Voiced dental velar click
ɡ͡ǀ   ɡ͡ʇ
ᶢǀ   ᶢʇ
ǀ̬   ʇ̬
Voiced dental uvular click
ɢ͡ǀ   ɢ͡ʇ
𐞒ǀ   𐞒ʇ

The voiced dental click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa.[1] The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a voiced dental click with a velar rear articulation is ⟨ɡ͡ǀ⟩ or ⟨ɡ͜ǀ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨ɡǀ⟩, ⟨ᶢǀ⟩ or ⟨ǀ̬⟩; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is ⟨ɡ͡ʇ⟩ or ⟨ɡ͜ʇ⟩, abbreviated ⟨ɡʇ⟩, ⟨ᶢʇ⟩ or ⟨ʇ̬⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨ɢ͡ǀ, ɢ͜ǀ, ɢǀ, 𐞒ǀ⟩ and ⟨ɢ͡ʇ, ɢ͜ʇ, ɢʇ, 𐞒ʇ⟩. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ǀɡ⟩ or ⟨ǀᶢ⟩; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.[2]

In languages which use the Bantu letters for clicks, this is most commonly written ⟨gc⟩, but it is written ⟨dc⟩ in those languages that use ⟨g⟩ for the uvular fricative.

Features

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Features of the voiced dental click:

Occurrence

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Voiced dental clicks are found primarily in the various Khoisan language families of southern Africa and in some neighboring Bantu languages.

Language Word IPA Meaning
Gciriku Dciriku [ɡ͜ǀiriku] = [ᶢʇiriku] 'Gciriku'
Sandawe gcĩgcoo [ɡ͜ǀĩ̌ːɡ͜ǀóː] = [ᶢʇĩ̌ːᶢʇóː] (species of bird)
Yeyi kuawa [kuɡ͜ǀawa] = [kuᶢʇawa] to 'cut grass'

References

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  1. ^ Ladefoged, Peter; Traill, Anthony (1994-01-01). "Clicks and their accompaniments". Journal of Phonetics. 22 (1): 33–64. doi:10.1016/S0095-4470(19)30266-9. ISSN 0095-4470.
  2. ^ Afrika und Übersee. D. Reimer. 2005. pp. 93–94.