:Click:

A sound made with an ingressive oral airstream. Clicks are used in many cultures to express emotion, or as imitative sounds. An example is the “tut-tut” noise (a voiceless alveolar click) used to signal mild annoyance or reproof. The use of clicks as members of the phonological inventory is confined to the Khoisan group of languages in Southern Africa, such as Nama and ǃXóõ, and to neighbouring Bantu languages, such as Zulu and Xhosa. Clicks may be made voiceless, voiced, voiced and nasalized, and with various accompanying release features such as affricated release.


Click symbols on the 2005 IPA Chart

Place

voiceless

voiced

voiced nasalised

Bilabial

ʘ

ɡʘ

ŋʘ

Laminal dental/alveolar

|

ɡ|

ŋ|

Apical (post) alveolar1

ǃ

ɡǃ

ŋǃ

Laminal  postalveolar2

ǂ

ɡǂ

ŋǂ

Alveolar lateral

ǁ

ɡǁ

ŋǁ

1Often called retroflex 2Often called palatal

Note: As all clicks by definition are accompanied by a velar closure, some authors write the voiceless clicks as kʘ k| etc.


Click the ear icons to go to pages with examples of clicks in various languages:

  • Xhosa
  • Zulu
  • Nama
  • ǃXóõ