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The Khoisan languages (also Khoesaan languages) are the indigenous languages of southern Africa. Most are endangered, and several are moribund or extinct. Map showing the distribution of the Khoi-San languages. ...
Africa is the worlds second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia. ...
An endangered language is a language with so few surviving speakers that it is in danger of falling out of use. ...
A language is usually considered moribund (literally, dying) when it is no longer the language of the community, and is no longer learned by children, so that without massive intervention it will likely become extinct when the last of its current speakers dies. ...
An extinct language is a language which is no longer natively spoken: it is estimated that one natural human language dies every two weeks. ...
Each of the first five headings below is an established language family, as well as a branch of a putative Khoisan phylum. However, the Khoisan relationship is not supported by comparative linguistics, and the term is often used for convenience without any implication of linguistic validity, much as are Papuan and Australian. The inclusion of Hadza is especially doubtful, and it appears to be a language isolate. Khoisan is the name for two major ethnic groups of southern Africa. ...
The term Papuan languages refers to those languages of the western Pacific which are neither Austronesian nor Australian. ...
A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical (or genetic) relationship with other living languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common to any other language. ...
Not all "click languages" are called Khoisan; some belong to other established familes. For convenience, they are listed here:
Map showing the approximate distribution of Bantu (dull yellow) vs. ...
Nguni is a group of languages spoken in southern Africa including isiZulu, isiXhosa, siSwati, and isiNdebele. ...
Xhosa (IPA: ) is one of the official languages of South Africa. ...
Zulu (isiZulu in Zulu), is a language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority (over 95%) of whom live in South Africa. ...
The Ndebele language, or isiNdebele, or Sindebele, is an African language belonging to the Nguni group of Bantu languages, and spoken by the AmaNdebele (the Ndebele people). ...
Sesotho is a language spoken in southern Africa. ...
Location: Caprivi, Namibia Area: 19,532km (7,541 mi ) Population: 79,852 (2001), 90,422 (1991) Capital: Katima Mulilo Time Zone: South African Standard Time: UTC+1 Caprivi, sometimes called the Caprivi Strip or Caprivi Region and formally known as Itenge, is a narrow protrusion of Namibia eastwards about 450km...
The Cushitic languages are a subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic languages, named after the Biblical figure Cush by analogy with Semitic. ...
Dahalo is an endangered South Cushitic language spoken by about 400 people in Kenya. ...
The Australian Aboriginal languages comprise several language families and isolates native to Australia and a few nearby islands, but by convention excluding Tasmania. ...
A secret language spoken in the Gulf of Carpentaria used in mens initiation rites. ...
Hadza - Hadza (200-800 speakers in Tanzania)
Hadza appears to be unrelated to any other language. Hadza is a language of Tanzania. ...
Sandawe - Sandawe (40,000 speakers in Tanzania)
There is some indication that Sandawe may be related to the Khoe-Kwadi family, but the relationship remains speculative. Sandawe is a tonal language spoken in the Dodoma region of Tanzania. ...
Khoe-Kwadi (or Central Khoisan) Kwadi is widely thought to be related to the Khoe family, but it is quite distinct and little data is available.
Kwadi Kwadi is an extinct Khoisan language of Angola. ...
Khoe The Khoe family is both the most numerous and diverse family of Khoisan languages, with seven living languages and over a quarter million speakers. The Khoe languages comprise the most diverse of the language families that existed in southern Africa prior to the Bantu expansion. ...
Khoekhoe
North Khoekhoe - Nama (250,000 speakers. Ethnonyms Khoekhoen, Nama, Damara. A dialect cluster including ‡Aakhoe and Hai//om)
- Eini (Extinct.)
Nà má, previously called Hottentot, is the most populous and widespread of the Khoisan languages. ...
South Khoekhoe - Korana (Extinct.)
- Xiri (90 speakers. Moribund. A dialect cluster.)
Korana is an endangered or even extinct Khoisan language of South Africa. ...
Xiri is a Khoisan language of South Africa, originally spoken by a small group of Coloureds. ...
Tshu-Khwe (or Kalahari)
East Tshu-Khwe (East Kalahari) - Shua (6000 speakers. A dialect cluster including Deti, Ts’ixa, /Xaise, and Ganádi)
- Tsoa (9300 speakers. A dialect cluster including Cire Cire and Kua)
Shua is a Khoisan language of Botswana. ...
Tsoa is a Khoisan language of Botswana and Zimbabwe spoken by about 9300 speakers (Cook 2004). ...
West Tshu-Khwe (West Kalahari) - Kxoe (11,000 speakers. A dialect cluster including ǁAni and Buga)
- Naro (14,000 speakers. A dialect cluster.)
- Gǁana-G/wi (4500 speakers. A dialect cluster including Gǁana, G/wi, and ǂHaba)
Kxoe is a Khoisan language of Namibia, Angola, Botswana, South Africa, and Zambia. ...
‖Ani or /Anda is a Khoisan language of Botswana with about 1,000 speakers. ...
Naro is a Khoisan language of Botswana and Namibia. ...
G‖ana (also spelled Gxana, Dxana) is a Khoisan language of Botswana with about 2000 speakers (2004 Cook). ...
G/wi or GÇ€ui (sometimes spelled Dcui) is a Khoisan language of Botswana with 2,500 speakers (2004 Cook). ...
Tuu (or Southern Khoisan) There are two language clusters in the Tuu family which are clearly related to each other. They are typologically very similar to the Juu languages (below), but do not appear to be related to them genealogically. Tuu is an ambient music group, sometimes categorized as new age. ...
Ta’a - !Xóõ (4200 speakers. A dialect cluster.)
- ǀʹAuni-ǀHaasi (Extinct.)
!Xóõ is a Khoisan language with a very large number of phonemes, the most of any known language. ...
!Xóõ is a Khoisan language with a very large number of phonemes, the most of any known language. ...
!Kwi - N/u (10 speakers. Moribund)
- ːXam (Extinct)
- ǁXegwi (Extinct)
- Seroa (Extinct. Ethnonym is G!ãŋ!e)
N/u is a Khoisan language spoken by the Khomani people in South Africa. ...
‖Xegwi is an extinct !Kwi language of South Africa, near the Swazi border. ...
Seroa is an extinct Khoisan language of South Africa and Lesotho. ...
Juu (also !Kung or Northern Khoisan) The Juu family consists of a single dialect cluster. The Ju or Zhu languages, actually a dialect continuum, form a branch of the hypothetical Khoisan language family. ...
!Kung or !’O!Kung is a group of northern dialects of the Ju dialect continuum, which is generally classified as part of the Khoisan language family. ...
Ju|’hoan (also called Zu|’hõasi, Dzu’oasi, Zû-|hoa) is a Khoisan language spoken in the Northwest District of Botswana by about 5,000 people (2002) and by perhaps a comparable number across the border in Namibia. ...
‡Kx’au‖’ein is a group of mostly southwestern dialects of the Ju dialect continuum of Botswana and Namibia with about 4000 speakers (2004 Cook). ...
‡Hoan It appears that ‡Hoan may be related to the Juu family, but the relationship remains speculative. - ‡Hõã (200 speakers, Botswana. Moribund.)
‡Hõã or ‡Hoan, a variant of the ethnonym ‡Qhôã, is an unclassified Khoisan language of Botswana. ...
Other
Hai//om A Hai//om language is listed in most Khoisan references. A century ago the Hai//om people spoke a Ju dialect, probably close to !Kung, but they now speak a divergent dialect of Nama. Thus their language is variously said to be extinct or to have 16,000 speakers, to be Ju or to be Khoe. (Their numbers have been included under Nama above.) They are known as the Saa by the Nama, and this is the source of the word San. The Hai//om are a Khoisan people of Namibia numbering 16,000. ...
The Bushmen (also known as Khwe Khoe, Basarwa, or San) peoples of South Africa and neighbouring Botswana and Namibia, who live in the Kalahari, are part of the Khoisan group and are related to the Khoikhoi. ...
References - Güldemann, Tom and Rainer Vossen. 2000. Khoisan. In Heine, Bernd and Derek Nurse, eds., African languages: an introduction, 99-122. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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