Editing Click consonant (section)

{{Short description|Speech sounds in several African languages}}
{{More citations needed|article|date=March 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
<!--audio should not be enabled until we have passable recordings for the clicks. The [ǂ] is completely wrong as of June 2021, but the others aren't plain clicks either. The table has no other purpose. {{IPA non-pulmonic consonants |ejectives=no|implosives=no|audio=no|class=floatright}}-->
{{Infobox symbol
|mark = {{IPA|ʘ ǀ ǁ ǂ ǃ 𝼊}}
|name=Click releases
|unicode=
{{unichar|0298|Latin letter bilabial click}}<br  />
{{unichar|01C0|Latin letter dental click}}<br />
{{unichar|01C1|Latin letter lateral click}}<br  />
{{unichar|01C2|Latin letter alveolar click}}<br  />
{{unichar|01C3|Latin letter retroflex click}}<br  />
{{unichar|01DF0A|Latin letter retroflex click with retroflex hook}}
|different from=
{{unichar|007C|Vertical line| nlink=Vertical bar}}<br />
{{unichar|2016|Double vertical line|nlink=Vertical bar}}<br />{{unichar|0021|Exclamation mark|nlink=Exclamation mark}}<br />{{unichar|2021|Double dagger|nlink=Double dagger}}
{{unichar|A668|Cyrillic capital letter monocular o|nlink=Cyrillic o variants}}
}}
{{Contains special characters
| special    = uncommon [[Unicode]] characters
| fix        = Help:Multilingual support
| error      = [[Specials (Unicode block)#Replacement character|question marks, boxes, or other symbols]]
| characters = the intended characters
| image      = Replacement character.svg
| link       = Specials (Unicode block)#Replacement character
| alt        = <?>
| compact    = 
}}
'''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 language|English-speakers]] are the ''[[tut-tut]]'' (British spelling) or ''[[Dental click|tsk! tsk!]]'' (American spelling) used to express disapproval or pity (IPA {{IPA|[ǀ]}}), the ''[[lateral click|tchick!]]'' used to spur on a horse (IPA {{IPA|[ǁ]}}), and the ''[[alveolar click|clip-clop!]]'' sound children make with their tongue to imitate a horse trotting (IPA {{IPA|[ǃ]}}). However, these [[paralinguistic]] sounds in English are not full click consonants, as they only involve the front of the tongue, without the release of the back of the tongue that is required for clicks to combine with vowels and form syllables.

Anatomically, clicks are [[obstruent]]s articulated with two closures (points of contact) in the mouth, one forward and one at the back. The enclosed pocket of air is [[rarefaction|rarefied]] by a sucking action of the tongue (in technical terminology, clicks have a [[Airstream mechanism|lingual ingressive airstream mechanism]]). The forward closure is then released,<ref group=note>This is the case for all clicks used as consonants in words. Paralinguistically, however, there are other methods of making clicks: ''under'' the tongue or as above but by releasing the rear occlusion first. See [[#Places of articulation]].</ref> producing what may be the loudest consonants in the language, although in some languages such as [[Hadza language|Hadza]] and [[Sandawe language|Sandawe]], clicks can be more subtle and may even be mistaken for [[ejective consonant|ejectives]].