal click
ǃ̃ˀ
ᵑǃ͡ʔ ᵑ̊ǃˀ
ʗ̃͡ʔ
ᵑʗˀ

All Khoisan languages, and a few Bantu languages, have glottalized nasal clicks. These are formed by closing the glottis so that the click is pronounced in silence; however, any preceding vowel will be nasalized.

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning
Hadza	teqqe	[teᵑǃˀe] = [teʗ̃ˀe]	'to carry'
Khoekhoe	xuruǃomǃnâ	[xȕɾúᵑǃˀóm̀ᵑǃã̀ã̀] = [xȕɾúʗ̃ˀóm̀ʗ̃ã̀ã̀]	'to yank at something'
Xhosa	ukuqhankqalaza	[ukʼuǃʰaᵑǃˀalaza] = [ukʼuʗʰaʗ̃ˀalaza]	'to struggle'

Notes

1. Kirshenbaum assigns ⟨n^!⟩ indifferently to both alveolar and palatal clicks.