| Khoisan | ||
|---|---|---|
| Geographic distribution: |
Kalahari Desert | |
| Genetic classification: |
Khoisan Khoisan |
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| Subdivisions: | ||
| ISO 639-2: | khi | |
Map showing the distribution of the Khoi-San languages (yellow)
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The Khoisan languages (also Khoesaan languages) are the indigenous languages of southern and eastern Africa; in southern Africa their speakers are the Khoi and Bushmen (Saan), in east Africa the Sandawe and Hadza. List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Khoe languages are the largest of the non- Bantu language families indigenous to southern Africa The Juu-ǂHoan languages form a recently proposed family linking the ǂHõã language isolate with the Juu dialect cluster The Tuu or Taa-ǃKwi ( Taa-ǃUi, ǃUi-Taa, Kwi) languages are a Language family consisting of two language clusters spoken Sandawe or Sandawi is a Tonal language spoken by about 40000 Sandawe people in the Dodoma region of Tanzania. Hadza is a Language isolate spoken by fewer than a thousand people along the shores of Lake Eyasi in Tanzania. ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages The Bushmen, San, Sho, Basarwa, ǃKung or Khwe are indigenous people of southern Africa that spans most areas of South Africa The Sandawe are an agricultural ethnic group based in the Kondoa District of Dodoma Region in central Tanzania. The Hadza people, or Hadzabe'e are an ethnic group in central Tanzania, living around Lake Eyasi in the central Rift Valley and in the neighboring They are famous for their clicks. Clicks are speech sounds such as English tsk! tsk! used to express disapproval or the tchick! used to spur on a horse Many people were exposed to this group of languages through Nǃxau's language in the 1980 film The Gods Must Be Crazy. Nǃxau (a misspelling of Gǃkau; earlier Gcao Coma) ( December 16 ? 1944? – July 1, 2003) was a Namibian bush The year 1980 in film involved some significant events Events April 30 - The Roger Daltrey film McVicar, opens The Gods Must Be Crazy is a Film released in 1980 written and directed by Jamie Uys.
Khoisan is the smallest phylum of African languages in Greenberg's classification. List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family There are an estimated 2000 Languages spoken in Africa. About a hundred of these are widely used for inter-ethnic communication Joseph Harold Greenberg (May 28 1915 – May 7 2001 was a prominent and controversial linguist and Africanist anthropologist known for his work in both typology However, the relationships among these languages remain a matter of debate among historical linguists, and the term "Khoisan" is often used for convenience without any implication of linguistic validity, much as are "Papuan" and "Australian". The term Papuan languages refers to those Languages of the western Pacific which are neither Austronesian nor Australian. It may be that the Tuu and Juu (or Juu-ǂHoan) families are similar due to a southern African Sprachbund rather than a genealogical relationship, whereas the Khoe (or Kwadi-Khoe) family is a more recent migrant to the area, and related instead to Sandawe in East Africa. A Sprachbund (ˈʃpraːxbʊnt in German plural Sprachbünde) from the German word for “language union” also known as a linguistic area, convergence No higher-level relationship has been demonstrated, and the putative branches of Khoisan are at best extremely distantly related.
Prior to the Bantu expansion, it is likely that Khoisan languages, or languages like them, were spread throughout southern and eastern Africa. Bantu may refer to Bantu expansion, a series of migrations of Bantu speakers Bantu languages Bantu people Today they are restricted to the Kalahari Desert, primarily in Namibia and Botswana, and to the Rift Valley in central Tanzania. Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa on the Atlantic coast The Republic of Botswana (Lefatshe la Botswana is a Landlocked nation in Southern Africa. A rift valley is a linear-shaped lowland between highlands or mountain ranges created by the action of a geologic Rift or fault. Tanzania ˌtænzəˈniːə officially the United Republic of Tanzania (Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya [1]
Most Khoisan languages are endangered, and several are moribund or extinct. An endangered language is a Language that it is at risk of falling out of use generally because it has few surviving speakers In Linguistics, language death (also language extinction, linguistic extinction, and sometimes pejoratively as linguicide) is a process According to some definitions an extinct language is a Language which no longer has any speakers, whereas a dead language is a language which is no longer spoken Most have no written record. The only widespread Khoisan language is Nama of Namibia, with a quarter of a million speakers; Sandawe in Tanzania is second in number with about 40,000, some monolingual; and the Juu language cluster of the northern Kalahari is spoken by some 30,000 people. Sandawe or Sandawi is a Tonal language spoken by about 40000 Sandawe people in the Dodoma region of Tanzania. The Juu languages (also spelled Ju, Zhu, or Dzu) also known as the ǃKung languages (also spelled Kung, Xû, Xun
Khoisan languages are best known for their use of click consonants as phonemes. Clicks are speech sounds such as English tsk! tsk! used to express disapproval or the tchick! used to spur on a horse The phoneME project is Sun Microsystems reference implementation of Java virtual machine and associated libraries of Java ME with source licensed under the GNU These are written with letters such as ǃ and ǂ. The Juǀʼhoan language has some 30 click consonants, not counting clusters, among perhaps 90 phonemes, which include strident and pharyngealized vowels and four tones. Juǀʼhoan (also called Zhuǀʼhõasi Dzuǀʼoasi Zû-ǀhoa JuǀʼHoansi is a Khoisan language spoken in the Northwest District of Botswana by about 5000 people Strident vowels (also called sphincteric vowels) are strongly pharyngealized vowels accompanied by (aryepiglottal trill, where the Larynx is Pharyngealization is a Secondary articulation of Consonants or Vowels by which the Pharynx or Epiglottis is constricted during the articulation The ǃXóõ and ǂHõã languages are similarly complex. ǂHõã or ǂHoan, more accurately ǂQhôã, is a Khoisan language of Botswana.
Grammatically, the southern Khoisan languages are generally fairly isolating, with word order being more widely used to indicate grammatical relations than is inflection. The languages of Tanzania have large numbers of inflectional suffixes.
Contents |
Classification
Each of the first five headings listed below is a branch of the putative Khoisan phylum, but it is not clear that they are related. The inclusion of Hadza in Khoisan is especially doubtful, and it appears to be a language isolate. A language isolate, in the absolute sense is a Natural language with no demonstrable genealogical (or "genetic" relationship with other living languages that is
See Khoe languages for speculations on the linguistic history of the region. The Khoe languages are the largest of the non- Bantu language families indigenous to southern Africa
- Hadza (975 speakers in Tanzania) Hadza appears to be unrelated to any other language; genetically, the Hadza people are unrelated to the Khoisan peoples of Southern Africa, and their closest relatives may be among the Pygmies of Central Africa. Hadza is a Language isolate spoken by fewer than a thousand people along the shores of Lake Eyasi in Tanzania. Pygmies (singular Pygmy) refers to a member of any human group whose adult males grow to less than 150 cm (4 feet 11 inches in average height or less than 155 cm
- Sandawe (40,000 speakers in Tanzania) There is some indication that Sandawe may be related to the Khoe-Kwadi family, such as a congruent pronominal system and some good Swadesh-list matches, but not enough to establish regular sound correspondences. Sandawe or Sandawi is a Tonal language spoken by about 40000 Sandawe people in the Dodoma region of Tanzania. A Swadesh list is one of several lists of vocabulary with "basic" meanings developed by Morris Swadesh in the 1940-50s which is used in Lexicostatistics The Sandawe are not related to the Hadza, despite their proximity.
- Kwadi-Khoe
- Kwadi. The Khoe languages are the largest of the non- Bantu language families indigenous to southern Africa Kwadi is an extinct Khoisan language spoken in the southwest corner of Angola. Extinct, Angola. Although little data is available, proto-Kwadi-Khoe reconstructions have been made for pronouns and some basic vocabulary.
- The Khoe family is both the most numerous and diverse family of Khoisan languages, with seven living languages and over a quarter million speakers. The Khoe languages are the largest of the non- Bantu language families indigenous to southern Africa
- Khoekhoe This branch appears to have been affected by the Juu-Tuu sprachbund. A Sprachbund (ˈʃpraːxbʊnt in German plural Sprachbünde) from the German word for “language union” also known as a linguistic area, convergence
- Nama (250,000 speakers. Ethnonyms Khoekhoen, Nama, Damara. A dialect cluster including ǂAakhoe and Haiǁom)
- Eini (Extinct. )
- South Khoekhoe
- Tshu-Khwe (or Kalahari) Many of these languages have undergone partial click loss.
- East Tshu-Khwe (East Kalahari)
- West Tshu-Khwe (West Kalahari)
- Kxoe (11,000 speakers. Kxoe is a Khoisan Dialect continuum of Namibia, Angola, Botswana, South Africa, and a few in Zambia, with some A dialect cluster including ǁAni and Buga)
- Naro (14,000 speakers. Naro (also Nharo) is a Khoe language spoken in the Ghanzi District of Botswana and in eastern Namibia, where it is sometimes called A dialect cluster. )
- Gǁana-Gǀwi (4500 speakers. A dialect cluster including Gǁana, Gǀwi, and ǂHaba)
- Khoekhoe This branch appears to have been affected by the Juu-Tuu sprachbund. A Sprachbund (ˈʃpraːxbʊnt in German plural Sprachbünde) from the German word for “language union” also known as a linguistic area, convergence
- The Tuu family consists of two language clusters, which are related to each other at about the distance of Khoekhoe and Tshukhwe within Khoe. Gǁana (also spelled Gxana, Dxana) is a Khoisan language of Botswana with about 2000 speakers (2004 Cook Gǀwi or Gǀui (sometimes spelled Dcui) is a Khoisan language of Botswana with 2500 speakers (2004 Cook The Tuu or Taa-ǃKwi ( Taa-ǃUi, ǃUi-Taa, Kwi) languages are a Language family consisting of two language clusters spoken They are typologically very similar to the Juu languages (below), but have not been demonstrated to be related to them genealogically. (The similarities may be an areal feature. A Sprachbund (ˈʃpraːxbʊnt in German plural Sprachbünde) from the German word for “language union” also known as a linguistic area, convergence )
- The Juu-ǂHoan family is a distant relationship, only recently proposed, that is being increasingly accepted. ǀXam, or ǀXam Kakǃʼe, is an extinct Khoisan language of South Africa, part of the ǃKwi language group ǁXegwi is an extinct !Kwi language of South Africa, near the Swazi border The Juu-ǂHoan languages form a recently proposed family linking the ǂHõã language isolate with the Juu dialect cluster
- ǂHõã (200 speakers, Botswana. ǂHõã or ǂHoan, more accurately ǂQhôã, is a Khoisan language of Botswana. Moribund. )
- Juu (also ǃKung, formerly Northern Khoisan) is a single dialect cluster. The Juu languages (also spelled Ju, Zhu, or Dzu) also known as the ǃKung languages (also spelled Kung, Xû, Xun (~45,000 speakers. ) Well known dialects are ǃKung (ǃXũũ), Juǀʼhoan, and ǂKxʼauǁʼein. Juǀʼhoan (also called Zhuǀʼhõasi Dzuǀʼoasi Zû-ǀhoa JuǀʼHoansi is a Khoisan language spoken in the Northwest District of Botswana by about 5000 people ǂKxʼauǁʼein is a group of unclassified mostly southwestern dialects of the Juu Dialect continuum of Botswana and Namibia with about
- Other
- A Haiǁom language is listed in most Khoisan references. The Haiǁom are a Khoisan people of Namibia. The Haiǁom speak Haiǁom language which is a Central Khoisan language and a member of the Khoekhoe A century ago the Haiǁom people spoke a Ju dialect, probably close to ǃKung, but they now speak a divergent dialect of Nama. Thus their language is variously said to be extinct or to have 16,000 speakers, to be Ju or to be Khoe. (Their numbers have been included under Nama above. ) They are known as the Saa by the Nama, and this is the source of the word San. The Bushmen, San, Sho, Basarwa, ǃKung or Khwe are indigenous people of southern Africa that spans most areas of South Africa
Other "Click Languages"
- Further information: Click consonant
Not all languages using clicks as phonemes are considered Khoisan. Clicks are speech sounds such as English tsk! tsk! used to express disapproval or the tchick! used to spur on a horse Most are neighboring Bantu languages in southern Africa: the Nguni languages Xhosa, Zulu, Swazi, Phuthi, and Ndebele; Sotho; Yeyi in Botswana; and Mbukushu, Kwangali, and Gciriku in the Caprivi Strip; but there is also the South Cushitic language Dahalo in Kenya, and an extinct northern Australian ritual language called Damin. The Bantu languages (technically Narrow Bantu languages) constitute a grouping belonging to the Niger-Congo family Nguni languages are mostly spoken by Nguni people, which are group of clans and nations living in south-east Africa Xhosa (ˈkǁʰoːsa ( isiXhosa) is one of the Official languages of South Africa. Zulu (called isiZulu in Zulu is a Language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers the vast majority (over 95% of whom live in South Swati ( siSwati in the language itself isiSwazi in Zulu is a Bantu language of the Nguni group spoken in Swaziland and Phuthi ( Síphùthì)is a Nguni Bantu language spoken in southern Lesotho and areas in South Africa adjacent to the same border History Should include probable history of the language what form of Bantu it is most closely derived from (the coolest forms! dates of movement of major groups Yeyi or ShiYeyi is a endangered Bantu language spoken by 45000 people along the Okavango River in Namibia and Botswana The Republic of Botswana (Lefatshe la Botswana is a Landlocked nation in Southern Africa. Caprivi, sometimes called the Caprivi Strip (in German Caprivizipfel) or the Okavango Strip and formally known as Itenge, is a narrow protrusion The South Cushitic or Rift languages belong to the Afro-Asiatic family and are spoken in Tanzania. Dahalo is an endangered South Cushitic Language spoken by at most 400 people on the Kenyan coast near the mouth of the Tana River The Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north Somalia to the northeast Tanzania to the south Damin (Demiin in the practical orthography was a ceremonial language register used by the advanced initiated men of the Lardil (Leerdil
The Bantu languages adopted the use of clicks from neighboring, displaced, or absorbed Khoisan populations, often through intermarriage, while the Dahalo are thought to retain clicks from an earlier language when they shifted to speaking a Cushitic language; if so, the pre-Dahalo language may have been something like Hadza or Sandawe. Language shift, sometimes referred to as language transfer or language replacement or assimilation, is the progressive process whereby a speech community Damin is an invented ritual language, and has nothing to do with Khoisan.
Notes
- ^ Barnard, A. (1988) 'Kinship, language and production: a conjectural history of Khoisan social structure', Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 58 (1), 29-50.
References
- Barnard, A. (1988) 'Kinship, language and production: a conjectural history of Khoisan social structure', Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 58 (1), 29-50.
- Güldemann, Tom and Rainer Vossen. 2000. Khoisan. In Heine, Bernd and Derek Nurse, eds. , African languages: an introduction, 99-122. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Köhler, O. (1971) 'Die Khoe-sprachigen Buschmänner der Kalahari', Forschungen zur allgemeinen und regionalen Geschichte. (Festschrift Kurt Kayser). Wiesbaden: F. Steiner, 373–411.
- Starostin G. Georgiy Sergeevich Starostin (Russian Гео́ргий Серге́евич Ста́ростин born July 4, 1976) is a Russian Linguistics researcher (2003) A lexicostatistical approach towards reconstructing Proto-Khoisan. Mother Tongue, vol. VIII.
- Treis, Yvonne (1998) 'Names of Khoisan languages and their variants', in Schladt, Matthias (ed. ) Language, Identity, and Conceptualization among the Khoisan. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe, 463–503.
- Vossen, Rainer (1997) Die Khoe-Sprachen. Ein Beitrag zur Erforschung der Sprachgeschichte Afrikas. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
- Westphal, E. O. J. (1971) 'The click languages of Southern and Eastern Africa', in Sebeok, T. A. (ed. ) Current trends in Linguistics Vol. 7: Linguistics in Sub-Saharan Africa. Berlin: Mouton, 367–420.
- Winter, J. C. (1981) 'Die Khoisan-Familie'. In Heine, Bernd, Schadeberg Thilo C. & Wolff, Ekkehard (eds. ) Die Sprachen Afrikas. Hamburg: Helmut Buske, 329–374.
External links
- Khoisan linguistics at Cornell University
- Khoisan language family tree per Ethnologue (considered unreliable by Khoisanists; see previous link)
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