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 [click letter|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 |