‡Hõã language
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‡Hõã or ‡Hoan, more accurately ‡Qhôã, is an unclassified Khoisan language of Botswana. It was once placed in the Tuu family because it has bilabial clicks and other phonological similarities, but no further evidence for that classification was ever produced. Its vocabulary and syntax suggest that it may actually be in a Northern family alongside the Ju languages.
Note that there is a dialect of the unrelated Tuu language !Xóõ that is also called ‡Hua, or sometimes Western ‡Huan. In this case ‡Hõã proper may be called Eastern ‡Huan.
‡Hõã has some 200 speakers, all adults, and this number is decreasing.
The language has both uvular and bilabial clicks. Few other languages have either.
Contents |
[edit] Dialects
- ‡Hõã
- Sasi
[edit] Phonetics
[edit] Clicks
Like the Tuu languages, ‡Hoan has five click onsets: bilabial, dental, alveolar, palatal, and lateral alveolar. There are thirteen accompaniments, or effluxes, for 65 potential click consonants. Only 55 of these possibilities are attested, though it is unknown whether this is due to actual gaps in the ‡Hoan phonemic inventory, or are simply a reflection of linguists' poor knowledge of the ‡Hoan language.
| Accompaniment (Efflux) |
Affricated clicks | 'Sharp' clicks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bilabial clicks |
dental clicks |
lateral clicks |
alveolar clicks |
palatal clicks |
|
| Voiced velar nasal | ŋʘ | ŋǀ | ŋǁ | ŋǃ | ŋǂ |
| Voiced velar plosive | gʘ | gǀ | gǁ | gǃ | gǂ |
| Tenuis velar plosive | kʘ | kǀ | kǁ | kǃ | kǂ |
| Aspirated velar plosive | kǀʰ | kǁʰ | kǃʰ | kǂʰ | |
| Glottalized velar plosive (prenasalized between vowels) |
kʘˀ (ŋˀkʘ) |
kǀˀ (ŋˀkǀ) |
kǁˀ (ŋˀkǁ) |
kǃˀ (ŋˀkǃ) |
kǂˀ (ŋˀkǂ) |
| Preglottalized velar nasal | ʔŋʘ | ʔŋǀ | ʔŋǁ | ʔŋǃ | ʔŋǂ |
| Delayed aspiration (prenasalized between vowels) |
ŋ̊ǁh (ŋǁh) |
ŋ̊ǃh (ŋǃh) |
ŋ̊ǂh (ŋǂh) |
||
| Prenasalized voiced uvular plosive | ɴɢǀ | ɴɢǁ | ɴɢǂ | ||
| Tenuis uvular plosive | qǀ | qǁ | qǃ | qǂ | |
| Aspirated uvular plosive | qǀʰ | qǁʰ | qǂʰ | ||
| Voiceless uvular affricate | qʘχ | qǀχ | qǁχ | qǃχ | qǂχ |
| Uvular ejective | qǀ’ | qǁ’ | qǃ’ | qǂ’ | |
| Uvular ejective affricate | qʘχ’ | qǀχ’ | qǁχ’ | qǂχ’ | |
[edit] Reference
- Chris Collins and Arthur Bell, 2001. "‡Hoan and the Typology of Click Accompaniments in Khoisan", in Cornell Working Papers in Linguistics, vol. 18, pp 126-153.
[edit] External links
| 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 |
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