The retroflex clicks are a family of
click consonants known only from the
Central !Kung
Central ǃKung (Central ǃXun), or Central Ju, is a language of the ǃKung dialect cluster, spoken in a small area of northern Namibia: Neitsas, in Grootfontein district, and Gaub, in Tsumeb district. It is frequently reported as Grootfontein ǃ ...
dialects of
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
. They are
sub-apical retroflex and should not be confused with the more widespread
postalveolar click
Postalveolar or post-alveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but no ...
s, which are sometimes mistakenly called "retroflex" (for example in Unicode) due to their concave tongue shape.
There is no official symbol in the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...
that represents the forward articulation of these sounds, and the expected symbol is rarely seen. In the literature they are typically written with the ''ad hoc'' digraph , the convention since Doke identified them as retroflex in 1926. (Doke's proposed symbol, , did not catch on, nor did Vedder's and Anders' . For a while Amanda Miller, who noted a lateral fricated release (as had Vedder), transcribed them .
)
The
Damin
Damin ( in the practical orthography of Lardil) was a ceremonial language register used by the advanced initiated men of the aboriginal Lardil ( in the practical orthography) and Yangkaal peoples of northern Australia. Both inhabit island ...
ritual jargon of
Australia may have had a voiced nasal click, transcribed by Hale & Nash as , though it's not known if it was phonemically distinct. However, Damin presumably had the articulations of
Lardil, in which the "retroflex" consonants are
apical
Apical means "pertaining to an apex". It may refer to:
*Apical ancestor, refers to the last common ancestor of an entire group, such as a species (biology) or a clan (anthropology)
*Apical (anatomy), an anatomical term of location for features loc ...
alveolar rather than true retroflex, so it is likely that the Damin distinction, if it existed, might be described as post-alveolar () vs a more fronted ().
Basic retroflex clicks are:
Features
Features of postalveolar clicks:
*The place of articulation is
post-alveolar
Postalveolar or post-alveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but no ...
, and the
tongue shape
In linguistics, specifically articulatory phonetics, tongue shape describes the shape that the tongue assumes when it makes a sound. Because the sibilant sounds have such a high perceptual prominence, tongue shape is particularly important; smal ...
may be
subapical, which means it is articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up. The center of the tongue moves downward to create suction.
Occurrence
As with other click articulations, retroflex clicks may be produced with various
manners
Etiquette () is the set of norms of personal behaviour in polite society, usually occurring in the form of an ethical code of the expected and accepted social behaviours that accord with the conventions and norms observed and practised by a ...
. An example is the voiced retroflex click in the
Grootfontein !Kung
Central ǃKung (Central ǃXun), or Central Ju, is a language of the ǃKung dialect cluster, spoken in a small area of northern Namibia: Neitsas, in Grootfontein district, and Gaub, in Tsumeb district. It is frequently reported as Grootfontein ǃ ...
(Central Juu) word for 'water', (gǃ̢ú).
Damin is the only other language known to have had such a sound, though only the nasal click occurred.
A retroflex series claimed for
Ekoka !Kung turns out to be
domed palatal click
The palatal or palato-alveolar clicks are a family of click consonants found, as components of words, only in southern Africa. The tongue is nearly flat, and is pulled back rather than down as in the postalveolar clicks, making a sharper sound ...
s.
See also
*The
fricated palatal click
The palatal or palato-alveolar clicks are a family of click consonants found, as components of words, only in southern Africa. The tongue is nearly flat, and is pulled back rather than down as in the postalveolar clicks, making a sharper sound ...
of
Ekoka !Kung, which was once thought to be retroflex
Notes and references
Further reading
*
External links
*
{{IPA navigation
Retroflex consonants
Click consonants