Thanks for the response. As I mentioned earlier, there doesn't seem to be an impact on driveability, only that, on occasion, the shifter experiences some type of resistance half-way between neutral and 1st.
I do not remember it making the noise when I first bought the vehicle about 6 months ago. The noise does not "come-and-go." It's always there, no matter if I'm up-shifting or down-shifting, full throttle or coasting, engine cold or hot. Believe it or not, but on a quiet night, with the radio and AC off, I can hear the "clacking" all the way through 5th gear, and sometimes even shifting into 6th (though as the gears get higher, the noise becomes less pronounced).