Bilabial click

Tenuis labial click
(velar)
k͜ʘ
ᵏʘ
ʘ
k͡ɋ ᵏɋ
IPA Number176
Audio sample
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ʘ
Unicode (hex)U+0298
X-SAMPAO\
Braille⠯ (braille pattern dots-12346)⠏ (braille pattern dots-1234)
Voiced labial click
(velar)
ɡ͡ʘ
ᶢʘ ᵇʘ
ɡ͡ɋ ᶢɋ
Encoding
X-SAMPAO\_t
Nasal labial click
(velar)
ŋ͡ʘ
ᵑʘ ᵐʘ
ŋ͡ɋ ᵑɋ
Audio sample
Encoding
X-SAMPAO\_~
Tenuis labial click
(uvular)
q͡ʘ
𐞥ʘ
q͡ɋ 𐞥ɋ
Voiced labial click
(uvular)
ɢ͡ʘ
𐞒ʘ
ɢ͡ɋ 𐞒ɋ
Nasal labial click
(uvular)
ɴ͡ʘ
ᶰʘ
ɴ͡ɋ ᶰɋ

The bilabial clicks are a family of click consonants that sound like a smack of the lips. They are found as phonemes only in the small Tuu language family (currently two languages, one down to its last speaker), in the ǂ’Amkoe language of Botswana (also moribund), and in the extinct Damin ritual jargon of Australia. However, bilabial clicks are found paralinguistically for a kiss in various languages, including integrated into a greeting in the Hadza language of Tanzania, and as allophones of labial–velar stops in some West African languages (Ladefoged 1968), as of /mw/ in some of the languages neighboring Shona, such as Ndau and Tonga.

The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the place of articulation of these sounds is ⟨ʘ⟩. This may be combined with a second letter to indicate the manner of articulation, though this is commonly omitted for tenuis clicks. An uncommon non-IPA phonetic symbol for bilabial clicks is a turned b with hook, ⟨ɋ ⟩.[1]

Tenuis bilabial click in the airstream on the ejective click of the lips.

In official IPA transcription, the click letter is combined with a ⟨k ɡ ŋ q ɢ ɴ⟩ via a tie bar, though ⟨k⟩ is frequently omitted. Many authors instead use a superscript ⟨k ɡ ŋ q ɢ ɴ⟩ without the tie bar, again often neglecting the ⟨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 labial clicks. Common labial clicks are:

Trans. I Trans. II Trans. III Description
(velar)
k͜ʘ ᵏʘ ʘ tenuis bilabial click
k͜ʘʰ ᵏʘʰ ʘʰ aspirated bilabial click
ɡ͜ʘ ᶢʘ ʘ̬ voiced bilabial click
ŋ͜ʘ ᵑʘ ʘ̬̃ bilabial nasal click
ŋ͜ʘ̥ʰʰ ᵑʘ̥ʰʰ ʘ̥̃ʰʰ aspirated bilabial nasal click
ŋ͜ʘˀ ᵑʘˀ ʘ̃ˀ glottalized bilabial nasal click
(uvular)
q͜ʘ 𐞥ʘ tenuis bilabial click
q͜ʘʰ 𐞥ʘʰ aspirated bilabial click
ɢ͜ʘ 𐞒ʘ voiced bilabial click
ɴ͜ʘ ᶰʘ bilabial nasal click
ɴ͜ʘ̥ʰʰ ᶰʘ̥ʰʰ aspirated bilabial nasal click
ɴ͜ʘˀ ᶰʘˀ glottalized bilabial 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.

Damin also had an egressive bilabial [ʘ↑], which may be an egressive click (if it is not buccal) and which is always followed by another consonant ([ɲ], [ŋ] or [pj]).[2]

  1. ^ E.g. in Larry Mattes & Donald Omark (1984) Speech and language assessment for the bilingual handicapped. College-Hill Press, San Diego.
  2. ^ Hale, Ken and Nash, David. Damin and Lardil Phonotactics. Australian National University Open Research Repository. https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/253893/1/PL-C136.247.pdf

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