Khoisan languages

:This article is about the Khoisan language group. For the Khoisan ethnic group, see Khoisan.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Khoisan or Khoesaan languages compose the smallest and least well supported phylum of African languages. Historically, they were mainly spoken by the Khoi and Bushmen (San) people. Today they are only spoken in the Kalahari Desert in southwestern Africa, and in a small area in Tanzania. The only widespread Khoisan language is {{ll|Nama}}, with a quarter million speakers; {{ll|Sandawe}} is second in number with about 40,000, some monolingual; and the Ju language cluster has some 30,000 speakers total. Many of the other languages are becoming increasingly rare or moribund, and several are known to have become extinct. Most have no written record. The {{ll|Hadza}} and Sandawe languages of Tanzania are generally classified as Khoisan, but all of the branches are at best extremely distant linguistically. Many linguists regard the Khoisan phylum to be a yet-unproved hypothesis.

Related Topics:
Phylum - African languages - Khoi - Bushmen - Kalahari Desert - Africa - Tanzania - Ju

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Khoisan languages are most famous for the use of click consonants as phonemes. The {{ll|Ju/'hoan}} language has some 30 click consonants (not counting clusters) and perhaps 90 separate phonemes, including strident and pharyngealized vowels and 4 tones. The {{ll|!Xóõ}} and {{ll|?Hõã}} languages are similarly complex. Many people were exposed to this group of languages through N?xau's language in the 1980 film The Gods Must Be Crazy.

Related Topics:
Click consonant - Phoneme - Strident - Pharyngealized - N?xau - 1980 - The Gods Must Be Crazy

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The only other languages using clicks as phonemes are neighboring Bantu languages in southern Africa, such as {{ll|Xhosa}}, {{ll|Zulu}}, and {{ll|Sesotho}}; the South Cushitic language {{ll|Dahalo}} in Kenya, and an extinct Australian Aborigine ceremonial language called Damin. All of these languages except Damin are believed to have adopted the use of clicks from neighboring Khoisan populations.

Related Topics:
Bantu languages - South Cushitic - Kenya - Australian Aborigine - Damin

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Grammatically, the Khoisan languages are generally fairly isolating. Suffixes are often used, but word order is overall more widely used than inflection.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~