Dental click - Definition and Overview

IPA - Unicode	ǀ
IPA - image
X-SAMPA	|\
Kirshenbaum	t!
Sound sample

The dental click is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ǀ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is |\. Features of this consonant:

• Its manner of articulation is click, which means it is produced with two articulatory closures in the oral cavity. The pocket of air enclosed between the two closures is rarefied by a "sucking" action of the tongue. The release of the more forward closure produces the 'click' sound.
• Its place of articulation is dental which means it is articulated with the tongue on either the lower or the upper teeth, or both.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is velaric egressive, which means it is produced by movement of mouth air by action of the tongue, rather than air from the glottis or the lungs.

In English

English does not have dental click (or any click consonants, for that matter) as a phoneme. However, there is a sound, usually written tsk, made by many English speakers, e.g. when scolding a child. Some consider this to be an interjection, while others do not consider it a word at all.

In other languages

The dental click is common in Khoisan languages and the neighboring Nguni languages (e.g. Zulu, Xhosa).

Xhosa

In Xhosa, the dental click is fairly common. It is denoted by the letter c.

Zulu

Zulu has the dental click, but it is not as common as in Xhosa. It is denoted by the letter c.