‡Hõã language
Encyclopedia
is a Khoisan language of Botswana
. It was shown to be related to the Juu languages by Heine and Honken (2010). It is a severely endangered and moribund. The current number of speakers is less than 60 people, most of them around the age of 60. The language is no longer passed on to the children and grandchildren. The mother tongue of the majority of children is Kgalagadi, a Bantu language which is the local lingua franca
of the area.
Note that there is a dialect of the !Xoon that goes by the same name and is differentiated as Western .
, Mathibatsela, Motokwe, Khekenye, and Salajwe
. There are some semi-speakers in Khudumelapye
. No speakers remain in the former location of Tsia.
and one rising tone.
The language has both uvular
and bilabial click
s. Few other languages have either.
: bilabial, dental, alveolar, palatal, and lateral alveolar. There are thirteen accompaniments, or effluxes, for 65 potential click consonants. Only 55 of these possibilities are attested, though it is unknown whether this is due to actual gaps in the phonemic inventory, or are simply a reflection of linguists' poor knowledge of the language.
(Khoekhoe) and other central Khoisan languages which have SOV word order. has nominal postpositions used for locative relations (see Collins 2001), and the possessor precedes the head noun.
grammar is characterized by a number of features common to the non-central Khoisan languages. First there is an intricate system of nominal and verbal purality (the latter often referred to as pluractionality
). Second, there is a system of verbal compounds. Third, there is a general purpose preposition (referred to as the linker in Collins 2003) which appears between post-verbal constituents.
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
. It was shown to be related to the Juu languages by Heine and Honken (2010). It is a severely endangered and moribund. The current number of speakers is less than 60 people, most of them around the age of 60. The language is no longer passed on to the children and grandchildren. The mother tongue of the majority of children is Kgalagadi, a Bantu language which is the local lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
of the area.
Note that there is a dialect of the !Xoon that goes by the same name and is differentiated as Western .
Language area
ǂHoan is spoken in southeastern Botswana, just south of the Khutse game reserve at the southern fringe of the Kalahari desert, around the villages of Tswaane, DutlweDutlwe
Dutlwe is a village in Kweneng District of Botswana. The population of Dutlwe was 1,017 in 2001 census.-References:...
, Mathibatsela, Motokwe, Khekenye, and Salajwe
Salajwe
Salajwe is a village in Kweneng District of Botswana. It is located in central Botswana, in Kalahari Desert, 70 km north-west of Letlhakeng. The population of Salajwe was 1,705 in 2001 census.-References:...
. There are some semi-speakers in Khudumelapye
Khudumelapye
Khudumelapye or Kudumelapye is a village in Kweneng District of Botswana. It is located 30 km north-west of Letlhakeng. The population of Khudumelapye was 1,837 in 2001 census.-References:...
. No speakers remain in the former location of Tsia.
Dialects
There are some phonological differences between the spoken around Dutlwe and that spoken around Motokwe and Khekhenye; Salajwe has yet to be investigated. Collins (1998) reports "a closely related, mutually intelligible language", Sasí, around Lethajwe and Artesia, south of Shoshong. Sasí remains undescribed, so it is not clear how divergent it may be.Phonetics
ǂHõã has four level tonesTone (linguistics)
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
and one rising tone.
The language has both uvular
Uvular consonant
Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be plosives, fricatives, nasal stops, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and...
and bilabial click
Bilabial click
The bilabial clicks are a family of click consonants that sound something like a smack of the lips. They are found as phonemes only in the small Tuu language family, in the language of Botswana, and in the extinct Damin ritual jargon of Australia....
s. Few other languages have either.
Clicks
Like the Tuu languages, with which it was previously classified, has five click onsetsClick consonant
Clicks are speech sounds found as consonants in many languages of southern Africa, and in three languages of East Africa. Examples of these sounds familiar to English speakers are the tsk! tsk! or tut-tut used to express disapproval or pity, the tchick! used to spur on a horse, and the...
: bilabial, dental, alveolar, palatal, and lateral alveolar. There are thirteen accompaniments, or effluxes, for 65 potential click consonants. Only 55 of these possibilities are attested, though it is unknown whether this is due to actual gaps in the phonemic inventory, or are simply a reflection of linguists' poor knowledge of the language.
| Accompaniment (Efflux) |
Affricated clicks | 'Sharp' clicks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bilabial clicks Bilabial click The bilabial clicks are a family of click consonants that sound something like a smack of the lips. They are found as phonemes only in the small Tuu language family, in the language of Botswana, and in the extinct Damin ritual jargon of Australia.... |
dental clicks Dental click Dental clicks are a family of click consonants found, as constituents of words, only in Africa and in the Damin ritual jargon of Australia. The tut-tut! or tsk! tsk! sound used to express disapproval or pity is a dental click, although it isn't a speech sound in that context.The symbol in the... |
lateral clicks |
alveolar clicks Postalveolar click The alveolar or postalveolar clicks are a family of click consonants found only in Africa and in the Damin ritual jargon of Australia.The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the place of articulation of these sounds is... |
palatal clicks Palatal click The palato-alveolar clicks are a family of click consonants found only in Africa. They are commonly called palatal clicks.The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the place of articulation of these sounds is , a pipe... |
|
| Voiced velar nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
ᵑʘ | ᵑǀ | ᵑǁ | ᵑǃ | ᵑǂ |
| Voiced velar plosive | ᶢʘ | ᶢǀ | ᶢǁ | ᶢǃ | ᶢǂ |
| Tenuis Tenuis consonant In linguistics, a tenuis consonant is a stop or affricate which is unvoiced, unaspirated, and unglottalized. That is, it has a "plain" phonation like , with a voice onset time close to zero, as in Spanish p, t, ch, k, or as in English p, t, k after s .In transcription, tenuis consonants are not... velar plosive |
ʘ | ǀ | ǁ | ǃ | ǂ |
| Aspirated Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ... velar plosive |
ǀʰ | ǁʰ | ǃʰ | ǂʰ | |
| Glottalized Glottalization Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice... velar plosive (prenasalized between vowels) |
ʘˀ (ᵑˀʘ) |
ǀˀ (ᵑˀǀ) |
ǁˀ (ᵑˀǁ) |
ǃˀ (ᵑˀǃ) |
ǂˀ (ᵑˀǂ) |
| Delayed aspiration (prenasalized between vowels) |
ᵑ̊ǁʰ (ᵑǁʰ) |
ᵑ̊ǃʰ (ᵑǃʰ) |
ᵑ̊ǂʰ (ᵑǂʰ) |
||
| Complex clicks | |||||
| Preglottalized velar nasal | ˀᵑʘ | ˀᵑǀ | ˀᵑǁ | ˀᵑǃ | ˀᵑǂ |
| Prenasalized voiced uvular plosive | ᶰǀɢ | ᶰǁɢ | ᶰǂɢ | ||
| Tenuis uvular plosive | ǀq | ǁq | ǃq | ǂq | |
| Aspirated uvular plosive | ǀqʰ | ǁqʰ | ǂqʰ | ||
| Voiceless uvular affricate | ʘq͡χ | ǀq͡χ | ǁq͡χ | ǃq͡χ | ǂq͡χ |
| Uvular ejective Uvular ejective The uvular ejective is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is .-Features:Features of the uvular ejective:-Occurrence:One ejective... |
ǀqʼ | ǁqʼ | ǃqʼ | ǂqʼ | |
| Uvular ejective affricate | ʘq͡χʼ | ǀq͡χʼ | ǁq͡χʼ | ǂq͡χʼ | |
Grammar
is an SVO subject–verb–object language (see examples in Collins 2001, 2002, 2003). The SVO word order of and the other non-central Khoisan languages distinguishes them from NamaNama language
The Khoekhoe language, or Khoekhoegowab, also known by the ethnic term Nàmá and previously the now-discouraged term Hottentot, is the most widespread of the Khoisan languages. It belongs to the Khoe language family, and is spoken in Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa by three ethnic groups, the...
(Khoekhoe) and other central Khoisan languages which have SOV word order. has nominal postpositions used for locative relations (see Collins 2001), and the possessor precedes the head noun.
grammar is characterized by a number of features common to the non-central Khoisan languages. First there is an intricate system of nominal and verbal purality (the latter often referred to as pluractionality
Pluractionality
Pluractionality, or verbal number, is a grammatical device that indicates that the action or participants of a verb are plural. This differs from frequentive or iterative aspects in that the latter have no implication for the number of participants of the verb.Often a pluractional transitive verb...
). Second, there is a system of verbal compounds. Third, there is a general purpose preposition (referred to as the linker in Collins 2003) which appears between post-verbal constituents.
External links
- Language Documentation Project of ǂHoan at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig
- Language Documentation Project of ǂHoan within the 'Kalahari Basin Area Project' of the European Science Foundation
- Grammar and phonology of ǂHoan at Cornell University
- The Ethnologue Report for ǂHõã