Tenuis lateral click
A voiceless or more precisely tenuis lateral click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa.
The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a tenuis lateral click with a velar rear articulation is or, commonly abbreviated to, or just ; 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 lateral click:Occurrence
Tenuis lateral clicks are found primarily in the various Khoisan language families of southern Africa and in some neighboring Bantu languages.| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning |
| Hadza | exekeke | 'to listen' | |
| Khoekhoe | ǂamǁgû | 'to inadvertently bite a hard object' | |
| Zulu | xo'x'''a'' | 'to converse' |