Tenuis alveolar click


A voiceless or more precisely tenuis alveolar click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa.
The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a tenuis alveolar click with a velar rear articulation is or, commonly abbreviated to, or simply ; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is or, abbreviated, or just. 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 tenuis alveolar click:

Occurrence

Tenuis alveolar clicks are found primarily in the various Khoisan language families of southern Africa and in some neighboring Bantu languages.
LanguageWordIPAMeaning
Hadzalaqo 'to trip'
Khoekhoeǃgabe 'to speak a Khoisan language'
Sesothoho qo'qa 'to chat'
Xhosaiq'anda 'egg'
Zuluiqa'q'a 'polecat'