Bilabial click

Encyclopedia : B : BI : BIL : Bilabial click

IPA – number 176
IPA – text
IPA – image
Entity ʘ
X-SAMPA O
Kirshenbaum p!

IPA – number	176
IPA – text
IPA – image
Entity	ʘ
X-SAMPA	`O`
Kirshenbaum	`p!`

The bilabial clicks are a family of click consonants found as phonemes only in the Tuu family, the ǂHõã language of Botswana, and the Damin ritual jargon of Australia, although they do occur as allophones of labial-velar consonants in parts of West Africa.

The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the forward articulation of these sounds is ʘ. This must be combined with a symbol for the rear articulation to represent an actual speech sound. Attested bilabial clicks include but are not limited to:

[k͡ʘ] or [ʘ͡k] voiceless velar bilabial click (may also be aspirated, ejective, affricated, etc.)
[ɡ͡ʘ] or [ʘ͡ɡ] voiced velar bilabial click (may also be breathy voiced, affricated, etc.)
[ŋ͡ʘ] or [ʘ͡ŋ] nasal velar bilabial click (may also be voiceless, aspirated, etc.)
[q͡ʘ] or [ʘ͡q] voiceless uvular bilabial click
[ɢ͡ʘ] or [ʘ͡ɢ] voiced uvular bilabial click (commonly prenasalized)
[ɴ͡ʘ] or [ʘ͡ɴ] nasal uvular bilabial click

Damin also had an egressive bilabial [k͡ʘ↑], the world's only attested egressive click.

Features

Features of ingressive bilabial clicks:

Their manner of articulation is click, which means they are produced with two articulatory closures in the oral cavity. The pocket of air trapped between the two closures is rarefied by a "sucking" action of the tongue. The release of the forward closure produces the 'click' sound. In the case of the bilabial clicks, the release is slightly noisy, like an affricate, rather than sharp like a plosive. The rear closure may be a plosive, nasal, ejective, or affricate, and have any of several phonations.
The forward place of articulation is bilabial, which means it is articulated with both lips. (The labial ariculation is like that of a [p], not of a kiss, which is labialized.) The rear place of articulation may be either velar or uvular.
Bilabial 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, which means it is produced by movement of air into the mouth by action of the tongue, rather than by the glottis or the lungs. (One of the two labial clicks in Damin is egressive, which means the air spurts out between the lips under the pressure of the tongue.)

The bilabial clicks are sometimes erroneously described as sounding like a kiss. However, they do not have the pursed lips of a kiss (that is, they're not labialized). Instead, they sound more like a smack of the lips.

The egressive click differs from the above in that the trapped air pocket is compressed by the tongue until it is allowed to escape through the forward articulation.

Bilabial click

Features

See also