Tenuis palatal click
A voiceless or more precisely tenuis palatal click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa.
The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a tenuis palatal click with a velar rear articulation is or, commonly abbreviated to, or simply. Linguists who prefer the old IPA letters use the analogous Beach convention of 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 may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.
Features
Features of a tenuis palatal click:Occurrence
Tenuis palatal clicks are only found in the various Khoisan language families of southern Africa and in the neighboring Yeyi language.| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning |
| ǂHaba | ǂHaba | = | 'ǂHaba' |
| Khoekhoe | ǂgā-amǃnâ | = | 'to put in the mouth' |
| Naro | Qhomatcã ' | = | 'Qhomatca' |
| Yeyi | shiǂ'a'' | = | 'scarification' |