Click consonant

Click consonants, or clicks, are special speech sounds used in many languages of Southern Africa and in three languages of East Africa. People who speak English sometimes make similar sounds when they say tut-tut or tsk! tsk! to show they disapprove of something, or when they make a tchick! sound to encourage a horse to go faster. Children often make a clip-clop! sound with their tongue to imitate a horse walking, but these sounds in English are not true click consonants because they do not use the whole tongue.

Clicks are made by closing the mouth in two places at once and then quickly releasing one of them. This creates a strong sucking motion that produces a very loud sound. In some languages like Hadza and Sandawe, clicks can be softer and might even sound like other loud consonants called ejectives. Clicks can be made in different parts of the mouth and can have many variations, such as being voiced or nasalized, making them quite interesting and unique in the world of languages.

Phonetics and IPA notation

Click consonants are special sounds used in some languages, mainly in Southern and East Africa. There are six main ways to make these sounds. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) has special symbols to write them down.

The easiest clicks for English speakers are dental clicks, made by sucking on the front teeth. We use these sounds when we say "tut!" or "tsk!" to show we disapprove or to get an animal's attention. In languages like Zulu and Xhosa, these clicks are written with the letter c.

Another common type is the lateral clicks, made by sucking on the side teeth. We sometimes use these to encourage a horse to move, saying "tchick!". In Zulu and Xhosa, they are written with the letter x. There are also bilabial clicks, made by smacking the lips together, though these are rarer.

Other types include alveolar clicks, which make a loud "pop!" sound like a cork coming out of a bottle. These are written with q in Zulu and Xhosa. Palatal clicks are sharp, snapping sounds, common in San languages. Finally, retroflex clicks are rare and found only in one language, Central !Kung. These are made by curling the tongue back in the mouth.

Languages with clicks

Clicks are special sounds used in many languages of Southern Africa. They are very common in three groups of languages called Khoisan in southern Africa. Some nearby Bantu languages, like Zulu and Xhosa, also use clicks. These sounds were borrowed from the Khoisan languages and have spread to other languages in the area.

In East Africa, three languages use clicks: Sandawe and Hadza in Tanzania, and Dahalo in Kenya. These languages have only a few words with clicks. There is also a special language called Damin used in Australia that includes clicks as part of its sounds.

Use

Clicks are special sounds used in some languages, mainly in Southern and East Africa. They can appear in words that come from other languages. For example, in the Gciriku language, the word for "tomato" from European languages has a click sound, even though nearby languages do not.

Many languages use clicks in expressive sounds, like when someone makes a "tsk-tsk" noise to show disapproval. Some languages use clicks to mean "no" or to show they are listening. In China, some nursery rhymes use clicks in words for animals like geese and ducks.

Most languages with clicks only use them at the start of words. Clicks are rarely used at the end of words. The number of different click sounds varies; some languages have four types, while others have three or five.

Types of clicks

Clicks are special sounds used in some languages, mainly in Southern and East Africa. They can be described by four main features: where they are made in the mouth, how they are made, the voice quality, and the airflow used.

Clicks always involve closing the mouth in two places at once. One closure is at the front of the mouth, and the other is further back. Some languages make a difference between sounds made further back in the mouth (uvular) and sounds made with the soft palate (velar). In most studies, the front closure decides the type of click sound, while the back closure decides how the sound is produced. The number of different click sounds varies a lot between languages, from just a few to over a hundred in some cases.

Transcription

Further information: click letter

Clicks are special sounds used in some languages, mainly in Southern and East Africa. They are made by sucking the lips, teeth, or sides of the mouth together and then releasing quickly. In English, we sometimes make a tsk! tsk! sound, which is a type of click.

There are different kinds of clicks made in different places in the mouth, like with the lips, teeth, or the roof of the mouth. Each type has a special symbol to write it down. For example, a click made with the teeth might sound like the tsk! tsk! we use to show disapproval. Some clicks are short and pop-like, while others are longer and noisier.

Languages like Zulu and Xhosa write clicks using special letters, while other languages use different symbols. These sounds can be written in many ways depending on the language and the writer’s choice.

Places of articulation

Main articles: bilabial click, dental click, palatal click, alveolar click, lateral click, retroflex click, and velar click

Places of articulation are special sounds that help us understand how clicks are made. There are seven or eight known ways to make these sounds, not counting special types like slapped or egressive clicks. These include bilabial, dental, alveolar, palatal, retroflex, and lateral clicks.

Languages from different places show each of these click sounds. Because many Khoisan languages are not well documented, there might be more ways to make clicks that we don’t know about yet. No language is known to use more than five different click sounds at once.

Sometimes, languages outside of Africa use clicks too. For example, Coatlán Zapotec from Mexico uses a special click sound to imitate a pig drinking water. Some languages, like Wolof, use a velar click for showing agreement or understanding.

The names for these click sounds were first created a long time ago. Since then, there has been some confusion, but the main names we use today were clarified in 1984. These names help us talk about the different ways clicks are made in various languages.

Manners of articulation

Main articles: nasal click, glottalised click, pulmonic-contour click, and ejective-contour click

Clicks are special sounds used in some languages, mainly in Southern Africa. They can be simple or more complex, and their sounds can change depending on the language. For example, some clicks might sound a bit different in one language compared to another, but they are still recognized as the same sound.

Clicks can also change based on how they are pronounced, such as being soft or strong. Some clicks are combined with other sounds, making them more complex. Scientists are still learning about all the different ways clicks can be made and heard in various languages.

Phonotactics

Languages from Southern Africa, like those in the Khoisan families, only allow clicks at the start of a word. However, some languages, such as the Bantu, Hadza, and Sandawe, let clicks appear inside words.

In certain languages, all clicks in known words sound the same, like in Hadza. But in other languages, such as Xhosa, words can have different kinds of clicks.

Clicks never appear at the end of syllables or words in any language that uses them. They also do not usually appear in groups of consonants, except in special cases due to vowel changes. Clicks are more common in important words rather than small words that show relationships, but this is just a pattern and not a rule.

The back-vowel constraint

In some languages, like Khoekhoe and Juǀʼhoan, certain types of clicks mainly appear before specific vowels. For example, in Khoekhoe, some clicks are more often heard before vowels like “i” and less often before others. This happens because of how the tongue moves when making these sounds.

Click genesis and click loss

Clicks are special sounds used in some languages of Africa. Scientists have wondered if clicks are very old sounds in human language, but many experts think they developed later from other sounds. We do not know exactly how they formed, but one idea is that they came from groups of regular sounds put together.

Some languages are now losing their clicks. This happens when languages mix together, like when Bantu-speaking people influenced other language groups. When a click disappears, it is often replaced by a different kind of sound that feels similar when you say it.

Difficulty

Clicks can seem hard to say at first, but children often learn them easily. For example, a two-year-old might say a word with a click sound just fine, even if they can’t say other sounds yet. A person named Lucy Lloyd found that after spending time with Khoi and San people, she would sometimes use clicks when speaking English without meaning to.