Latin Letter Retroflex Click

ǃ marks the front release of an alveolar click, made near the ridge behind the upper teeth. It appears in phonetic writing and some African orthographies; it is a letter, not punctuation, and another letter can show the consonant’s rear closure.

Text symbol

What ǃ means

It marks the click’s front release.

Juǀ'hoan and Khoekhoe also use it as a letter. In k͜ǃ and q͜ǃ, the first letter shows a closure farther back; ŋ͜ǃ adds a nasal quality.

Technical and language-specific.

Part of collections

IPA Phonetic Symbols

Nama Alphabet & Click Letters

Who writes ǃ

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Don't confuse it with

Exclamation Mark

ǃ vs !: the exclamation mark is punctuation; ǃ is a phonetic letter.

Combination ideas

Voiceless click; closure near the soft palate at the back of the mouth.

Voiceless click; closure farther back than in k͜ǃ.

Nasal click; closure near the soft palate at the back of the mouth.

Questions people ask

Why does ǃ show as a box on some devices?

Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.