Palatal nasal click

Palatal nasal click
ǂ̃
ᵑǂ
Encoding
Kirshenbaum n^!
Main articles: Palatal clicks and nasal clicks

The palatal nasal click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ǂ̃ or ᵑǂ. (Variations of the latter include ŋǂ and ǂŋ.)

Features

Features of the palatal nasal click:

Occurrence

Palatal nasal clicks are only found in the various Khoisan languages families of southern Africa and in the neighboring Yeyi language.

Language Word IPA Meaning
Khoekhoe ǂnauǃhuiǂgui [ᵑǂə̀űᵑ̊ǃʰȕíǂȕí] = [ʄ̃ə̀űǃ̥̃ʰȕíʄ̬ȕí] to give s.o. a bloody nose
Naro ntcùú qhuri c’õa
(ùú qhuri c’õa)
[ᵑǂǔːǃʰūɾīŋǀˀõ̯ã] = [ʄ̃ǔːʗʰūɾīŋʇˀõ̯ã] the Milky Way
Taa ǂnûm [ᵑǂûm] = [ʄ̃ûm] two
Gǀui [ᵑǂâː] = [ʄ̃âː] to stare

Glottalized palatal nasal click

Glottalized
palatal nasal click
ǂ̃ˀ
ᵑǂ͡ʔ
ᵑ̊ǂˀ
ᵑǂˀ
Main article: Glottalized clicks

All Khoisan languages, and a few Bantu 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
Khoekhoe ǂamǁgû [ᵑǂ͡ʔàm̀ǁṹṹ] = [ǂ̃ˀàm̀ǁṹṹ] to inadvertently bite a hard object
Naro tc’úú-tc’ùù
(ç’úú-ç’ùù)
[ǂˀúːŋǂˀùː] to paint
Gǀui [ᵑǂ͡ʔáː] = [ǂ̃ˀáː] to hide (oneself)
Yeyi [makʰweᵑǂˀumu] sunrise

Notes

    This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 3/27/2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.