Re: Clicks & other oddities

Hi!

> On the subject of clicks, how exactly is =/ produced?
To cite a page about Zulu, which includes =\ ((alveolo) palatal
click):

> To pronounce the dental click, c, press the tip of the tongue
> against the front teeth, and then withdraw it sharply, at the same
> time dropping the back of the tongue from the soft palate. This
> sound may be compared with the sound you would make when sucking
> something from your upper teeth, or the sound of sympathy when
> someone says ts-ts.
>
> To pronounce the palatal click, q, press the tip of the tongue
> against the front palate and then follow with the same procedure as
> with c. This sound may be compared with the sound a person would
> make when trying to imitate the sound of a cork being pulled from a
> bottle.
>
> To pronounce the lateral click, x, place the tip of the tongue
> against the hard palate as if you were going to produce the n
> sound. Press one side of the tongue against the side of the
> jaw. Then, without shifting the tip of the tongue from the hard
> palate, withdraw the side sharply from the jaw. This sound differs
> from the other two in that the release takes place at the side(s) of
> the tongue and not at the front. This sound is sometimes made to
> express regret or to spur on a horse.
Source: http://www.cyberserv.co.za/users/~jako/lang/zulpg.htm

I still have problems doing them quickly, especially the palatal and
lateral clicks and especially when secondary or even tertiary
articulation comes into play.  E.g. I cannot pronouce the lateral
click well together with an ejective release of the velar closure, so
I threw out that phoneme (to be precise, the whole series of
ejectives) from Qthen|gai.

To add to the above description, the palatal click seems to sound
quite similar with different positions of the tip of the tongue.
Ranges I tried are from alvealar to retroflex.  I don't know whether
there is a consistent pronounciation in Khoisan languages (and those
that borrowed clicks).

Further, the palatal click, I think, is the one that sounds most
differently when rounded.  Zhu|'hoansi (and probably others) seems to
use it as a rounded allophonic variant before rounded vowels.  It
sounds extremely cool. ;-)

> The closest I can come to a click-type noise is a sort of flap of
> the tongue striking the bottom of the mouth.
No, that sound is used by some people sometimes as in interjection
showing good mood, I think.  AFAIK, it does not seem to have an IPA
symbol.

> I can also do a sort of ingressive uvular flap which sounds quite
> click-like ...
Hmm, I don't know what that means.  Can you give a more concise
description of what you do?

Bye,
  Henrik