Khoekhoe language

"Nama language" redirects here. For other uses, see Nama language (disambiguation).
Khoekhoe
Khoekhoegowab
Native to Namibia, Botswana and South Africa
Region Orange River, Great Namaland, Damaraland
Ethnicity Khoikhoi, Nama, Damara, Haiǁom
Native speakers
 ±300,000 (253 000 in Namibia) (2016)[1]
Khoe

  • Khoekhoe

    • Khoekhoe
Dialects
  • ǃGamiǂnû- Bondelswarts, ǁAegudama- Central Dama, ǁAegunama- Central Nama, ǂAodama- Ghaub Damara, ǂKhoandawe- Gobabis, Haiǁom, ǃNamidama- Namidama, ǃNaniǀau- Sesfontein, ǂAonî-Topnaar, ǂĀkhoe.
Official status
Official language in
 National language in Namibia
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Either:
hgm – Haiǁom
naq – Nama
Glottolog nort3245[2]

The distribution of the Nama language in Namibia.
The Khoe language
Person Khoe-i
People Khoekhoen
Language Khoekhoegowab

The Khoekhoe language /ˈkɔɪkɔɪ/, Khoekhoegowab, also known by the ethnic term Nama /ˈnɑːmə/[3] and formerly as Hottentot, is the most widespread of those non-Bantu languages of southern Africa that contain "click" sounds and have therefore been loosely classified as Khoisan. It belongs to the Khoe language family, and is spoken in Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa by three ethnic groups, the Nama, Damara, and Haiǁom.

It appears that the Damara picked up the language along with the Nama in Botswana, and that they migrated to Namibia separately from the Nama . The Haiǁom, who had spoken a Juu language, later shifted to Khoekhoe. The name for Nama speakers, Khoekhoen, is from the Nama word khoe "person", with reduplication and the suffix -n to indicate the plural . Georg Friedrich Wreede was the first European to study the language, after arriving in Cape Town in 1659 .

Khoekhoe is a national language in Namibia, where it is used for teaching up to the university level as well as in the public administration . In Namibia and South Africa, state-owned broadcasting corporations produce and broadcast radio programmes in Khoekhoegowab.

Dialects

Modern scholars generally see ten dialects:

These are distinct enough that they might be considered two or three distinct languages .

is also close, but is generally counted as a distinct language today .

Phonology

Nama man giving lessons on the Khoekhoe language

Vowels

There are 5 vowel qualities, found as oral /i e a o u/ and nasal /ĩ ã ũ/. /u/ is strongly rounded, /o/ only slightly so. /a/ is the only vowel with notable allophony; it is pronounced [ə] before /i/ or /u/.

Tone

Nama has been described as having three[4] or four[5][6][7] tones, /á, ā, à/ or /a̋, á, à, ȁ/, which may occur on each mora (vowels and final nasal consonants). The high tone is higher when it occurs on one of the high vowels (/í ú/) or on a nasal (/ń ḿ/) than on mid or low vowels (/é á ó/).[4]

The tones combine into a limited number of 'tone melodies' (word tones), which have sandhi forms in certain syntactic environments. The most important melodies, in their citation and main sandhi forms, are as follows:[5]

CitationSandhiMeaningMelody
ǃ̃ˀȍm̀s ǃ̃ˀòm̏s butting, hitting s.t.low
ǃ̃ˀȍḿs an udderlow rising
ǃ̃ˀòm̀s forcing out of a burrowmid
ǃ̃ˀòm̋s ǃ̃ˀòm̀s a pollard high rising
ǃ̃ˀóm̀s ǃ̃ˀóm̏s coagulating, prizing out [a thorn]low falling
ǃ̃ˀőḿs ǃ̃ˀóm̀s a fisthigh falling

Stress

Within a phrase, lexical words receive greater stress than grammatical words. Within a word, the first syllable receives the most stress. Subsequent syllables receive less and less stress and are spoken more and more quickly.

Consonants

Nama has 31 consonants: 20 clicks and a simple set of 11 non-clicks.

Non-clicks

Bilabial Alveolar Velar Glottal
Nasal m n
Plosive p ~ β t ~ ɾ k ʔ
Affricate t͜sʰ k͜xʰ
Fricative s x h

Between vowels, /p/ is pronounced [β] and /t/ is pronounced [ɾ]. The affricate series is strongly aspirated, and may be analysed phonemically as aspirated stops; in the related Korana they are [tʰ, kʰ].

Beach (1938)[8] reported that the Khoehkoe of the time had a velar lateral ejective affricate, [kʟ̝̊ʼ], a common realisation or allophone of /kxʼ/ in languages with clicks. This sound no longer occurs in Khoekhoe but remains in its cousin Korana.

Clicks

The clicks are doubly articulated consonants. Each click consists of one of four primary articulations or "influxes" and one of five secondary articulation or "effluxes". The combination results in 20 phonemes.[9]

accompaniment affricated clicks 'sharp' clicks standardised
orthography
(with "ǃ")
dental
clicks 		lateral
clicks 		alveolar
clicks 		palatal
clicks
Tenuis ǀ ǁ ǃ ǂ ⟨ǃg⟩
Aspirated ǀʰ ǁʰ ǃʰ ǂʰ ⟨ǃkh⟩
Nasal ᵑǀ ᵑǁ ᵑǃ ᵑǂ ⟨ǃn⟩
Voiceless aspirated nasal ᵑ̊ǀʰ ᵑ̊ǁʰ ᵑ̊ǃʰ ᵑ̊ǂʰ ⟨ǃh⟩
Glottalized nasal ᵑ̊ǀˀ ᵑ̊ǁˀ ᵑ̊ǃˀ ᵑ̊ǂˀ ⟨ǃ⟩

The aspiration on the aspirated clicks is often light but is 'raspier' than the aspirated nasal clicks, with a sound approaching the ch of Scottish loch. The glottalised clicks are clearly voiceless due to the hold before the release, and they are transcribed as simple voiceless clicks in the traditional orthography. The nasal component is not audible in initial position; the voiceless nasal component of the aspirated clicks is also difficult to hear when not between vowels, so to foreign ears, it may sound like a longer but less raspy version of the contour clicks.

Tindall notes that European learners almost invariably pronounce the lateral clicks by placing the tongue against the side teeth and that this articulation is "harsh and foreign to the native ear". The Namaqua instead cover the whole of the palate with the tongue and produce the sound "as far back in the palate as possible".[10]

Phonotactics

Lexical root words consist of two or rarely three moras, in the form CVCV(C), CVV(C), or CVN(C). (The initial consonant is required.) The middle consonant may only be w r m n (w is b~p and r is d~t), while the final consonant (C) may only be p, s, ts. Each mora carries tone, but the second may only be high or medium, for six tone "melodies": HH, MH, LH, HM, MM, LM.

Oral vowel sequences in CVV are /ii ee aa oo uu ai [əi] ae ao au [əu] oa oe ui/. Due to the reduced number of nasal vowels, nasal sequences are /ĩĩ ãã ũũ ãĩ [ə̃ĩ] ãũ [ə̃ũ] õã ũĩ/. Sequences ending in a high vowel (/ii uu ai au ui ĩĩ ũũ ãĩ ãũ ũĩ/) are pronounced more quickly than others (/ee aa oo ae ao oa oe ãã õã/), more like diphthongs and long vowels than like vowel sequences in hiatus. The tones are realised as contours. CVCV words tend to have the same vowel sequences, though there are many exceptions. The two tones are also more distinct.

Vowel-nasal sequences are restricted to non-front vowels: /am an om on um un/. Their tones are also realised as contours.

Grammatical particles have the form CV or CN, with any vowel or tone, where C may be any consonant but a click, and the latter cannot be NN. Suffixes and a third mora of a root, may have the form CV, CN, V, N, with any vowel or tone; there are also three C-only suffixes, -p 1m.sg, -ts 2m.sg, -s 2/3f.sg.

Orthography

There have been several orthographies used for Nama. A Khoekhoegowab dictionary (Haacke 2000) uses the modern standard.

In standard orthography, the consonants b d g are used for words with one of the lower tone melodies and p t k for one of the higher tone melodies. W is only used between vowels, though it may be replaced with b or p according to melody. Overt tone marking is otherwise generally omitted.

OrthographyTranscriptionMelodyMeaning
gao /kȁó/ low rising 'rule'
kao /kàő/ high rising 'be dumbfounded'
ǀhubu (or ǀhuwu) /ǀʰȕwú/ low rising 'to stop hurting'
ǀhupu (or ǀhuwu) /ǀʰùwű/ high rising 'to get out of breath'

Nasal vowels are written with a circumflex. All nasal vowels are long, as in hû /hũ̀ṹ/ 'seven'. Long (double) vowels are otherwise written with a macron, as in ā /ʔàa̋/ 'to cry, weep'; these constitute two moras (two tone-bearing units).

Glottal stop is not written at the beginning of a word, where it is predictable but is transcribed with a hyphen in compound words, such as gao-aob /kȁòʔòȁp/ 'chief'.

Grammar

Nama has a subject–object–verb word order and has three gender classes: male, female and neuter. Male and female nouns have a singular, dual and plural; while neuter nouns only have singular and plural number.

singular dual plural
Female piris pirira piridi goat
Male arib arikha arigu dog
Neuter khoe-i n/a khoen people

Khoekhoe distinguishes between inclusive and exclusive 1st person plural pronouns. Sida is the exclusive form for we, it only includes a specific group; as opposed to sada, which is inclusive and refers to all.

Sample text

Following is a sample text in the Khoekhoe language.[11]

Nē ǀkharib ǃnâ da ge ǁgûn tsî ǀgaen tsî doan tsîn; tsî ǀnopodi tsî ǀkhenadi tsî ǀhuigu tsî ǀamin tsîn; tsî ǀkharagagu ǀaon tsîna ra hō.
In this region we find springbuck, oryx, and duiker; francolin, guinea fowl, bustard, and ostrich; and also various kinds of snake.

Common words and phrases

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ Brenzinger, Matthias (2011) "The twelve modern Khoisan languages." In Witzlack-Makarevich & Ernszt (eds.), Khoisan languages and linguistics: proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium, Riezlern / Kleinwalsertal (Research in Khoisan Studies 29). Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "North Khoekhoe". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh
  4. 1 2 Hagman (1977)
  5. 1 2 Haacke & Eiseb (2002)
  6. ↑ Haacke 1999
  7. ↑ Brugman 2009
  8. ↑ D. Beach, 1938. The Phonetics of the Hottentot Language. Cambridge.
  9. ↑
  10. ↑ Tindal (1858) A grammar and vocabulary of the Namaqua-Hottentot language
  11. ↑ Khoekhoegowab: 3ǁî xoaigaub. Gamsberg Macmillan, 2003
Khoekhoe language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
For a list of words relating to Khoekhoe language, see the Nama language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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