Editing Juǀʼhoan language (section)

==Phonology==
=== Vowels ===
{|class="wikitable"
! rowspan=2 | &nbsp;
! colspan=2 | Oral vowels
! colspan=2 | [[Nasal vowel]]s
|-
! [[Front vowel|Front]]
! [[Back vowel|Back]]
! Front
! Back
|-
! [[Close vowel|Close]]
| align=center | {{IPA link|i}}
| align=center | {{IPA link|u}}
| align=center | {{IPA link|ĩ}}
| align=center | {{IPA link|ũ}}
|-
! [[Close-mid vowel|Close-mid]]
| align=center | {{IPA link|e}}
| align=center | {{IPA link|o}}
| align=center | {{IPA link|ẽ}}
| align=center | {{IPA link|õ}}
|-
! [[Open vowel|Open]]
| align=center colspan=2 | {{IPA link|a}}
| align=center colspan=2 | {{IPA link|ã}}
|}

* When a front vowel /e/ or /i/ follows a consonant with a back vowel constraint (e.g. clicks with uvular articulation), an [ə] is inserted before the front vowel, written 'a' in the orthography. For example, mi |'ae (myself) reads /mi |'əe/.
* The diphthong /oa/ may be realized as [wa].

Juǀʼhoan has five vowel qualities, which may be [[nasal vowel|nasalized]], [[glottalization|glottalized]], [[breathy voice|murmured]], or combinations of these, and most of these possibilities occur both long and short. The qualities {{IPA|/a/}} and {{IPA|/o/}} may also be [[pharyngealization|pharyngealized]] and [[Strident vowel|strident]] (epiglottalized). Besides, it is a [[Tone (linguistics)|tonal]] language with four tones: very high, high, low and very low tones.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dickens|first=Patrick |title=English-Juǀ'hoan/Juǀ'hoan-English Dictionary |publisher=Rüdiger Köppe Verlag |year=2009 |origyear=1992 |isbn=978-3-89645-868-1 |series=Quellen zur Khoisan-Forschung |volume=8 |location=Köln |pages=15–16}}</ref> Thus, there are a good 30 vowel phonemes, perhaps more, depending on one's analysis. There are, in addition, many vowel sequences and [[diphthong]]s.

=== Consonants ===
Juǀʼhoan has an unusually large number of consonants, as typical for ǃKung. The following occur at the beginnings of roots. For brevity, only the alveolar clicks are listed with the other consonants; the complete set of clicks is found below.

{| class="wikitable"
! colspan=2 | 
! [[labial consonant|Labial]] 
! colspan=2|[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]] 
! [[Postalveolar consonant|Postalveolar]]<br/>/[[Palatal consonant|Palatal]] 
! [[Velar consonant|Velar]] 
! Corresponding<br/> [[click consonant|Click]]
! [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-align=center bgcolor="#ccccff"
! rowspan=3 | [[nasal stop|Nasal]] 
!<small> voiced </small>
| {{IPA link|m}} || colspan=2 | {{IPA link|n}} || || {{IPA link|ŋ}} || {{IPA link|ᵑǃ}}||
|-align=center
! <small>[[murmured consonant|murmured]]</small> 
| ({{IPA link|mʱ}}) ||colspan=4| || {{IPA link|ᵑǃʱ}}||
|-align=center
! <small>aspirated</small> 
|  colspan=5| || {{IPA link|ᵑ̊ǃʰ}}||
|-align=center bgcolor="#ccccff"
! rowspan=10 | [[Plosive consonant|Plosive]] 
!<small> [[voice (phonetics)|voiced]]</small> 
| {{IPA link|b}} || {{IPA link|d}} || {{IPA link|dz}} || {{IPA link|dʒ}}|| {{IPA link|ɡ}} || {{IPA link|ᶢǃ}} ||
|-align=center bgcolor="#ccccff"
!<small> [[tenuis consonant|tenuis]]</small> 
| {{IPA link|p}} || {{IPA link|t}}||{{IPA link|ts}} || {{IPA link|tʃ}} || {{IPA link|k}} || {{IPA link|ᵏǃ}} || ({{IPA link|ʔ}})
|-align=center
!<small> [[Aspiration (phonetics)|aspirated]]</small> 
| {{IPA link|pʰ}} || {{IPA link|tʰ}} || {{IPA link|tsʰ}} || {{IPA link|tʃʰ}} || {{IPA link|kʰ}} || {{IPA link|ᵏǃʰ}} ||
|-align=center
!<small>[[aspirated voiced|prevoiced aspirated]]</small>
| {{IPA link|b͡pʰ}} || {{IPA link|d͡tʰ}} || {{IPA link|d͡tsʰ}} || {{IPA link|d͡tʃʰ}} || {{IPA link|ɡ͡kʰ}} || {{IPA link|ᶢᵏǃʰ}} ||
|-align=center
!<small> [[ejective]] / [[glottalized click|glottalized]] </small>
|  || colspan=2| {{IPA link|tsʼ}} || {{IPA link|tʃʼ}} || {{IPA link|kxʼ}} || {{IPA link|ᵑǃˀ}} ||
|-align=center
!<small>[[voiced ejective|prevoiced ejective]]</small>
|  || colspan=2| {{IPA link|d͡tsʼ}} || {{IPA link|d͡tʃʼ}} ||  ||  ||
|-align=center
!<small>[[uvularization|uvularized]]</small>
|  || {{IPA link|tᵡ}} || ||  ||  || {{IPA link|ᵏǃᵡ}} ||
|-align=center
!<small> prevoiced uvularized</small>
| || {{IPA link|d͡tᵡ}} || {{IPA link|d͡tsᵡ}} || {{IPA link|d͡tʃᵡ}} || || {{IPA link|ᶢᵏǃᵡ}} ||
|-align=center
!<small> uvular-ejected</small>
|  || {{IPA link|tᵡʼ}} || ||  || {{IPA link|kᵡʼ}} || {{IPA link|ᵏǃᵡʼ}} ||
|-align=center
!<small>prevoiced uvular-ejected</small>
| colspan=4| || {{IPA link|ɡ͡kᵡʼ}} || {{IPA link|ᶢᵏǃᵡʼ}} ||
|-align=center bgcolor="#ccccff"
! rowspan=2 | [[fricative consonant|Fricative]] 
!<small>voiced</small> 
|  || colspan=2|{{IPA link|z}} || {{IPA link|ʒ}} ||  || ||{{IPA link|ɦ}}
|-align=center bgcolor="#ccccff"
!<small> voiceless </small>
| ({{IPA link|f}}) || colspan=2|{{IPA link|s}} || {{IPA link|ʃ}} || {{IPA link|χ}} || ||
|}

Tenuis and modally voiced consonants (blue) may occur with any vowel quality. However, other consonants (grey, transcribed with a superscript diacritic to their right) do not occur in the same root as murmured, glottalized, or epiglottalized vowels.

The prevoiced aspirated and ejective consonants, both pulmonic and clicks, contain a voiceless interval, which Miller (2003) attributes to a larger glottal opening than is found in Hindustani breathy-voiced consonants. Phonetically, however, they are voice contours, starting out voiced but becoming voiceless for the aspiration or ejection.<ref>{{SOWL|63, 80–81}}</ref>

The phonemic status of {{IPA|[ʔ], [dz]}} and {{IPA|[dʒ]}} is uncertain. {{IPA|[ʔ]}} may be epenthetic before vowel-initial words; alternatively, it may be that no word may begin with a vowel. {{IPA|/mʱ/}} occurs only in a single morpheme, the plural diminutive enclitic {{IPA|/mʱi/}}. {{IPA|/f/}} and {{IPA|/l/}} (not shown) only occur in loan words, and some accounts posit a {{IPA|/j/}} and {{IPA|/w/}}. Labials ({{IPA|/p, pʰ, b, b͡pʰ, m/}}) are very rare initially, though {{IPA|β̞}} is common between vowels. Velar stops (oral and nasal) are rare initially and very rare medially.

The uvulo-ejective consonants are analyzed as epiglottalized in Miller-Ockhuizen (2003). They have uvular frication and glottalization, and are similar to consonants in [[Nǀu language|Nǀu]] described as uvular ejective by Miller et al. (2009).{{full citation needed|date=January 2024}} Their epiglottal character may be a phonetic consequence of the raised larynx involved in making them ejective.

Only a small set of consonants occur between vowels within roots. These are:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! Labial || Alveolar|| Velar || Uvular ||Glottal
|-
| bgcolor="#ccffcc"| {{IPA link|β̞}} || bgcolor="#ccffcc"| {{IPA link|ɾ}} || {{IPA link|ɣ}} || ||
|-
| bgcolor="#ccffcc"| {{IPA link|m}} || bgcolor="#ccffcc"| {{IPA link|n}} || {{IPA link|ŋ}} || ||
|-
| || || {{IPA link|k}}, {{IPA link|ᵑk}} || {{IPA link|q͡χʼ}} ||
|-
| || || || {{IPA link|χ}} || {{IPA link|ɦ}}
|}

Medial {{IPA|[β̞, ɾ, m, n]}} (green) are very common; {{IPA|[ɣ, ŋ]}} are rare, and the other medial consonants occur in only a very few roots, many of them loans. {{IPA|[β̞, ɾ, ɣ]}} are generally analyzed as allophones of {{IPA|/b, d, ɡ/}}. However, {{IPA|[ɾ]}} especially may correspond to multiple root-initial consonants.

Juǀʼhoan has 48 click consonants. There are four click "types": dental, lateral, alveolar, and palatal, each of which found in twelve series or "accompaniments" (combinations of manner, phonation, and contour). These are perfectly normal consonants in Juǀʼhoan, and indeed are preferred over non-clicks in word-initial position.

{| class=wikitable
! colspan=2 | 'noisy' clicks || colspan=2 | 'sharp' clicks || rowspan=2 | series
|-
! [[dental click|dental]] || [[alveolar lateral click|lateral]]
! [[postalveolar click|alveolar]] || [[palatal click|palatal]] 
|- bgcolor="#ccccff"
| {{IPA link|ᵏǀ}} || {{IPA link|ᵏǁ}} || {{IPA link|ᵏǃ}} || {{IPA link|ᵏǂ}} || Tenuis
|- bgcolor="#ccccff"
| {{IPA link|ᶢǀ}} || {{IPA link|ᶢǁ}} || {{IPA link|ᶢǃ}} || {{IPA link|ᶢǂ}} || Voiced
|- bgcolor="#ccccff"
| {{IPA link|ᵑǀ}} || {{IPA link|ᵑǁ}} || {{IPA link|ᵑǃ}} || {{IPA link|ᵑǂ}} || Nasal
|-
| {{IPA link|ᵏǀʰ}} || {{IPA link|ᵏǁʰ}} || {{IPA link|ᵏǃʰ}} || {{IPA link|ᵏǂʰ}} || Aspirated
|-
| {{IPA link|ᶢᵏǀʰ}} || {{IPA link|ᶢᵏǁʰ}} || {{IPA link|ᶢᵏǃʰ}} || {{IPA link|ᶢᵏǂʰ}} || Pre-voiced aspirated
|-
| {{IPA link|ᵑ̊ǀʰ}} || {{IPA link|ᵑ̊ǁʰ}} || {{IPA link|ᵑ̊ǃʰ}} || {{IPA link|ᵑ̊ǂʰ}} || Aspirated nasal
|-
| {{IPA link|ᵑǀʱ}} || {{IPA link|ᵑǁʱ}} || {{IPA link|ᵑǃʱ}} || {{IPA link|ᵑǂʱ}} || Murmured nasal 
|-
| {{IPA link|ᵑǀˀ}} || {{IPA link|ᵑǁˀ}} || {{IPA link|ᵑǃˀ}} || {{IPA link|ᵑǂˀ}} || Glottalized nasal
|-
| {{IPA link|ᵏǀᵡ}} || {{IPA link|ᵏǁᵡ}} || {{IPA link|ᵏǃᵡ}} || {{IPA link|ᵏǂᵡ}} || Linguo-pulmonic contour
|-
| {{IPA link|ᶢᵏǀᵡ}} || {{IPA link|ᶢᵏǁᵡ}} || {{IPA link|ᶢᵏǃᵡ}} || {{IPA link|ᶢᵏǂᵡ}} || Voiced linguo-pulmonic
|-
| {{IPA link|ᵏǀᵡʼ}} || {{IPA link|ᵏǁᵡʼ}} || {{IPA link|ᵏǃᵡʼ}} || {{IPA link|ᵏǂᵡʼ}} || Epiglottalized (heterorganic contour)
|-
| {{IPA link|ᶢǀᵡʼ}}|| {{IPA link|ᶢǁᵡʼ}}|| {{IPA link|ᶢǃᵡʼ}}|| {{IPA link|ᶢǂᵡʼ}}|| Voiced epiglottalized
|}

As above, tenuis and modally voiced consonants (blue) may occur with any vowel quality. However, other consonants (grey, transcribed with a superscript diacritic to their right) do not occur in the same root as murmured, glottalized, or epiglottalized vowels.

Glottalized clicks occur almost exclusively before nasal vowels. This suggests they are nasalized, as in most if not all other languages with glottalized clicks. The nasalization would not be audible during the click itself due to the glottalization, which would prevent any nasal airflow, but the velum would be lowered, potentially nasalizing adjacent vowels.

The 'uvularized' clicks are actually [[linguo-pulmonic]] contours, {{IPA|[ǃ͡qχ]}}, etc. The 'uvulo-ejective' clicks are [[homorganic|heterorganic]] affricates, and equivalent to [[linguo-glottalic consonant]]s transcribed {{IPA link|[ǃ͡kxʼ]}}, etc., in other languages (Miller 2011).{{full citation needed|date=January 2024}}

See [[Ekoka ǃKung|Ekoka ǃXung]] for a related variety with a somewhat larger click inventory.