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Contributors are Wm. G. Bennett, Catherine T. Best, Hilde Gunnink, Dan Dediu, E.D. Elderkin, Anne-Maria Fehn, Sean Fulop, Florian Lionnet, Timothy K. Mathes, Kirk Miller, Scott Moisik, Michael Proctor, Bonny Sands, Signal Analysis and Interpretation Laboratory (SAIL) members (Adam Lammert, Asterios Toutios, Shrikanth Narayanan, Yinghua Zhu), Mollie Steyn, Anita van der Merwe, Richard Wright.
Contributors are Wm. G. Bennett, Catherine T. Best, Hilde Gunnink, Dan Dediu, E.D. Elderkin, Anne-Maria Fehn, Sean Fulop, Florian Lionnet, Timothy K. Mathes, Kirk Miller, Scott Moisik, Michael Proctor, Bonny Sands, Signal Analysis and Interpretation Laboratory (SAIL) members (Adam Lammert, Asterios Toutios, Shrikanth Narayanan, Yinghua Zhu), Mollie Steyn, Anita van der Merwe, Richard Wright.
Abstract
This chapter provides an examination of results from a large-scale phonetic learning study featuring two types of clicks ((post)alveolar and dental). Although the primary goal of the study is to investigate the role of anatomical variation in biasing speech production, our focus here is on the details of participant production strategies. In general, those participants who could not readily produce clicks either showed awareness of the components of click articulation but lacked sufficient coordination of these to successfully produce a click, or they employed one of a variety of substitution strategies, most commonly producing an ejective or (un-)aspirated voiceless stop instead. Individuals who were successful at forming clicks tended to employ a lowered-velum strategy.
Abstract
Click consonants have proven to be a challenge to researchers over the years. This chapter describes the various ways of transcribing them and various instrumental techniques for studying them. This chapter provides a survey of approaches that have been used to study various aspects of clicks, including their phonetic description, acquisition, and diachronic development. Readers will be introduced to little-known contrasts, such as ejective vs. glottalized clicks, and uvular vs. velar clicks. New evidence is provided for three click types that are not yet recognized by the IPA, the fricated palatal laminal /⨎/, the retroflex /ǃǃ/, and the forward-released lateral /ǀǀǀ/. Trends for future avenues of research are also discussed.
Abstract
The Bantu language Fwe, spoken in Zambia and Namibia, has a relatively small inventory of click phonemes, which displays extensive variation. Voicing and nasality are contrastive features, but click type can be freely interchanged. In the central variety of Fwe, there is additional free variation between clicks and non-click velar consonants. This variation is the result of a continuum between the northern variety of Fwe, which has lost clicks, and the southern variety of Fwe, where clicks are maintained.
Abstract
This paper provides an overview of the patterns of click loss and replacement in the Khoe-Kwadi family, and their use in subclassification. Previously unpublished data on languages of the Kalahari Khoe subgroup is presented, along with a discussion of previous work. Case studies on palatal and alveolar click loss show sociolinguistic triggers and a quick progress of the shift. This observation, along with the presence of “partial retention” in some languages, suggests that click loss may be recent and ongoing, rather than of marked genealogical depth. Cases of click loss in Sesfontein Damara and Kwadi further discourage the use of the sound shift to demarcate a genealogical unit “Eastern Kalahari Khoe”.
The loss of click consonants and partial replacement by non-click phonemes in languages of the Khoe-Kwadi family is important for genealogical subclassification.
Abstract
This chapter provides an overview and discussion of some of the current and long-standing questions surrounding clicks, including their phonological representation and structure, phonological patterns influenced by clicks, and the distribution of clicks. Particular attention is paid to the cross-linguistic typology of clicks, with an eye towards considering the typological predictions of various proposed analyses, and towards the question of whether phonetically complex clicks should be analyzed as single segments or as consonant clusters.
Abstract
Clicks in the Ju subgroup of Kx’a are subject to processes of replacement and loss. This paper discusses historical instances of replacement of one click by another, and presents previously unpublished data on click loss patterns in a variety of ǃXun spoken in the Cunene Province of Angola. Click replacement is relevant for genealogical subclassification within Ju, but these historical patterns bear no detectable relationship to the click loss seen in modern-day lects. Loss of the alveolar and palatal influx series as found in some Angolan ǃXun varieties displays patterns similar to Kalahari Khoe and may be seen as further evidence for click loss as a typological phenomenon affecting the “Khoisan” speaking area of southern Africa.
Abstract
Reports of clicks are often mistaken; many turn out to be ejectives. Even for languages that have clicks, early reports sometimes conflated them with ejectives. A few examples from the literature are given, as well as summaries of the phonotactics of two conlangs that actually do have clicks.