The retroflex nasal click is a rare

click consonant Click consonants, or clicks, are speech sounds that occur as consonants in many languages of Southern Africa and in three languages of East Africa. Examples familiar to English-speakers are the ''tut-tut'' (British spelling) or '' tsk! tsk!'' ...

. There is no symbol for it in the

International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...

. The

Beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc s ...

convention is , and this is used in practical orthography.

Features

Features of the retroflex nasal click:

Occurrence

Retroflex nasal clicks are only attested from two languages, Central !Kung and Damin.

Glottalized alveolar nasal click

All

Khoisan Khoisan , or (), according to the contemporary Khoekhoegowab orthography, is a catch-all term for those indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who do not speak one of the Bantu languages, combining the (formerly "Khoikhoi") and the or ( in ...

languages have glottalized nasal clicks. These are formed by closing the

glottis The glottis is the opening between the vocal folds (the rima glottidis). The glottis is crucial in producing vowels and voiced consonants. Etymology From Ancient Greek ''γλωττίς'' (glōttís), derived from ''γλῶττα'' (glôtta), v ...

so that the click is pronounced in silence; however, any preceding vowel will be nasalized.

References

{{IPA navigation Nasal consonants Palatal consonants Click consonants Central consonants Voiced consonants