List of Khoisan languages
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Here are all recorded Khoisan languages, the indigenous languages of southern Africa. Most Khoisan languages are endangered, and several are moribund or extinct.
Each heading below is a branch of a putative Khoisan language family. However, the Khoisan relationship is hypothetical, and the term is often used for convenience without any implication of linguistic validity, much as Papuan or Australian are. The inclusion of Hadza is especially doubtful.
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Hadza
Sandawe
Khoe (or Central Khoisan)
Khoekhoe
North Khoekhoe
- Nama (Ethnonym Khoekhoegowab)
South Khoekhoe
Tshu-Khwe
East Tshu-Khwe
Central
Northeast
West Tshu-Khwe
Northwest
Southwest
Ta'a-!Kwi (or Southern Khoisan)
Ta'a
!Kwi
Ju (or Northern Khoisan)
- Ju languages (A dialect cluster including ‡Kx'au‖'ein, !Kung, Ju/'hoan, Maligo, !’O!xũũ)
Unclassified
‡Hua
- ‡Hõã (Possibly related to the Ju languages)
Kwadi
- Kwadi (Extinct. Likely a distant member of the Khoe family)
Other
Hai‖om
A Hai‖om language is listed in most Khoisan references. A century ago the Hai‖om 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. They are known as the Saa by the Nama, and this is the source of the word San.