Click consonant

  • Plosives
  • Nasal
  • Vibrants
  • Taps / Flaps
  • Fricatives
  • Affricates
  • Approximants
  • Lateral
  • Ejectives
  • Ingressive sounds Clicks ( clicking sounds )
  • Implosives

Clicking (even clicking sound, Schnalz (loud), injective ) is a velar plosive - ingressiver, the two formations closure in the vocal tract ( vocal tract ) is formed. The noise of these sounds produced by the opening of the primary closure of the resulting oral air chamber, into which the ambient air flows rapidly into as a result, to balance the negative pressure.

The clicks are formed in different ways by flicking his tongue. To generate the clicks, the tongue has to perform a sucking motion. The position of the tongue and the way our breath produces very different clicks.

When used in words, it is quite difficult for non-native speakers, connect them to the surrounding consonants and vowels.

Occurrence

Snapping occurs in many languages ​​, for example, as an expression of displeasure or the attraction of attention. The only living languages ​​, however, where the clicking sounds as regular speech sounds (or phonemes ) are used, are the African Khoisan languages, but also neighboring languages ​​of the Bantu language group (eg Zulu, Xhosa, Southern Sotho and Yeyi ) as well as the Cushitic language Dahalo that have adopted such sounds most likely of the Khoisan. In all three language groups together, there are about 80 languages. Some of the Khoisan languages ​​, such as the! XoO have over 80 different click sounds in their phoneme inventory.

The only non-African language of which we know that clicks were used regularly, is Demiin, an alternative speech coding that was used by speakers of Lardil, an Australian language, in a kind of language game. The language is now extinct, however.

In music, smacking is used as an element of vocal percussion.

Species

The International Phonetic Association (IPA ) differentiated in their publications between five clicks and assigns them to appropriate characters ( International Phonetic Alphabet ):

  • Bilabial [ ʘ ]: Similar to an air kiss with unrounded lips. listen? / i
  • Dental [|]: The tongue tip is brought to the front teeth. This sound is sometimes used in English to express disapproval or disappointment. listen? / i
  • (Post ) alveolar [! ]: The tongue tip is brought as far as possible up to the roof of the oral cavity. listen? / i
  • Palatoalveolar [ ǂ ]: The tip of the tongue is pressed against the front of the hard palate and then withdrawn as soon as possible. That sounds about like a popping cork. listen? / i
  • Alveolar lateral [ ǁ ]: The tongue is laterally placed in the back teeth. listen? / i
Manner of articulation Egressive sound Flap consonant Fricative consonant Approximant consonant Ejective consonant Implosive consonant Velar consonant Zulu language Xhosa language Bilabial clicks Dental clicks Bernd Heine
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