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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 . This must be combined with a symbol for the rear articulation to represent an actual speech sound. Attested palato-alveolar clicks include:
or voiceless velar palato-alveolar click (may also be aspirated, ejective, affricated, etc.)
or voiced velar palato-alveolar click (may also be breathy voiced, affricated, etc.)
or nasal velar palato-alveolar click (may also be voiceless, aspirated, etc.)
or voiceless uvular palato-alveolar click
or voiced uvular palato-alveolar click (commonly prenasalized)
or nasal uvular palato-alveolar click
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Features
Features of palato-alveolar 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 palatal click, the release is sharp, like a plosive, rather than noisy like an affricate.
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.
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See also
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