!Xóõ language

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!Xóõ
Spoken in:	Botswana, Namibia
Region:	Southern Gantsi district, northern Kgalagadi District, western Southern and western Kweneng districts. Also spoken in Namibia.
Total speakers:	4,200
Language family:	Khoisan  Ta’a-!Kwi   Ta’a    !Xóõ
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	khi
ISO/FDIS 639-3:	nmn
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

!Xóõ is a Khoisan language with a very large number of phonemes, the most of any known language. These include many clicks and vowel phonations.

As of 2002 !Xóõ is spoken by about 4,200 people worldwide. These are mainly in Botswana (approximately 4000 people) but also in Namibia

Contents 1 Relatives 2 Alternate names 3 Phonemes 3.1 Tones 3.2 Vowels 3.3 Consonants 4 Grammar 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Relatives

Until the rediscovery of a few elderly speakers of N/u in the 1990s, !Xóõ was thought to be the last surviving member of the Ta’a-!Kwi language family.

[edit] Alternate names

ǀʼAuni (extinct), Kakia (extinct), Kiǀhazi (extinct), Nǀgamani (extinct), Ngǀuǁen (extinct), Nǀu-san, Xatia (Katia, Kattea, Khatia, Vaalpens, ǀKusi, ǀEikusi, Masarwa), ǃKwi.

There is much confusion with these names. For example, I'Auni is actually a dialect of N/u, in the !Kwi family, and Nguen, N/u-san are alternate names of that language. !Kwi may also be a !Kwi dialect rather than a dialect of !Xóõ. Kakia may be a separate language in the Ta’a family, and Xatia etc may be variants of that name. Nonetheless, there is dialectal variation in !Xóõ, which might be better described as a dialect continuum than as a single language.

[edit] Phonemes

[edit] Tones

There are 4 tones: high [á], mid [ā], low [à], and mid-falling [â].

[edit] Vowels

There are 5 vowel qualities, [a e i o u], which may be plain, murmured, or glottalized. [a o u] may also be both glottalized and murmured, as well as pharyngealized or strident. [a u] may be both pharyngealized and glottalized, for 26 vowels not counting nasalization or length.

Murmured vowels after plain consonants contrast with plain vowels after aspirated consonants, and likewise glottalized vowels with ejective consonants, so these are phonations of the vowels and not assimilation with consonant phonation.

Vowels may be long or short, but long vowels may be sequences rather than distinct phonemes. The other vowel quality sequences (diphthongs?), disregarding the added complexity of phonation, are [ai, ae, ao, au, oi, oe, oa, ou, ui, ue, ua].

All plain vowels may be nasalized. No other phonation may be nasalized, but nasalization occurs in combination with other phonations as the second vowel of a sequence ("long vowel" or "diphthong"). These sequences alternate dialectically with vowel plus velar nasal. That is, the name !Xóõ may be dialectically [k!xóŋ], and this in turn may be phonemically /k!xóɲ/, since [ɲ] does not occur word-finally. However, this cannot explain the short nasal vowels, so !Xóõ has at least 31 vowels.

A long, glottalized, murmured, nasalized o with falling tone is written <ô’hõ>. A long, strident nasalized o with low tone is written <òqhõ>, since Traill analyzes stridency as phonemically pharyngealized murmur. (Note that phonetically these are distinct phonations.)

[edit] Consonants

!Xóõ is unusual in allowing mixed voicing in its consonants. These have been called "prevoiced", but they actually appear to be consonant clusters. When homorganic, as in [dt], such clusters are listed in the chart below.

non-click consonants		labial	dental	alveolar	palatal	velar	corresponding clicks?	uvular	corresponding clicks?	glottal
oral stop	voiced	b ~ v	d	dz		g	g! etc.	ɢ ~ ɴɢ	ɢ! ~ ɴɢ! etc.
	tenuis		t	ts		k	k! etc.	q	q! etc.	ʔ
	aspirated		tʰ	tsʰ		kʰ	k!ʰ etc.	qʰ
	ejective			ts’		kx’	k!’q’ etc.	(q’)	q!’ etc.
	aspirated cluster		dtʰ	dtsʰ			g!h etc.	ɢqʰ ~ ɴɢqʰ	ɢ!h etc.
	ejective cluster			dts’		gkx’	g!q’ etc.
fricative	voiceless			s		x	k!x etc. ?
nasal	voiced	m		n	ɲ	(ŋ)	ŋ! etc.
	glottalized	m’		n’			ʔŋ! etc.
other			(l)		dʲ ~ j

The nasal [ɲ] only occurs between vowels, and [ŋ] only word finally (and then only in some dialects), so these may be allophones.

There are additional consonant clusters: [tx, dtx, tsx, dtsx, tkx’, dtkx’, ts’kx’, dts’kx’]. The click accompaniments seen in [ŋ̊!, ŋ̊!ʰ, k!ˀ, g!kx] also do not fit into the chart.

!Xóõ has 83 click sounds. Given the intricate clusters seen in the non-click consonants, it is not surprising that many of the !Xóõ clicks should be analyzed as clusters. However, while some are clearly simplex and some clearly complex, there is debate over others.

There are five click releases: bilabial, dental, lateral, alveolar, and palatal. There are seventeen accompaniments, both velar and uvular. These are perfectly normal consonants in !Xóõ, and indeed are preferred over non-clicks in word-initial position.

affricated clicks			'sharp' clicks		accompaniment, along with speaker or dialect variation
labial clicks	dental clicks	lateral clicks	alveolar clicks	palatal clicks
kʘ	kǀ	kǁ	k!	kǂ	Tenuis (k)
qʘ	qǀ	qǁ	q!	qǂ	Tenuis uvular (q)
ŋ̊ʘ	ŋ̊ǀ	ŋ̊ǁ	ŋ̊!	ŋ̊ǂ	Voiceless nasal (ŋ̊)
gʘ	gǀ	gǁ	g!	gǂ	Voiced (g)
ɢʘ	ɢǀ	ɢǁ	ɢ!	ɢǂ	(Prenasalized) voiced uvular (ɢ, ɴɢ)
ŋʘ	ŋǀ	ŋǁ	ŋ!	ŋǂ	Voiced nasal (ŋ)
kʘʰ	kǀʰ	kǁʰ	k!ʰ	kǂʰ	Aspirated (kʰ)
ŋ̊ʘʰ	ŋ̊ǀʰ	ŋ̊ǁʰ	ŋ̊!ʰ	ŋ̊ǂʰ	Ingressive voiceless nasal with delayed aspiration (↓ŋ̊ʰ)
kʘˣ	kǀˣ	kǁˣ	k!ˣ	kǂˣ	Voiceless affricate (kˣ)
ʔŋʘ	ʔŋǀ	ʔŋǁ	ʔŋ!	ʔŋǂ	Preglottalized nasal (ʔŋ)
qʘ’	qǀ’	qǁ’	q!’	qǂ’	Uvular ejective (q’)
kʘˀ	kǀˀ	kǁˀ	k!ˀ	kǂˀ	Glottalized plosive (k͡ʔ)
gʘx	gǀx	gǁx	g!x	gǂx	Voiced velar plosive followed by voiceless velar fricative (gx, gkx)
kʘ’q’	kǀ’q’	kǁ’q’	k!’q’	kǂ’q’	Velar ejective followed by uvular ejective (k’q’, dialectically kx’)
gʘq’	gǀq’	gǁq’	g!q’	gǂq’	Voiced velar plosive followed by uvular ejective (gq’, dialectically gkx’)
gʘh	gǀh	gǁh	g!h	ɢǂh	Voiced velar plosive followed by aspiration (gh, gkʰ)
	ɢǀh		ɢ!h	ɢǂh	Voiced (prenasalized) uvular plosive followed by aspiration, velar frication, or uvular trill (ɴɢh, ɴɢx, ɴɢʀ)

Peter Ladefoged analyses the first ten accompaniments (through the ʔŋ! series) as simplex, and the last seven as complex. This would mean that !Xóõ has 50 simple clicks. However, it is not clear that the uvular ejective click series (q!’, etc) are consonant clusters, since the double-ejective clicks (k!’q’ etc) are analysed as two segments, not three. Also, glottalized clicks similar to the k!ˀ series are analysed as simple consonants in other Khoisan languages.

[edit] Grammar

!Xóõ is a Subject Verb Object language, and grammar is prepositional. Genitives, adjectives, relative clauses, and numbers come after the nouns they apply to. Reduplication is used to form causatives. Like some other Khoisan languages, !Xóõ has a tendency to put the question word at the beginning of sentences.

Anthony Traill has done extensive research concerning the language and its various aspects. He has even written a dictionary of the !Xóõ language, named A !Xóõ Dictionary, as well as a book on the phonetics of the language.

[edit] References

• Traill, Anthony (1994). A !Xóõ Dictionary, (Quellen zur Khoisan-Forschung, vol. 9), Köln: Rüdiger Köppe. ISBN 3927620564.
• Traill, Anthony (1985). Phonetic and phonological studies of "!Xóõ" Bushman. Hamburg: Helmut Buske. ISBN 3871186694.

[edit] External links

• Ethnologue Report for !Xóõ

Khoisan languages  (classification)	Edit
‖Ani | G‖ana | G/wi | Hadza | ‡Hõã | Ju/’hoan | Korana | !Kung (!Xũũ) | Kwadi | ‡Kx’au‖’ein | Kxoe | Nama | Naro | N/u | Sandawe | Seroa | Shua | Tsoa | ǀXam | ‖Xegwi | Xiri | !Xóõ