Nasal clicks and glottalized clicks with syllabic velar nasals in Ju|’hoan

Abstract

The |Xae|xae dialect of Ju|’hoan as it is spoken in western Botswana features a series of nasal clicks and glottalized clicks that are combined with a syllabic velar nasal into a single morphological unit. An acoustic analysis of these clicks shows that the vowel [a] is not present in the |Xae|xae variants and that only a syllabic velar nasal remains. This was found for all four click articulations with minimal pairs for high and low tone as well as for glottalized clicks and non-glottalized nasal clicks. While their phonetic features appear straightforward, the phonological and orthographic renderings of these clicks are discussed for their wider implications.