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The '''retroflex clicks''' are a family of [[click consonant]]s known only from the [[Central ǃKung]] language or dialect of [[Namibia]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Scott|first1=Abigail |last2=Miller|first2=Amanda |last3=Namaseb|first3=Levi |last4=Sands|first4=Bonny |last5=Shah|first5=Sheena|date=June 2, 2010|title= Retroflex Clicks in Two Dialects of ǃXung |journal= University of Botswana, Department of African Languages}}</ref> They are [[retroflex consonant|sub-apical retroflex]] and should not be confused with the more widespread [[postalveolar click]]s, 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 {{angbr IPA|𝼊}}.<ref name=non-pulmonic>Kirk Miller & Michael Ashby, [https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20253r-mod-ipa-b.pdf L2/20-253R] Unicode request for IPA modifier letters (b), non-pulmonic.</ref><ref>The Unicode character {{angbr IPA|𝼊}} was only adopted 2021. It may be substituted in some fonts with a combining diacritic, such as {{angbr IPA|ǃ̢}} or {{angbr IPA|ǃ̨}}.</ref> However, usage is rare. In the literature, retroflex clicks are typically written with the ''ad hoc'' digraph {{angbr IPA|‼}}, the convention since Doke identified them as retroflex in
Retroflex clicks are extraordinarily rare. True retroflex clicks occur in at least some dialects of Central ǃKung. The [[Damin]] ritual jargon of [[Australia]] may have had a voiced nasal retroflex click, transcribed by Hale & Nash as {{angbr|rn!}}, though it's not known if it was phonemically distinct. However, Damin clicks presumably reflected the consonant articulations of [[Lardil language|Lardil]], in which the "retroflex" consonants are retracted [[apical consonant|apical]] alveolar rather than true retroflex, so it is likely that the Damin distinction could be described as post-alveolar apical {{IPA|[ᵑǃ̠]}} ({{angbr|rn!}}) vs a more fronted apical {{IPA|[ᵑǃ̪]}} ({{angbr|n!}}).
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