Ejective-contour clicks, also called sequential linguo-glottalic consonants, are consonants that transition from a click to an ejective sound, or more precisely, have an audible delay between the front and rear release of the click. All click types (alveolar ǃ, dental ǀ, lateral ǁ, palatal ǂ, retroflex 𝼊 and labial ʘ) have linguo-glottalic variants, which occur as both stops and affricates, and may be voiced. At least a voiceless linguo-glottalic affricate is attested from all Khoisan languages of southern Africa (the Khoe, Tuu, and Kxʼa language families), as well as from the Bantu language Yeyi from the same area, but they are unattested elsewhere.
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Ejective-contour click in the context of Occlusive
In phonetics, an occlusive, sometimes known as a stop, is a consonant sound produced by occluding (i.e. blocking) airflow in the vocal tract, but not necessarily in the nasal tract. The duration of the block is the occlusion of the consonant. An occlusive may refer to one or more of the following, depending on the author:
- Stops, or more precisely, oral stops—also known as plosives—are oral occlusives, where the occlusion of the vocal tract stops all airflow—oral and nasal.
- Nasals, also known as nasal stops, are nasal occlusives, where occlusion of the vocal tract shifts the airflow to the nasal tract.
- Affricates such as English /tʃ/, /dʒ/ are partial occlusives. Typically stops and affricates are contrasted, but affricates are also described as stops with fricative release, contrasting with simple stops (= plosives).
- Implosives, in which the airstream differs from typical stops and affricates (no examples in English).
- Ejectives, with yet another airstream (no examples in English).
- Click consonants, such as the exclamation tsk! tsk! made when expressing reproach (often humorously) or pity, are double occlusives with yet a fourth airstream mechanism. They may be oral occlusives, nasals, affricates, or ejective.
Oral occlusive may mean any of the above apart from nasal occlusives, but typically means stop/plosive. Nasal occlusive may be used to distinguish the simple nasal sounds from other nasal consonants.
View the full Wikipedia page for Occlusive