| Above: | Tenuis dental click (velar) |
| Ipa Symbol: | k͜ǀ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | ᵏǀ |
| Ipa Symbol3: | ǀ |
| Ipa Symbol4: | k͜ʇ ᵏʇ |
| Ipa Number: | 177, 201 |
| Decimal1: | 448 |
| Decimal2: | 647 |
| Imagefile: | IPA Unicode 0x01C0.svg |
| Xsampa: | |\ |
| Braille: | and |
| Braille2: | th |
| Above: | Voiced dental click (velar) |
| Ipa Symbol: | ɡ͡ǀ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | ᶢǀ ᵈǀ |
| Ipa Symbol3: | ɡ͡ʇ ᶢʇ |
| Above: | Dental nasal click (velar) |
| Ipa Symbol: | ŋ͡ǀ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | ᵑǀ ⁿǀ |
| Ipa Symbol3: | ŋ͡ʇ ᵑʇ |
| Above: | Tenuis dental click (uvular) |
| Ipa Symbol: | q͡ǀ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | ǀ |
| Ipa Symbol3: | q͡ʇ ʇ |
| Above: | Voiced dental click (uvular) |
| Ipa Symbol: | ɢ͡ǀ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | ǀ |
| Ipa Symbol3: | ɢ͡ʇ ʇ |
| Above: | Dental nasal click (uvular) |
| Ipa Symbol: | ɴ͡ǀ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | ᶰǀ |
| Ipa Symbol3: | ɴ͡ʇ ᶰʇ |
Dental (or more precisely denti-alveolar)[1] clicks are a family of click consonants found, as constituents of words, only in Africa and in the Damin ritual jargon of Australia.
In English, the tut-tut! (British spelling, "tutting") or tsk! tsk! (American spelling, "tsking") sound used to express disapproval or pity is an unreleased[2] dental click, although it is not a lexical phoneme (a sound that distinguishes words) in English but a paralinguistic speech-sound. Similarly paralinguistic usage of dental clicks is made in certain other languages, but the meaning thereof differs widely between many of the languages (e.g., affirmation in Somali but negation in many varieties of Arabic, Turkish and the languages of the Balkans).
The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the place of articulation of these sounds is (IPA|ǀ), a vertical bar. Prior to 1989, (IPA|ʇ) was the IPA letter for the dental clicks. It is still occasionally used where the symbol (IPA|ǀ) would be confounded with other symbols, such as prosody marks, or simply because in many fonts the vertical bar is indistinguishable from a lowercase L or capital I.[3]
In official IPA transcription, the click letter is combined with a (IPA|k ɡ ŋ q ɢ ɴ) via a tie bar, though (IPA|k) is frequently omitted. Many authors instead use a superscript (IPA|k ɡ ŋ q ɢ ɴ) without the tie bar, again often neglecting the (IPA|k). Either letter, whether baseline or superscript, is usually placed before the click letter, but may come after when the release of the velar or uvular occlusion is audible. A third convention is the click letter with diacritics for voicelessness, voicing and nasalization; it does not distinguish velar from uvular dental clicks. Common dental clicks are:
| Trans. I | Trans. II | Trans. III | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (velar) | ||||
| (IPA|k͜ǀ) | (IPA|ᵏǀ) | (IPA|ǀ) | tenuis dental click | |
| (IPA|k͜ǀʰ) | (IPA|ᵏǀʰ) | (IPA|ǀʰ) | aspirated dental click | |
| (IPA|ɡ͜ǀ) | (IPA|ᶢǀ) | (IPA|ǀ̬) | voiced dental click | |
| (IPA|ŋ͜ǀ) | (IPA|ᵑǀ) | (IPA|ǀ̬̃) | dental nasal click | |
| (IPA|ŋ͜ǀ̥ʰʰ) | (IPA|ᵑǀ̥ʰʰ) | (IPA|ǀ̥̃ʰʰ) | aspirated dental nasal click | |
| (IPA|ŋ͜ǀˀ) | (IPA|ᵑǀˀ) | (IPA|ǀ̃ˀ) | glottalized dental nasal click | |
| (uvular) | ||||
| (IPA|q͜ǀ) | (IPA|𐞥ǀ) | tenuis dental click | ||
| (IPA|q͜ǀʰ) | (IPA|𐞥ǀʰ) | aspirated dental click | ||
| (IPA|ɢ͜ǀ) | (IPA|𐞒ǀ) | voiced dental click | ||
| (IPA|ɴ͜ǀ) | (IPA|ᶰǀ) | dental nasal click | ||
| (IPA|ɴ͜ǀ̥ʰʰ) | (IPA|ᶰǀ̥ʰʰ) | aspirated dental nasal click | ||
| (IPA|ɴ͜ǀˀ) | (IPA|ᶰǀˀ) | glottalized dental nasal click | ||
The last is what is heard in the sound sample at right, as non-native speakers tend to glottalize clicks to avoid nasalizing them.
In the orthographies of individual languages, the letters and digraphs for dental clicks may be based on either the vertical bar symbol of the IPA, (IPA|ǀ), or on the Latin (c) of Bantu convention. Nama and most Saan languages use the former; Naro, Sandawe, and Zulu use the latter.
Features of dental clicks:
Dental clicks are common in Khoisan languages and the neighboring Nguni languages, such as Zulu and Xhosa. In the Nguni languages, the tenuis click is denoted by the letter c, the murmured click by gc, the aspirated click by ch, and the nasal click by nc. The prenasalized clicks are written ngc and nkc.
The Cushitic language Dahalo has four clicks, all of them nasalized: pronounced as /[ᵑ̊ʇ, ᵑʇ, ᵑ̊ʇʷ, ᵑʇʷ]/.
Dental clicks may also be used para-linguistically. For example, English speakers use a plain dental click, usually written tsk or tut (and often reduplicated tsk-tsk or tut-tut; these spellings often lead to spelling pronunciations pronounced as //tɪsk// or pronounced as //tʌt//), as an interjection to express commiseration, disapproval, irritation, or to call a small animal. German (German: ts or German: tss), Hungarian (Hungarian: cöccögés), Persian (Persian: noch), Portuguese (Portuguese: tsc), Russian (Russian: [[wikt:ru:ц-ц-ц|ts-ts-ts]]; sound file) Spanish (Spanish; Castilian: ts) and French (French: t-t-t-t) speakers use the dental click in exactly the same way as English.
The dental click is also used para-linguistically in Semitic languages such as Arabic, Hebrew and Indo-European Pashto, and Persian where it is transcribed as Multiple languages: نچ|rtl=yes/Multiple languages: noch and is also used as a negative response to a "yes or no" question (including Dari and Tajiki). It is also used in some languages spoken in regions closer to, or in, Europe, such as Turkish, Albanian, Greek, Bulgarian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian or Serbo-Croatian to denote a negative response to a "yes or no" question. The dental click is sometimes accompanied by an upward motion of the head.[3] [4]
| Language | Word | Meaning | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zulu | Zulu: i'''c'''i'''c'''i | pronounced as /[iːᵏǀíːᵏǀi]/ pronounced as /[iːʇ̥íːʇ̥i]/ | earring | |
| Zulu: uku'''ch'''aza | pronounced as /[úɠuˈᵏǀʰáːza̤]/ pronounced as /[úɠuˈʇ̥ʰáːza̤]/ | to fascinate | ||
| Zulu: isi'''gc'''ino | pronounced as /[ísiᶢǀʱǐ̤ːno]/ pronounced as /[ísiʇ̬ʱǐ̤ːno]/ | end | ||
| Zulu: i'''nc'''wa'''nc'''wa | pronounced as /[iᵑǀwáːᵑǀwa]/ pronounced as /[iʇ̃wáːʇ̃wa]/ | sour corn meal | ||
| Zulu: i'''ngc'''osi | pronounced as /[iᵑǀʱǒ̤ːsi]/ pronounced as /[iʇ̃ʱǒ̤ːsi]/ | a bit | ||
| '''c'''inambo | pronounced as /[ᵏǀinambo]/ pronounced as /[ʇ̥inambo]/ | firefly | ||
| '''ch'''eta | pronounced as /[ᵏǀʰeta]/ pronounced as /[ʇ̥ʰeta]/ | to be happy | ||
| mi'''nc'''a | pronounced as /[miᵑǀa]/ pronounced as /[miʇ̃a]/ | to smack one's lips | ||
| ta'''cc'''e | pronounced as /[taᵑǀˀe]/ pronounced as /[taʇ̃ˀe]/ | rope | ||
| '''ǀg'''urub | pronounced as /[ᵏǀȕɾȕp]/ pronounced as /[ʇ̥ȕɾȕp]/ | dry autumn leaves | ||
| '''ǀn'''am | pronounced as /[ᵑǀȁm̀]/ pronounced as /[ʇ̬̃ȁm̀]/ | to love | ||
| '''ǀH'''ōǂgaeb | pronounced as /[ᵑ̊ǀʰȍòǂàè̯p]/ pronounced as /[ʇ̥̃ʰȍòǂàè̯p]/ | November | ||
| '''ǀ'''oro'''ǀ'''oro | pronounced as /[ᵑǀˀòɾőᵑǀˀòɾȍ]/ pronounced as /[ʇ̃ˀòɾőʇ̃ˀòɾȍ]/ | to wear out | ||
| '''ǀkh'''ore | pronounced as /[ᵏǀ͡χòɾe̋]/ pronounced as /[ʇ̥͡χòɾe̋]/ | to divine, prophesize | ||
pronounced as /navigation/
]
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