Retroflex click

 ( Retroflex Consonants ) 

The retroflex clicks are a family of known only from the Central ǃKung language or dialect of Namibia. They are sub-apical retroflex and should not be confused with the more widespread postalveolar clicks, which are sometimes mistakenly called "retroflex" (for example in Unicode) due to their concave tongue shape.

The 'implicit' symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the forward articulation of these sounds is .Kirk Miller & Michael Ashby, L2/20-253R Unicode request for IPA modifier letters (b), non-pulmonic.The character was recently added to Unicode in 2021. It may be substituted in some fonts with a combining diacritic, such as (with U+0322 COMBINING RETROFLEX HOOK BELOW) or (with U+0328 COMBINING OGONEK). However, usage is rare. In the literature, retroflex clicks are typically written with the ad hoc digraph , the convention since Doke identified them as retroflex in 1925. (Doke's proposed symbol, , did not catch on, though it has IPA support for historical transcription, nor did Vedder's and Anders' .
—— For a while Amanda Miller, who noted a lateral fricated release (as had Vedder), transcribed them .)

Retroflex clicks are extraordinarily rare. True retroflex clicks occur in at least some dialects of Central ǃKung. They are reconstructed for the Proto-Kxʼa language and tentatively for Proto-Khoe–Kwadi.Anne-Maria Fehn & Jorge Rocha (2023) Lost in translation: A historical-comparative reconstruction of Proto-Khoe-Kwadi based on archival data. Diachronica 40:5, p. 609–665. The Damin ritual jargon of Australia may have had a voiced nasal retroflex click, transcribed by Hale & Nash as , though it's not known if it was phonemically distinct. However, Damin clicks presumably reflected the consonant articulations of Lardil language, in which the "retroflex" consonants are retracted apical consonant alveolar rather than true retroflex, so it is likely that the Damin distinction could be described as post-alveolar apical () vs a more fronted apical ().

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Retroflex click consonants and their transcription Basic retroflex clicks in three common transcription conventions are:

			tenuis retroflex click
			aspirated retroflex click
			voiced retroflex click
			retroflex nasal click
			aspirated retroflex nasal click
			glottalized retroflex nasal click
			tenuis retroflex click
			aspirated retroflex click
			voiced retroflex click
			retroflex nasal click
			aspirated retroflex nasal click
			glottalized retroflex nasal click

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Features Features of postalveolar clicks:

• The place of articulation is post-alveolar, and the tongue shape may be subapical, which means it is articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up. The center of the tongue moves downward to create suction.

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Occurrence As with other click articulations, retroflex clicks may be produced with various manners. An example is the voiced retroflex click in the Grootfontein ǃKung (Central Juu) word for 'water', ( g‼ú).

Damin is the only other language known to have had such a sound, though only the nasal click occurred.

A retroflex series claimed for Ekoka ǃKung turns out to be domed palatal clicks.

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See also

• The fricated palatal click of Ekoka ǃKung, which was once thought to be retroflex
• Alveolar click
• Bilabial click
• Dental click
• Lateral click
• Palatal click

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Notes and references

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Further reading

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