Nasal lateral click


The lateral nasal click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is or ; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is or.

Features

Features of the lateral nasal click:

Occurrence

Lateral nasal clicks are found primarily in the various Khoisan language families of southern Africa and in some neighboring Bantu languages.
LanguageWordIPAMeaning
ǃKungnǁan 'marama bean'
!Xóõǁnáã 'grewia berry'
Hadzakonxa 'to be a pair'
Zuluinxeba 'wound'

Glottalized lateral nasal click

All Khoisan languages, and a few Bantu languages, have glottalized nasal clicks. These are formed by closing the glottis so that the click is pronounced in silence; however, any preceding vowel will be nasalized.
LanguageWordIPAMeaning
Hadzaslaxxa 'a split'
Khoekhoetsoatsoaǁaposa 'principled'
Xhosainkxumo 'a support'