Unresolved issues in the representation and phonetic description of click articulation in Xhosa and Zulu

Abstract

The paper addresses three issues that are regarded as unresolved with respect to the representation and description of click sounds in Xhosa and Zulu. These issues relate to (i) different phonetic transcription systems for clicks, (ii) a controversy regarding the specification of places of articulation for clicks, and (iii) the phonetic content of socalled ‘noisy’ or affricated clicks. Current practices regarding the use of the revised IPA symbols for clicks are discussed against the backdrop of experimental phonetic results on click articulations as obtained through electropalatographic (EPG) techniques. It is argued that the use of the symbols usually used for velar stops as components of a click representation is unfounded and that it actually obscures other salient features of click articulations. A simplified system is proposed for Bantu languages such as Zulu and Xhosa. The place of articulation of palatal clicks in Zulu is confirmed through the presentation of EPG data linking it to the [!] phonetic symbol that is more generally used to denote alveolar clicks. The traditional views on the phonetic content of noisy (affricated) dental and alveo-lateral clicks are challenged in view of data obtained through an innovative speech processing technique (Smoothed Pseudo-Wigner Distribution Analysis) that combines the good frequency resolution of narrow band spectrograms and the good time resolution of wide band spectrograms. It is shown that these sounds are not affricated, but in fact pre-affricated and that traditional interpretations of waveforms are incorrect.