tongueclicks

Tongue clicks are a family of consonant sounds produced by the tongue contacting the roof of the mouth to create a distinct percussive release. The defining moment is a rapid release of a closure that traps air, generating a sharp “click.” In many languages these sounds function as phonemes rather than mere paralinguistic cues.

Articulation involves two simultaneous tongue closures: a forward closure at the place of articulation (often dental, alveolar, palatal, or lateral) and a second closure elsewhere in the oral cavity to trap air. The forward closure is released, and air rushes into the mouth, producing the characteristic click. Some clicks may be voiced or aspirated, and others can be modified by surrounding vowels.

Distribution and types: Clicks are best known from southern Africa, where they occur in several Khoisan languages and have been borrowed into some Bantu languages such as Xhosa and Zulu. The basic categories are alveolar, dental, palatal, and lateral clicks; additional varieties exist by combining with other consonants or by voicing, nasalization, or voicelessness. In phonetic notation, these are often represented by symbols such as ǀ, ǃ, ǂ, and ǁ for the main places of articulation.

Occurrence and use: Clicks can appear as standalone syllables or as part of complex consonant clusters with vowels, enabling rich phonotactics. Beyond linguistics, tongue-clicks have been used in music, performance, and social communication in some cultures, though their primary linguistic function is phonemic.