Alveolar nasal click

Alveolar nasal click
ǃ̃
ᵑǃ
ʗ̃
ᵑʗ
Encoding
Kirshenbaum n.! (n^!)[1]
Main articles: Alveolar clicks and nasal clicks

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:

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 an [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
Main article: Glottalized clicks

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.
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