Nasal bilabial click

Main articles: Bilabial click and Nasal click

Nasal bilabial click
ʘ̃   ɋ̃

Nasal bilabial velar click
ŋʘ   ŋɋ
ᵑʘ   ᵑɋ

Nasal bilabial uvular click
ɴʘ   ɴɋ
ᶰʘ   ᶰɋ

A bilabial nasal click is a click consonant found in some of the languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a nasal bilabial click with a velar rear articulation is ⟨ŋ͡ʘ⟩ or ⟨ŋ͜ʘ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨ŋʘ⟩, ⟨ᵑʘ⟩ or ⟨ʘ̃⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨ɴ͡ʘ, ɴ͜ʘ, ɴʘ, ᶰʘ⟩. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ʘŋ⟩ or ⟨ʘᵑ⟩; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.

Features

Features of a bilabial 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 place of articulation is bilabial, which means it is articulated with both lips.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is a nasal consonant, which means air is exclusively allowed to escape through the nose for nasal stops; otherwise, in addition to through the mouth.

Occurrence

Bilabial nasal clicks only occur in the Tuu and Kxʼa families of southern Africa, in the Australian ritual language Damin, and for /mw/ in some of the languages neighboring Shona, such as at least for some speakers of Ndau and Tonga.

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning
Damin	m!ii	[ʘ̃iː]	'vegetable'
Tonga	kumwa	[kʼuᵑʘwa]	'to drink'
Ndau	mwana	[ᵑʘwana]	'child'
Nǀuu	mʘôa	[ᵑʘõɑ̃]ⓘ	'cat'

Glottalized bilabial nasal click

Main article: Glottalized click

Glottalized bilabial nasal click
ʘ̃ˀ
ʘ̃ʔ
ᵑʘˀ
ᵑ̊ʘˀ

The Tuu and Kxʼa languages also 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
Nǀuu	ʘʼuiʼi	[ᵑ̊ʘˀuiʔi]	'to be sick'