Clicks

[Yuphaphann Hoonchamlong]

Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 20:48:18 +0200
From: David Gil <gil at eva.mpg.de>
Reply-To: gil at eva.mpg.de
Organization: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
To: Frank Smith <vox at speakeasy.org>
CC: "sealteach at nectec.or.th" <sealteach at nectec.or.th>
Subject: Re: SEALTEACH query: clicks in Southeast Asia

Dear Frank,

Thanks for the information on the Khmer click.

> In Khmer, yes, the click exists, and it's palatal...it's definitely negative,
> and it's used in several ways...one is to indicate dissatisfaction, disapproval
> of someone's actions or a situation; the other (related) function is to alert
> someone (usually a child, or maybe a drunk adult) that they're acting
> inappropriately.  In my experience it's not used very casually but is reserved
> for what the speaker judges to be fairly grave or serious circumstances.

Two follow-up questions:

(a) Is the click used once or several times?  And if both once and
several times are possible, is there any difference in meaning?  (Reason
I'm asking:  in some dialects of Indonesian, one dental click is
negative, a sequence of several such clicks positive.)

(b) Is there also a dental click?  (I have reports of a dental click
with positive connotations in Lao, Kammu and West Bahnaric, so I'm
wondering what the extent of this is.)

Thanks,

David



--
David Gil

Department of Linguistics
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
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Email: gil at eva.mpg.de
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