!Kung language
Encyclopedia
!Kung or !Xun, also called Ju, is a dialect continuum
(language complex) spoken in Namibia
, Botswana
, and Angola
by the !Kung people
. Together with the ǂHoan language, it forms the Kx'a language family
. !Kung constitutes one of the branches of a putative Khoisan
language family, and is called Northern Khoisan in that scenario, but the unity of Khoisan has never been demonstrated and is suspected to be spurious. Nonetheless, the term "Khoisan" is widely retained as a convenience.
!Kung is famous for having a large number of clicks
, and has some of the most complex inventories of both consonant
s and vowel
s in the world. It also has tone
. For a description, see Juǀʼhoansi.
and perhaps Sandawe
.
Estimates vary, but there are perhaps 30–60 thousand speakers. There is much confusion with the names of Khoisan languages, with the result that dialects may be counted more than once; thus Ethnologue reports 6,000 speakers of ǃʼOǃKung, 7,000 of !Kung-Ekoka (|Akhwe), and over 60,000 speakers of "Vasekela Bushman", but then identifies Vasekela as ǃʼOǃKung and suggests that it may be the same as !Kung-Ekoka as well. In addition, they report 34,000 speakers of Juǀʼhoan, 7,000 of ǂKxʼauǁʼein, and 2,000 of Maligo, but do not give separate figures for the central dialects.
Until the mid–late twentieth century, the ǃʼOǃKung and Maligo dialects were widespread in southern and central Angola
. However, most !Kung fled the civil war
to Namibia
(primarily to the Caprivi Strip
) and to South Africa
. Botswana
hosts a minority of Juǀʼhoan speakers, but Namibia is today the center of the !Kung people and language.
Sands et al. classify !Kung varieties into four clusters:
ǂKxʼauǁʼein is too poorly attested to assign a place within this classification; if it belongs to one of these four groups, it is presumably Southeastern.
Heine & Honken (2010) classify 11 varieties into three branches:
Ethnologue 16 assigns an code to "Vasekela Bushman", , which has no clear identity and may be synonymous with !Kung as a whole.
, alveolar, palatal
, alveolar lateral, and retroflex
(*ǃ˞ or *‼). The retroflex clicks have dropped out of Southeastern dialects such as Juǀʼhoan, but remain in Central !Kung.
In ǀʼAkhwe (Ekoka), the palatal click has become a fricated alveolar.
Dialect continuum
A dialect continuum, or dialect area, was defined by Leonard Bloomfield as a range of dialects spoken across some geographical area that differ only slightly between neighboring areas, but as one travels in any direction, these differences accumulate such that speakers from opposite ends of the...
(language complex) spoken in Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
, Botswana
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...
, and Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
by the !Kung people
!Kung people
The ǃKung, also spelled ǃXun, are a Bushman people living in the Kalahari Desert in Namibia, Botswana and in Angola. They speak the ǃKung language, noted for using click consonants, generally classified as part of the Khoisan language family...
. Together with the ǂHoan language, it forms the Kx'a language family
Language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term 'family' comes from the tree model of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor comparing languages to people in a...
. !Kung constitutes one of the branches of a putative Khoisan
Khoisan languages
The Khoisan languages are the click languages of Africa which do not belong to other language families. They include languages indigenous to southern and eastern Africa, though some, such as the Khoi languages, appear to have moved to their current locations not long before the Bantu expansion...
language family, and is called Northern Khoisan in that scenario, but the unity of Khoisan has never been demonstrated and is suspected to be spurious. Nonetheless, the term "Khoisan" is widely retained as a convenience.
!Kung is famous for having a large number of clicks
Click 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...
, and has some of the most complex inventories of both consonant
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
s and vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s in the world. It also has tone
Tone (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...
. For a description, see Juǀʼhoansi.
Speakers
!Kung, if considered a single language, is the second or third most populous Khoisan language after 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...
and perhaps Sandawe
Sandawe language
Sandawe or Sandawi is a tonal language spoken by about 40,000 Sandawe people in the Dodoma region of Tanzania. Language use is vigorous among both adults and children, with people in some areas monolingual. Sandawe had generally been classified as a member of the defunct Khoisan family since Albert...
.
Estimates vary, but there are perhaps 30–60 thousand speakers. There is much confusion with the names of Khoisan languages, with the result that dialects may be counted more than once; thus Ethnologue reports 6,000 speakers of ǃʼOǃKung, 7,000 of !Kung-Ekoka (|Akhwe), and over 60,000 speakers of "Vasekela Bushman", but then identifies Vasekela as ǃʼOǃKung and suggests that it may be the same as !Kung-Ekoka as well. In addition, they report 34,000 speakers of Juǀʼhoan, 7,000 of ǂKxʼauǁʼein, and 2,000 of Maligo, but do not give separate figures for the central dialects.
Until the mid–late twentieth century, the ǃʼOǃKung and Maligo dialects were widespread in southern and central Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
. However, most !Kung fled the civil war
Angolan Civil War
The Angolan Civil War was a major civil conflict in the Southern African state of Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with some interludes, until 2002. The war began immediately after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. Prior to this, a decolonisation conflict had taken...
to Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
(primarily to the Caprivi Strip
Caprivi Strip
Caprivi, sometimes called the Caprivi Strip , Caprivi Panhandle or the Okavango Strip and formally known as Itenge, is a narrow protrusion of Namibia eastwards about , between Botswana to the south, Angola and Zambia to the north, and Okavango Region to the west. Caprivi is bordered by the...
) and to South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. Botswana
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...
hosts a minority of Juǀʼhoan speakers, but Namibia is today the center of the !Kung people and language.
Varieties
The better-known !Kung dialects are ǃʼOǃKung, Tsumkwe Juǀʼhoan, and ǂKxʼauǁʼein. Scholars distinguish between eleven and fifteen dialects, which may not be mutually intelligible when not adjacent, but there are no clear-cut distinctions between them at our present state of knowledge.Sands et al. classify !Kung varieties into four clusters:
- Northern Ju: Southern Angola, around the Cunene, Cubango, Cuito, and Cuando rivers, but with many refugees now in Namibia:
-
- ǃʼOǃKung
- Maligo
- North-Central Ju: Namibia, between the Ovambo River and the Angolan border, around the tributaries of the Okavango River east of Rundu to the Etosha Pan:
- Tsintsabis
- Okongo
- Ovambo
- Mpunguvlei
- ǀʼAkhwe (Ekoka)
- Central Ju: The area around GrootfonteinGrootfonteinGrootfontein is a city of 14,200 inhabitants in the Otjozondjupa Region of central Namibia. It is one of the three towns in the Otavi Triangle, situated on the B8 national road that leads from Windhoek to the Caprivi Strip...
, Namibia, west of the central Omatako River and south of the Ovambo River - Southeastern Ju: Botswana east of the Okavango DeltaOkavango DeltaThe Okavango Delta , in Botswana, is the world's largest inland delta. It is formed where the Okavango River empties onto a swamp in an endorheic basin in the Kalahari Desert, where most of the water is lost to evaporation and transpiration instead of draining into the sea...
, and northeast Namibia from near WindhoekWindhoekWindhoek is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level. The 2001 census determined Windhoek's population was 233,529...
to RunduRunduRundu is the capital of the Kavango Region, northern Namibia, on the border with Angola on the banks of the Okavango River about 1000 m above sea level. The place normally receives an annual average rainfall of , although in the 2010/2011 rainy season were measured.Rundu grows rapidly...
, GobabisGobabisGobabis is a town in eastern Namibia. It is the regional capital of the Omaheke Region, and the district capital of the Gobabis electoral constituency. Gobabis is situated down the B6 motorway from Windhoek to Botswana. The town is from the Buitepos border post with Botswana, and serves as an...
, and the Caprivi StripCaprivi StripCaprivi, sometimes called the Caprivi Strip , Caprivi Panhandle or the Okavango Strip and formally known as Itenge, is a narrow protrusion of Namibia eastwards about , between Botswana to the south, Angola and Zambia to the north, and Okavango Region to the west. Caprivi is bordered by the...
:
- Central Ju: The area around Grootfontein
- Tsumkwe
- Omatako
- Kameeldoring
- Epukiro.
ǂKxʼauǁʼein is too poorly attested to assign a place within this classification; if it belongs to one of these four groups, it is presumably Southeastern.
Heine & Honken (2010) classify 11 varieties into three branches:
- Northern–Western !Xun
- Northern !Xun
- Maligo [] (!xuun, kúándò !xuun "Kwando !Xun"; SE Angola)
- ǃʼOǃKung [] (!ʼo !uŋ "Forest !Xun"; eastern C Angola)
- Western !Xun [] (Kung-Ekoka)
- — (!xūún, !ʼālè !xòān "Valley !Xun"; Eenhana district, N Namibia)
- |Akhwe (!xūún, ǀʼākhòè !xòān "Kwanyama !Xun"; Eenhana, N Namibia)
- Tsintsabis (!xūún; Tsintsabis, Tsumeb district, N Namibia)
- Kavango !Xun (!xūún, known as dom !xūún "River !Xun" in Ekoka; Western Rundu district, N Namibia, & Angola adjacent)
- Central !Xun [poorly attested]
- Gaub (Tsumeb district, N Namibia)
- Neitsas (Grootfontein district, N Namibia)
- Southeastern !Xun
- Juǀʼhoan [] (ju-|ʼhoan(-si); Tsumkwe district, N Namibiba, & Bots adjacent)
- Dikundu (!xun, ju-|ʼhoa(si); Dikundu, W Caprivi)
- ǂKxʼauǁʼein [] (ju-|ʼhoan(-si), !xun, ǂxʼāōǁʼàèn "Northern people"; Gobabis district, E Namibia)
Ethnologue 16 assigns an code to "Vasekela Bushman", , which has no clear identity and may be synonymous with !Kung as a whole.
Protolanguage
The ancestral language, Proto-Juu or Proto-!Xun, had five places of click articulation: DentalDental 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...
, alveolar, palatal
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...
, alveolar lateral, and retroflex
Retroflex click
The retroflex clicks are a family of click consonants found only in central Juu dialects of Namibia and in the Damin ritual jargon of Australia...
(*ǃ˞ or *‼). The retroflex clicks have dropped out of Southeastern dialects such as Juǀʼhoan, but remain in Central !Kung.
| Proto-Juu | *ǃ 'belly' | *ǃ˞ (‼) 'water' | |
|---|---|---|---|
| SE (Tsumkwe) | ᶢǃű | ᶢǃű | |
| N (Okongo) | ᶢǃű | ᶢǁű | |
| NW (Mangetti Dune) | ᶢǃű | ᶢǁ̪ű |
|) |
| C (Neitsas/Nurugas) | ᶢǃú | ᶢǃ˞ú (‼) |
In ǀʼAkhwe (Ekoka), the palatal click has become a fricated alveolar.