Nasal retroflex click
A retroflex nasal click is a rare click consonant. In practical orthography, an ad hoc symbol is used for the retroflex clicks; a nasal click with a velar rear articulation is or, commonly abbreviated to, or.
The implicit symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is or, abbreviated, or. Linguists who prefer the old IPA letters use the analogous Doke convention of or, abbreviated, or. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are, and.
Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. or ; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.
Features
Features of a retroflex nasal click:Occurrence
Retroflex nasal clicks are only attested in two languages, Central !Kung and Damin.| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning |
| Central !Kung | |||
| Damin | rnǃrn!u | = | water |
Glottalized alveolar nasal click
All Khoisan 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 | Notes |
| Central !Kung |