Tenuis bilabial click
# Tenuis bilabial click

The voiceless or more precisely tenuis bilabial click is a click consonant found in some languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a tenuis bilabial click with a velar rear articulation is ⟨k͡ʘ⟩ or ⟨k͜ʘ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨kʘ⟩, ⟨ᵏʘ⟩ or just ⟨ʘ⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨q͡ʘ, q͜ʘ, qʘ, 𐞥ʘ⟩. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ʘk⟩ or ⟨ʘᵏ⟩; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.

## Features

Features of the tenuis bilabial 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 place of articulation is bilabial, which means it is articulated with both lips.
* Its phonation is voiceless, unaspirated, and unglottalized, which means it is produced without vibration or constriction of the vocal cords, and any following vowel starts without significant delay.
* It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
* Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.

## Occurrence

Tenuis bilabial clicks are only known to occur in the Tuu and Kx'a families of southern Africa.

| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning |
| - | - | - | - |
| ǂHoan | [k͡ʘoa] | [k͡ʘoa] | 'two' |
| Taa | [k͡ʘàa] | [k͡ʘàa] | 'child' |
