Voiced bilabial click

The voiced bilabial click is a click consonant found in some of the languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ʘ̬ or ᶢʘ.

Voiced bilabial velar click
ɡ͡ʘ
ᶢʘ
ʘ̬
Voiced bilbial uvular click
ɢ͡ʘ
(etc)

Features

Features of the voiced bilabial click:

  • The airstream mechanism is lingual ingressive (also known as velaric ingressive), which means a pocket of air trapped between two closures is rarefied by a "sucking" action of the tongue, rather than being moved by the glottis or the lungs/diaphragm. The release of the forward closure produces the "click" sound. Voiced and nasal clicks have a simultaneous pulmonic egressive airstream.
  • Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
  • It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
  • Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the centrallateral dichotomy does not apply.

Occurrence

Voiced bilabial clicks only occur in the Tuu and Kx'a families of southern Africa. These sounds are extremely rare and many foreigners in Africa find it difficult to pronounce. Thus, these sounds are sometimes transliterated as a "g" and a "G" and are pronounced as Velar and Uvular Plosives.

Notes

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