Editing Alveolar click (section)

== Alveolar click consonants and their transcription ==

In official IPA transcription, the click letter is combined with a {{angbr IPA|k ɡ ŋ q ɢ ɴ}} via a tie bar, though {{angbr IPA|k}} is frequently omitted. Many authors instead use a superscript {{angbr IPA|k ɡ ŋ q ɢ ɴ}} without the tie bar, again often neglecting the {{angbr IPA|k}}. Either letter, whether baseline or superscript, is usually placed before the click letter, but may come after when the release of the velar or uvular occlusion is audible. A third convention is the click letter with diacritics for voicelessness, voicing and nasalization; it does not distinguish velar from uvular alveolar clicks. Common alveolar clicks in these three transcriptions are:

{| class="wikitable"
! Trans. I !! Trans. II !! Trans. III !! Description 
|-
! colspan=4| (velar)
|-
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|k͜ǃ}} 
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ᵏǃ}} 
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ǃ}} 
| ''[[tenuis alveolar click]]''
|-
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|k͜ǃʰ}} 
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ᵏǃʰ}} 
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ǃʰ}} 
| ''[[aspirated consonant|aspirated]] alveolar click''
|-
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ɡ͜ǃ}} 
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ᶢǃ}} 
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ǃ̬}} 
| ''[[voiced alveolar click]]''
|-
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ŋ͜ǃ}} 
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ᵑǃ}} 
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ǃ̬̃}} 
| ''[[alveolar nasal click]]''
|-
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ŋ͜ǃ̥̥ʰʰ}} 
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ᵑǃ̥ʰʰ}} 
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ǃ̥̃ʰʰ}} 
| ''[[aspirated alveolar nasal click]]''
|-
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ŋ͜ǃˀ}} 
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ᵑǃˀ}}
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ǃ̃ˀ}} 
| ''[[glottalized alveolar nasal click]]''
|-
! colspan=4| (uvular)
|-
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|q͜ǃ}} 
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|𐞥ǃ}} 
|  
| ''[[tenuis alveolar click]]''
|-
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|q͜ǃʰ}} 
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|𐞥ǃʰ}} 
| 
| ''[[aspirated alveolar click]]''
|-
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ɢ͜ǃ}} 
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|𐞒ǃ}} 
| 
| ''[[voiced alveolar click]]''
|-
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ɴ͜ǃ}} 
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ᶰǃ}} 
| 
| ''[[alveolar nasal click]]''
|-
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ɴ͜ǃ̥ʰʰ}} 
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ᶰǃ̥ʰʰ}} 
| 
| ''[[aspirated alveolar nasal click]]''
|-
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ɴ͜ǃˀ}} 
| style="font-size:24px" align="center"|{{angbr IPA|ᶰǃˀ}}
| 
| ''[[glottalized alveolar nasal click]]''
|}

The last can be heard in the sound sample at right; non-native speakers tend to ''glottalize'' clicks to avoid nasalizing them. The nasal click may also be heard at the right.

In the orthographies of individual languages, the letters and digraphs for alveolar clicks may be based on either the vertical bar symbol of the IPA, {{angbr IPA|ǃ}}, or on the Latin {{angbr|q}} of Bantu convention. [[Khoekhoe language|Khoekhoe]] and most [[Bushman]] languages use the former; [[Naro language|Naro]], [[Sandawe language|Sandawe]], and [[Zulu language|Zulu]] use the latter.