Nasal palatal click


The palatal 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 or.

Features

Features of the palatal nasal click:

Occurrence

Palatal nasal clicks are only found in the various Khoisan languages families of southern Africa and in the neighboring Yeyi language.
LanguageWordIPAMeaning
Khoekhoeǂnauǃhuiǂgui to give s.o. a bloody nose
Narontcùú qhuri c’õa
'		 the Milky Way
Taaǂn'ûm'' two
Gǀui to stare

Glottalized palatal nasal click

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.
LanguageWordIPAMeaning
Khoekhoeǂamǁgû to inadvertently bite a hard object
Narotc’úú-tc’ùù
to paint
Gǀui to hide
Yeyisunrise