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| !Xóõ (!Xóõ) | |
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| Spoken in: | Botswana, Namibia |
| Region: | Southern Gantsi district, northern Kgalagadi District, western Southern and western Kweneng districts. Also spoken in Namibia. |
| Total speakers: | 3200 to 4200 |
| Ranking: | Not in top 100 |
| Genetic classification: | Khoisan Southern Africa Khoisan |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | ? |
| Regulated by: | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | ? |
| ISO 639-2 | khi |
| SIL | nmn |
| See also: Language – List of languages | |
!Xóõ is a Khoisan language with 141 phonemes. These include many clicks.
It is spoken in Botswana and Namibia by anywhere from 3,200 to 4,200 people (year 1995). Its SIL code is NMN.
| Contents |
User Breakdown
Botswana: 3,000 to 4,000
Namibia: approx. 200
Relative
!Xóõ belongs to the Southern African branch of the Khoisan language phylum. It is categorized in the Southern subbranch of the Southern African Khoisan languages. Its closest relative is =/Hua.
Phonemes
Clicks
There are about 80 clicks in it, with 5 basic clicks and 17 or so accompaniments, including the rare uvular closure as opposed to the velar closure of most clicks. The five basic clicks are the bilabial, the dental, the postdental, the palatal, and the lateral click. Clicks fall into two main classes depending on the sound made by the burst when they are articulated: clicks with abrupt, short bursts and those with long, high-frequency bursts.
Vowels
There are 5 vowels, /a e i o u/, all of which can be nasalized.
Only /a o u/ can be breathy-voiced, pharyngealized, or strident-voiced(both phonologically pharyngealized and breathy-voiced). Vowels can also be glottalized.
There are 4 tones: high(á), mid(ā), low(à), and mid-falling(â).
Non-click consonants
| bilab. | dental | postdent. | velar | Uvular | |
| stop | p | t | ts | k | q |
| voiced | b | d | dz | g | G |
| asp. | ph | th | tsh | kh | qh |
| voiced | bh | dh | dzh | ||
| uv. fric. | tx | tsx | |||
| voiced | dtx | dtsx | |||
| ejective | ts' | kx' | q' | ||
| voiced | dts' | gkx' | |||
| eje. uv. | t'x' | ts'x' | |||
| prevo. | dt'x' | dts'x' | |||
| fric | s | x | |||
| nasal | m | n | |||
| glot. nas. | m' | n' |
Click consonants
| bilab. | dental | post. dent. | palatal | lateral | |
| velar | k@ | k| | k! | k= | k|| |
| voiced | g@ | g| | g! | g= | g|| |
| nasal | n@ | n| | n! | n= | n|| |
| preglot. nas. | 'n@ | 'n| | 'n! | 'n= | 'n|| |
| unv. nas. | N@ | N| | N! | N= | N|| |
| uvu. | q@ | q| | q! | q= | q|| |
| voiced | G@ | G| | G! | G= | G|| |
| asp. | q@h | q|h | q!h | q=h | q||h |
| uvu. fric. | k@x | k|x | k!x | k=x | k||x |
| eje. uvu. | q@' | q|' | q!' | q=' | q||' |
| eje. uvu. afr. | k@x' | k|x' | k!x' | k=x' | k||x' |
| asp. vel. | k@h | k|h | k!h | k=h | k||h |
| glot. | k@' | k|' | k!' | k=' | k||' |
| v. uvu. fric. | gk@x | gk|x | gk!x | gk=x | gk||x |
| v. asp. | g@h | g|h | g!h | g=h | g||h |
| v. uvu. eje. | gk@x' | gk|x' | gk!x' | gk=x' | gk||x' |
!Xóõ is a Subject Verb Object language. It is prepositional, and genitives, adjectives, relative clauses and even numbers come after the nouns to which they apply. Reduplication is used to form causatives. Much like most Indo-European languages, !Xóõ always puts the question word at the beginning of the sentence.
The linguist Anthony Traill has done extensive research into this language.
Dialects
Active
- Auni or /Auni or /Auo
- Kakia or Masarwa
- Ki/hazi
- Ng/u//en or Nu//en or /U//en or Ng/u/ei or /Nu//en or //U//en
- Nusan or Ng/usan or Nu-san or Noosan
- Xatia or Katia or Kattea or Khatia or Vaalpens or /Kusi or /Eikusi
- !Kwi
Extinct
- N/gamani
- /Nu//en
- /'Auni
- Ki/hazi
Other
- There is a dictionary of !Xóõ available, written by Anthony Traill.
External link
- Ethnologue Report for !Xóõ (http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=NMN)
Template:Khoisande:!Xóõ ko:호어 zh-min-nan:!Xóõ-gú nl:!Xóõ sv:!Xóõ