Professor Anthony Traill (1939–2007) was a linguist

Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

 (specifically a phonetician), who was the world's foremost authority on a San (more broadly, a 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 called !Xóõ. He published widely on this language, including a dictionary of the language

Language

Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...

. !Xóõ is famous for having probably the largest consonant inventory of any language on the planet.

For the most part, Traill's publications addressed the phonetics of !Xóõ

!Xóõ language

Taa, also known as !Xoon or ǃXóõ, is a Khoisan language known for its large number of phonemes. As of 2002, it was spoken by about 4,200 people worldwide. These are mainly in Botswana , but some are in Namibia. The people call themselves ǃXoon or ‘N|ohan Taa, also known as !Xoon or ǃXóõ, is a...

 in relation to related San

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...

 languages. He also contributed importantly to the Khoisan and Bantu instrumental phonetic literature on 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...

 with respect to voice

Voice (phonetics)

Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate...

 and breathy voice

Breathy voice

Breathy voice is a phonation in which the vocal cords vibrate, as they do in normal voicing, but are held further apart, so that a larger volume of air escapes between them. This produces an audible noise...

.

Traill was Professorial Research Fellow at Wits University for nearly the decade since he was Professor and Chair of Linguistics (until 1998), in the Department of Linguistics, at the University of the Witwatersrand

University of the Witwatersrand

The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg is a South African university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University...

, Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

, 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...

. He spoke highly competent !Xóõ, having conducted research in the !Xóõ communities of 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...

 on nearly 100 field trips over more than 35 years. He also spoke Zulu

Zulu language

Zulu is the language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority of whom live in South Africa. Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa as well as being understood by over 50% of the population...

, Tsonga

Tsonga language

The Tsonga or Xitsonga language is spoken in southern Africa by the Tsonga people, also known as the Shangaan.- Classification :Tsonga belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger–Congo languages...

, Tswana

Tswana language

Tswana or Setswana is a language spoken in Southern Africa by about 4.5 million people. It is a Bantu language belonging to the Niger–Congo language family within the Sotho languages branch of Zone S , and is closely related to the Northern- and Southern Sotho languages, as well as the Kgalagadi...

 and Afrikaans

Afrikaans

Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...

.

Traill developed one of the bumps that adult native !Xóõ speakers have on his larynx

Larynx

The larynx , commonly called the voice box, is an organ in the neck of amphibians, reptiles and mammals involved in breathing, sound production, and protecting the trachea against food aspiration. It manipulates pitch and volume...

after speaking the language, with its unwieldy phonemes, for a long time.http://www.economist.com/node/15108609?story_id=15108609

After a long illness, Traill died on April 26, 2007, in Johannesburg, survived by his wife, Jill, and children Stephen, Carol and Patrick.

Publications

• Traill, Anthony. A !Xóõ Dictionary. (edited by Rainer Vossen). University Frankfurt/Main: Johann Wolfgang Goethe. ISBN 3-927620-56-4, . Volume 9 of "Research in Khoisan Studies", which has .

• Traill, Anthony (1986). Phonetic and Phonological Studies of !Xóõ Bushman. (Quellen Zur Khoisan-Forschung, No 1), John Benjamins, January 1, 1986, ISBN 3-87118-669-4.

• Traill, Anthony (1973). A Preliminary Sketch of !Xu) phonetics. Edinburgh University Department of Linguistics Work in Progress 6:1-23.

• Traill, Anthony (1985). Phonetic and Phonological Studies in !Xoo Bushman. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.

• Traill, Anthony (1990). Depression without depressors. South African Journal of African Languages 10: 166-172.

• Traill, Anthony. (1995). The Khoesan Languages. In Mesthrie, R. (ed.), Language in South Africa. 27-49. Cape Town: Cambridge University Press.

• Traill, Anthony, James S. M. Khumalo, Paul Fridjhon (1987). Depressing facts about Zulu. African Studies 46: 255-274.