Nasal lateral click
# Nasal lateral click

The lateral nasal click is a click consonant found primarily among the languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a nasal lateral click with a velar rear articulation is ⟨ŋ͡ǁ⟩ or ⟨ŋ͜ǁ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨ŋǁ⟩, ⟨ᵑǁ⟩ or ⟨ǁ̃⟩; a symbol abandoned by the IPA but still preferred by some linguists is ⟨ŋ͡ʖ⟩ or ⟨ŋ͜ʖ⟩, abbreviated ⟨ŋʖ⟩, ⟨ᵑʖ⟩ or ⟨ʖ̃⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨ɴ͡ǁ, ɴ͜ǁ, ɴǁ, ᶰǁ⟩ and ⟨ɴ͡ʖ, ɴ͜ʖ, ɴʖ, ᶰʖ⟩. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ǁŋ⟩ or ⟨ǁᵑ⟩; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.

## Features

Features of the lateral nasal click:

* The airstream mechanism is lingual ingressive (also known as velaric ingressive), which means a pocket of air trapped between two closures is rarefied by a "sucking" action of the tongue, rather than being moved by the glottis or the lungs/diaphragm. The release of the forward closure produces the "click" sound. Voiced and nasal clicks have a simultaneous pulmonic egressive airstream.
* Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
* It is a nasal consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the nose, either exclusively (nasal stops) or in addition to through the mouth.
* It is a lateral consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream over the sides of the tongue, rather than down the middle.

## Occurrence

Lateral nasal clicks are found primarily in the various Khoisan language families of southern Africa and in some neighboring Bantu languages.

| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning |
| - | - | - | - |
| ǃKung | nǁan | [ᵑǁàŋ] = [ᵑʖàŋ] | 'marama bean' |
| !Xóõ | ǁnáã | [ᵑǁɑ́ɑ̃] = [ᵑʖɑ́ɑ̃] | 'grewia berry' |
| Hadza | konxa | [koᵑǁa] = [koᵑʖa] | 'to be a pair' |
| Zulu | inxeba | [iᵑǁɛ́ːɓa] = [iᵑʖɛ́ːɓa] | 'wound' |

## Glottalized lateral nasal click

All Khoisan languages, and a few Bantu languages, have glottalized nasal clicks. These are formed by closing the glottis so that the click is pronounced in silence; however, any preceding vowel will be nasalized.

| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning |
| - | - | - | - |
| Hadza | slaxxa | [ɬaᵑǁˀa] = [ɬaᵑʖˀa] | 'a split' |
| Khoekhoe | tsoatsoaǁaposa | [tsȍàtsòȁᵑǁˀàpòsa̋] = [tsȍàtsòȁᵑʖˀàpòsa̋] | 'principled' |
| Xhosa | inkxumo | [iᵑǁˀumo] = [iᵑʖˀumo] | 'a support' |
