klikkiäänteet

Klikkiäänteet, often translated as "click consonants" or "clicks," are a distinctive group of speech sounds produced by creating a rapid, suction-like movement of the tongue against the roof of the mouth or teeth, followed by a release that creates an audible click. These sounds are not phonemes in most Indo-European languages, but they are central to the phonological systems of several Southern African language families, most notably Khoisan languages like !Xóõ and Nama, as well as some Bantu languages such as Zulu and Xhosa.

The production of a click involves three main phases: the ingressive velaric airstream mechanism, where air is drawn into the mouth, the oral articulation, where the tongue creates a blockage, and the effusive release, where the blockage is suddenly removed, causing the click sound. There are typically four primary types of clicks, differentiated by the location of the tongue's articulation: dental (like a 'tsk tsk' sound), alveolar (similar to a mild tut), alveolo-palatal or postalveolar (often described as a 'tut tut' sound with the tongue further back), and lateral (produced by placing the tongue against the side teeth, akin to encouraging a horse).

These click consonants are often accompanied by secondary articulations, such as aspiration, nasalization, or voicing, which further diversify the range of click sounds within a language. Their presence is a defining characteristic of these language families, often leading to fascination and study by linguists interested in the diverse ways human languages can form sounds. While clicks may seem unusual to speakers of languages without them, they function as regular consonants within the phonemic inventory of the languages that utilize them.