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I'm looking for a word that describes the sound made when a person rubs their tongue on the side of their inner teeth. It's like a wet noise and it's supposed to denote a positive gesture rather than negative (tsking)

When I do it, I notice my lips bend upwards.

I wish I could remember a particular scene from a movie/tv show but I can't. However I believe when characters do it, they sometimes also make a gun gesture or point with their fingers.

I've searched quite a bit but haven't found a word that conveys this sound/gesture.

I need it for a scene in a book I'm writing so I can't just explain it, I'll need a word for it if it exists. If not I guess I'll have to change it.

For example in a scene where this gesture will happen it will be:

  • Character A: Can you fly this giant space ship?
  • Character B: Sure, easy! (then make the sound with his mouth to express it will be easy)

Hope all these ramblings help make it clear what I'm after.

edit: Here's the closest reference I could find, It's the sound Bender makes right around the 29th second mark - http://res.cloudinary.com/yoav-cloud/video/upload/futurama-word_z0jxlm.mp4

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This sound is used as an actual phoneme in many African languages such as Xhosa. In other words, in many languages this sound appears as part of a word. The technical name for a sound of this type is an unvoiced alveolar lateral click. In English speaking cultures, this sound is only used non-verbally, where it can have a variety of meanings. For example, English speaking horse-riders will use this sound to encourage their horses to start to move, or speed up. We also sometimes use this when winking as a gesture of camaraderie with the person we're winking to.

For an audio example of a voiceless alveolar lateral click see here.

For instructions on how to make them, see this video here.

If unvoiced alveolar lateral click is too long, you could of course, refer to it simply as a click.

1

I have often thought of this sound as a verbal (or rather mouth-created) "wink" sound, as it is intended to convey a similar sort of sly innuendo or encouragement that a wink of an eye would do. It's apparently a common enough sentiment that it warrants a subsection on the wikipedia page for "Wink": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wink#The_.22click.22

Urban dictionary calls this sound a Chlick, though I've never heard that term.

A Google search for "wink click mouth" yields a lot of matching results, none of which seem to have a specific word for the sound.

If I were you I'd somehow use "wink" near "click of the tongue" in your story. Something like:

He winked and clicked his tongue in a ridiculously sassy fashion that made her think of Steve Martin doing his Wild And Crazy Guy routine.

"Here's lookin' at you, kid!" he drawled, clearly pleased with himself.

OK, she thought. Not so much Steve Martin, and more like Chris Kattan. Doing a Humphrey Bogart impression. Badly. She closed her eyes to keep from wincing.

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