Preglottalized nasal click
Dental glottalized oral click |
ǀˀ |
Lateral glottalized voiced nasal click |
ᵑǁˀ |
Palatal glottalized voiced oral click |
ᶢǂˀ |
Preglottalized labial nasal click |
ˀᵑʘ |
Glottalized clicks are click consonants pronounced with closure of the glottis. All click types (alveolar ǃ, dental ǀ, lateral ǁ, palatal ǂ, retroflex ǃ˞, and labial ʘ) have glottalized variants. They are very common: All of the Khoisan languages of Africa have them (the Khoe, Tuu, and Kx'a language families, Sandawe, and Hadza), as does Dahalo and the Bantu languages Yeyi and Xhosa (though Zulu does not). To pronounce them, you make a glottal stop (the catch in your throat in the middle of English uh-oh!), which stops the flow of air, and then use the front of your tongue to make the click sound in the middle of the glottal stop.
In all languages which have them, glottalized clicks are nasalized, though a few have non-nasal glottalized clicks as well. Glottalized nasal clicks are formed by closing the glottis so that the click is pronounced in silence; however, the nasal passage is left open (the velum is lowered), and any preceding vowel will be nasalized. They are typically transcribed something like !’ or ŋ!’ or ŋ̊!’, and often !’ word-initially but n!’ between vowels. In Khoekhoe they are written with the single letters ǃ ǁ ǀ ǂ, in Juǀ’hõa, as ǃ’ ǁ’ ǀ’ ǂ’ with an preceding nasal vowel, in Sandawe as q’ x’ c’, in Hadza as qq xx cc, and in Xhosa as nkc nkx nkq.
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