*Palatal clicks
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IPA – text ǂ
IPA – image {{{imagesize}}}
Entity ǂ
X-SAMPA =\
Kirshenbaum c!
Sound sample (help·info)

The palato-alveolar clicks are a family of click consonants found only in Africa. They are commonly called palatal clicks.

The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the forward articulation of these sounds is ǂ. This must be combined with a symbol for the rear articulation to represent an actual speech sound. Attested palato-alveolar clicks include:

[k͡ǂ] or [ǂ͡k] voiceless velar palato-alveolar click (may also be aspirated, ejective, affricated, etc.)
[ɡ͡ǂ] or [ǂ͡ɡ] voiced velar palato-alveolar click (may also be breathy voiced, affricated, etc.)
[ŋ͡ǂ] or [ǂ͡ŋ] nasal velar palato-alveolar click (may also be voiceless, aspirated, etc.)
[q͡ǂ] or [ǂ͡q] voiceless uvular palato-alveolar click
[ɢ͡ǂ] or [ǂ͡ɢ] voiced uvular palato-alveolar click (commonly prenasalized)
[ɴ͡ǂ] or [ǂ͡ɴ] nasal uvular palato-alveolar click
[ǂ͡ʔ] glottalized palato-alveolar 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.

Features

Features of palato-alveolar clicks:

The manner of articulation is a sharp, plosive-like release.

The rear closure may be voiced, nasal, ejective, or affricate, and have any of several phonations.

The forward place of articulation is palato-alveolar, which means it is postalveolar and laminal: that is, it is articulated with the blade of the tongue against the roof of the mouth behind the alveolar ridge. The rear place of articulation may be either velar or uvular. The rear closure may be a plosive, nasal, ejective, or affricate, and have any of several phonations.
Palato-alveolar clicks may be either oral or nasal, which means air is allowed to escape either through the mouth or the nose.
They are central consonants, which means they are produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
The airstream mechanism is velaric ingressive (AKA lingual ingressive), which means the pocket of air trapped between the two closures is rarefied by a "sucking" action of the tongue, rather than by the glottis or the lungs. The release of the forward closure produces the 'click' sound.

*Bilabial ejective
The bilabial ejective is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is pʼ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is p_>.

Features

Features of the bilabial ejective:

Its manner of articulation is plosive or stop, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract.
Its place of articulation is bilabial which means it is articulated with both lips, Its phonation type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the center of the tongue, rather than the sides.
The airstream mechanism is glottalic egressive, which means it is produced by pushing air with the glottis, rather than with the diaphragm.

Occurs in

Ethiopian Semitic languages
Oromo
Quechua: /p/, /pʰ/, and /pʼ/ constitute a series of separate phonemes
Ubykh contrasts /pʼ pˤʼ/ with /p pˤ b bˤ/.

*Voiceless labial-velar plosive
The voiceless labial-velar plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is k͡p.

The voiceless labial-velar plosive is found in Vietnamese and various languages in West and Central Africa.

Features

Features of the voiceless labial-velar plosive:

Its manner of articulation is plosive or stop, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract.
Its place of articulation is labial-velar, which means it is articulated with both the lips and with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the velum). The dorsal closure is made and released slightly before the labial closure, but they overlap for most of their duration.
Its phonation type is voiceless, which means the vocal cords do not vibrate during the articulation.
It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.