Yeyi language
Encyclopedia
Yeyi is an endangered
Bantu language
spoken by many of the approximately 50,000 Yeyi people along the Okavango River
in Namibia
and Botswana
. Yeyi, influenced by Juu
languages, is one of several Bantu languages along the Okavango with clicks. Indeed, it has the largest known inventory of click
s of any Bantu language, with dental, alveolar, palatal, and lateral articulations. Though most of its older speakers prefer Yeyi in normal conversation, it is being gradually phased out in Botswana by a popular move towards Tswana, with Yeyi only being learned by children in a few villages. Yeyi speakers in the Caprivi Strip
of north-eastern Namibia, however, retain Yeyi in villages (including Linyanti), but may also speak the regional lingua franca, Lozi.
, though it is no longer in contact with them. The main dialect is called Shirwanga. A slight majority of Botswana Yeyi are monolingual in the national language, Tswana
, and most of the rest are bilingual.
ǀ, alveolar ǃ, palatal
ǂ, and lateral ǁ. However, the actual number of clicks is disputed, as researchers disagree on how many accompaniments the language contrasts.
Fulop et al. (2002) studied the clicks of a limited vocabulary sample with 13 Yeyi speakers. The accompaniments they found, shown as the palatal series, are:
There are in addition prenasalized clicks such as /ŋᶢǂ/ and /ŋǂʼ/, but Fulop et al. analyze these as consonant cluster
s, not single sounds. In addition, a reported uvular affricated click appears to actually be velar, with the affrication a variant of aspiration, and so has been included under ǂʰ. There is similar velar affrication with the dental ejective click among some speakers. The ejective clicks are apparently uvular.
Unfortunately, the speakers interviewed were not from the core Yeyi-speaking area, and they often disagreed on which clicks to use. Although the six dental clicks (ǀ etc.) were nearly universal, only one of the lateral clicks was (the voiced click ᶢǁ). The alveolar clicks (ǃ etc.) were universal apart from the ejective, which was only attested from one speaker, but two of the palatal clicks were only used by half the speakers, at least in the sample vocabulary. The missing palatal and lateral clicks were substituted with alveolar or sometimes dental clicks (palatals only), and the missing ejective alveolar was substituted with a glottalized alveolar. Both of these patterns are consistent with studies of click loss, though it is possible that these speakers maintain these clicks in other words. 23 of the 24 possible combinations of click release and accompaniment were attested in the sample vocabulary by at least one speaker, the exception being the ejective lateral click *ǁʼ. This research needs to be repeated in an area where the language is still vibrant.
Endangered language
An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....
Bantu language
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
spoken by many of the approximately 50,000 Yeyi people along the Okavango River
Okavango River
The Okavango River is a river in southwest Africa. It is the fourth-longest river system in southern Africa, running southeastward for . It begins in Angola, where it is known as the Cubango River...
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...
and 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...
. Yeyi, influenced by Juu
Ju languages
!Kung or !Xun, also called Ju, is a dialect continuum spoken in Namibia, Botswana, and Angola by the !Kung people. Together with the ǂHoan language, it forms the Kx'a language family...
languages, is one of several Bantu languages along the Okavango with clicks. Indeed, it has the largest known inventory of click
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...
s of any Bantu language, with dental, alveolar, palatal, and lateral articulations. Though most of its older speakers prefer Yeyi in normal conversation, it is being gradually phased out in Botswana by a popular move towards Tswana, with Yeyi only being learned by children in a few villages. Yeyi speakers in 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...
of north-eastern Namibia, however, retain Yeyi in villages (including Linyanti), but may also speak the regional lingua franca, Lozi.
Grammar
Yeyi is usually classified as a member of the R Zone Bantu languages. It has been phonetically influenced by the Ju languagesJu languages
!Kung or !Xun, also called Ju, is a dialect continuum spoken in Namibia, Botswana, and Angola by the !Kung people. Together with the ǂHoan language, it forms the Kx'a language family...
, though it is no longer in contact with them. The main dialect is called Shirwanga. A slight majority of Botswana Yeyi are monolingual in the national language, 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 most of the rest are bilingual.
Clicks
Yeyi has four click releases, 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...
ǀ, alveolar ǃ, 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...
ǂ, and lateral ǁ. However, the actual number of clicks is disputed, as researchers disagree on how many accompaniments the language contrasts.
Fulop et al. (2002) studied the clicks of a limited vocabulary sample with 13 Yeyi speakers. The accompaniments they found, shown as the palatal series, are:
| Click | Description |
|---|---|
| ǂʰ | aspirated |
| ǂ | tenuis |
| ᶢǂ | voiced |
| ᵑǂ | nasal |
| ǂʔ | glottalized |
| ǂqʼ | uvular ejective |
There are in addition prenasalized clicks such as /ŋᶢǂ/ and /ŋǂʼ/, but Fulop et al. analyze these as consonant cluster
Consonant cluster
In linguistics, a consonant cluster is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word splits....
s, not single sounds. In addition, a reported uvular affricated click appears to actually be velar, with the affrication a variant of aspiration, and so has been included under ǂʰ. There is similar velar affrication with the dental ejective click among some speakers. The ejective clicks are apparently uvular.
Unfortunately, the speakers interviewed were not from the core Yeyi-speaking area, and they often disagreed on which clicks to use. Although the six dental clicks (ǀ etc.) were nearly universal, only one of the lateral clicks was (the voiced click ᶢǁ). The alveolar clicks (ǃ etc.) were universal apart from the ejective, which was only attested from one speaker, but two of the palatal clicks were only used by half the speakers, at least in the sample vocabulary. The missing palatal and lateral clicks were substituted with alveolar or sometimes dental clicks (palatals only), and the missing ejective alveolar was substituted with a glottalized alveolar. Both of these patterns are consistent with studies of click loss, though it is possible that these speakers maintain these clicks in other words. 23 of the 24 possible combinations of click release and accompaniment were attested in the sample vocabulary by at least one speaker, the exception being the ejective lateral click *ǁʼ. This research needs to be repeated in an area where the language is still vibrant.
Further reading
- Donnelly, Simon S (1990). Phonology and morphology of the noun in Yeeyi. University of Cape Town: BA Honours dissertation.
- Sean Fulop, Peter Ladefoged, Fang Liu, Rainer Vossen (2002). Yeyi clicks: Acoustic description and analysis.
- Sommer, Gabriele (1995). Sozialer Wandel und Sprachverhalten bei den Yeyi (Botswana), Ethnographie des Sprachwechsels. Cologne.