The voiceless or more precisely tenuis bilabial click is a click consonant found in some languages of southern Africa. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a tenuis bilabial click with a velar rear articulation is ⟨k͡ʘ⟩ or ⟨k͜ʘ⟩, commonly abbreviated to ⟨kʘ⟩, ⟨ᵏʘ⟩ or just ⟨ʘ⟩. For a click with a uvular rear articulation, the equivalents are ⟨q͡ʘ, q͜ʘ, qʘ, 𐞥ʘ⟩. Sometimes the accompanying letter comes after the click letter, e.g. ⟨ʘk⟩ or ⟨ʘᵏ⟩; this may be a simple orthographic choice, or it may imply a difference in the relative timing of the releases.[1]
| Tenuis bilabial click | |
|---|---|
| ʘ | |
| IPA Number | 176 |
| Audio sample | |
| Encoding | |
| Entity (decimal) | ʘ |
| Unicode (hex) | U+0298 |
| Braille |   |
| Tenuis bilabial uvular click | |
|---|---|
| q͡ʘ | |
| 𐞥ʘ |
Features of the tenuis bilabial click:
Tenuis bilabial clicks are only known to occur in the Tuu and Kx'a families of southern Africa.
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| ǂHoan | [k͡ʘoa] | 'two' | |
| Taa | [k͡ʘàa] | 'child' | |