Nasal bilabial click
(Redirected from Bilabial nasal click)
| Bilabial nasal click (velar) | |
|---|---|
| ŋʘ | |
| Audio sample | |
| Bilabial nasal click (uvular) | |
|---|---|
| ɴʘ |
The bilabial nasal click is a sound used in some spoken languages. It is not in English.
Characteristics
[change | change source]- The phonation is voiced. This means that the vocal cords vibrate while the sound is being pronounced.
- The place of articulation (where the sound is produced) is bilabial. This means that this sound is produced with both lips.
- It is a nasal consonant. This means that air is allowed to escape through the nose, either exclusively (nasal stops) or in addition to through the mouth.
- The airstream mechanism is lingual ingressive (aka velaric ingressive). This means that a pocked of air is trapped between two closures, then make the air thin by a "sucking" action of the tongue, but not being moved by the glottis or the lungs/diaphragm. The forward closure is released to produce the 'click' sound. Voiced and nasal clicks have a same pulmonic egressive airstream.
Examples
[change | change source]Bilabial nasal clicks only occur in the Tuu and Kxʼa families of southern Africa, in the Australian ritual language Damin, and for /mw/ in some of the languages neighboring Shona, such as at least for some speakers of Ndau and Tonga.
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Damin | m!ii | [ʘ̃iː] | 'vegetable' |
| Tonga | kumwa | [kʼuᵑʘwa] | 'to drink' |
| Ndau | mwana | [ᵑʘwana] | 'child' |
| Nǀuu | mʘôa | ⓘ | 'cat' |
