Alveolar Click Understanding the Rare Linguistic Sound

The alveolar click (or postalveolar click) is a specialized family of click consonants found primarily in African languages and the Damin ritual jargon of Australia. Unlike other consonants, these sounds are produced using a lingual ingressive airstream mechanism, creating a distinct "sucking" sound.

Articulation and IPA Representation

The tongue is typically concave and pulled downward rather than backward, resulting in a hollower sound compared to palatal clicks. In the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), the alveolar click is represented by the symbol ⟨ǃ⟩. While it resembles an exclamation mark, it originated as a vertical bar with a subscript dot, reflecting its retroflex-like articulation.

Historically, before 1989, the symbol ⟨ʗ⟩ (a stretched 'c') was used and is still preferred by some phoneticians. These symbols can be combined with diacritics or other letters to indicate voicing, nasalization, or the manner of articulation.

Transcription and Conventions

In official IPA transcription, the click letter is often combined with a velar or uvular consonant (such as ⟨k ɡ ŋ q ɢ ɴ⟩) using a tie bar. Common conventions include:

• Using a superscript consonant (e.g., ^kǃ) without a tie bar.
• Placing the consonant before or after the click letter depending on whether the release of the occlusion is audible.
• Using diacritics to indicate voicelessness, voicing, and nasalization.

In various language orthographies, the alveolar click may be represented by ⟨ǃ⟩ (used in Khoekhoe and most Bushman languages) or the Latin ⟨q⟩ (used in Naro, Sandawe, and Zulu).

Key Features of Postalveolar Clicks

The characteristics of these sounds vary by language, but generally include the following:

• Articulation: The forward place of articulation is alveolar or postalveolar and apical, meaning the tip of the tongue strikes the alveolar ridge or the roof of the mouth.
• Airstream Mechanism: They use a velaric ingressive mechanism, where a pocket of air is rarefied between two closures.
• Median Consonants: They are produced by releasing the airstream at the midline of the tongue.
• Variations: They can be voiced, nasal, aspirated, or glottalized.

Occurrence and Special Variations

Mimesis in English

While English does not use alveolar clicks as phonemes, they appear in mimesis—for example, the sound children often make to imitate a horse trotting.

Percussive Release in Sandawe

In the Sandawe language, alveolar clicks often feature a ballistic release, where the underside of the tongue tip strikes the floor of the mouth. This is sometimes called a "slapped" or "flapped" click, resulting in a "cluck" sound. This is transcribed as ⟨ǃ͡¡⟩ or ⟨ǃꜞ⟩.

Fricated Clicks

In Ekoka !Kung, some clicks are described as either retroflex or fricated palatal clicks, adding further complexity to the phonetic landscape of these sounds.