Occurrence
English does not have a palatal click (or any click consonant, for that matter) as a phoneme, but a plain alveolar click does occur in mimesis, as a sound children use to imitate a horse trotting.
Palatal clicks only occur in the southern African Khoisan languages (the Khoe, Kx'a, and Tuu families), where they are extremely common, and in the single Bantu language Yeyi.
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Khoekhoe | ǂKhoesaob | ǂ͡χòe̯̋sàȍ̯p | July |
| Taa | ǂnûm | ᵑǂûm = ǂ̃ûm | two |
| ǂHaba | ǂHaba | ǂʰabá | (endonym) |
| Naro | tc | ||
| Yeyi | kuǂʔapara | to smash up |
Read more about this topic: Palatal Clicks
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