Kwadi language
Encyclopedia
Kwadi is a "click language" of uncertain classification once spoken in the southwest corner of Angola
. It is believed to be extinct
. There were only fifty Kwadi in the 1950s, of which only 4–5 were competent speakers of the language. Three partial speakers were known in 1965, but in 1981 no speakers could be found.
Because Kwadi is poorly recorded, there is not much evidence with which to classify it. It is sometimes classified as the most known divergent member of the Khoe family
, or, equivalently, linked to the Khoe languages in a "Kwadi–Khoe" family, though this conclusion is disputed. Proponents say it appears to have preserved elements of proto-Khoe that were lost in the western Khoe languages under the influence of Juu languages in Botswana.
The Kwadi people, called Kwepe by the Bantu, appear to have been a remnant population of southwestern African hunter-gatherer
s, otherwise only represented by the Cimba, Kwisi
, and the Damara
, who adopted the Khoekhoe language. Like the Kwisi they were fishermen, on the lower reaches of the Coroca River.
Kwadi was alternatively known by variants of koroka (Ba-koroka, Curoca, Koroka, Ma-koroko, Mu-coroca), Cuanhoca, or Cuepe.
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...
. It is believed to be extinct
Extinct language
An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers., or that is no longer in current use. Extinct languages are sometimes contrasted with dead languages, which are still known and used in special contexts in written form, but not as ordinary spoken languages for everyday communication...
. There were only fifty Kwadi in the 1950s, of which only 4–5 were competent speakers of the language. Three partial speakers were known in 1965, but in 1981 no speakers could be found.
Because Kwadi is poorly recorded, there is not much evidence with which to classify it. It is sometimes classified as the most known divergent member of the Khoe family
Khoe languages
The Khoe languages are the largest of the non-Bantu language families indigenous to southern Africa. They are often considered to be a branch of a suspected Khoisan language family, and are known as Central Khoisan in that scenario. The nearest relative of the Khoe family is the extinct and poorly...
, or, equivalently, linked to the Khoe languages in a "Kwadi–Khoe" family, though this conclusion is disputed. Proponents say it appears to have preserved elements of proto-Khoe that were lost in the western Khoe languages under the influence of Juu languages in Botswana.
The Kwadi people, called Kwepe by the Bantu, appear to have been a remnant population of southwestern African hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
s, otherwise only represented by the Cimba, Kwisi
Kwisi people
The Kwisi are a seashore-fishing and hunter-gatherer people of southwest Angola that physically seem to be a remnant of an indigenous population—along with the Kwadi, the Cimba, and the Damara—that are unlike either the San or the Bantu. Culturally they have been strongly influenced by the Kuvale,...
, and the Damara
Damara people
The Damara are an ethnic group who make up 8.5% of Namibia's population...
, who adopted the Khoekhoe language. Like the Kwisi they were fishermen, on the lower reaches of the Coroca River.
Kwadi was alternatively known by variants of koroka (Ba-koroka, Curoca, Koroka, Ma-koroko, Mu-coroca), Cuanhoca, or Cuepe.