Talk:N!xau

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He demanded several hundred dollars for the sequel after learning the value of money.

How do you pronounce the name?

Click your tongue, followed by the "ow" sound. Impi 14:00, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)

But *how* to click the tongue? There are many ways to do it.

Contents 1 Pronunciation 2 What language did he speak? 3 Transcription 4 Date of Death

[edit] Pronunciation

I'm not sure of the specific orthography used for this language, but my guess is that the consonant represented by <N!x> is a postdental nasal click with uvular affricate accompaniment, IPA /ǃ̃qχʼ/. Can anyone confirm/deny this?

[edit] What language did he speak?

Would be helpful in figuring out the real pronunciation of his name (if indeed we can figure out which is his real name).

• The report in the Numibian says his native tongue was "Ju/'hoansi", and that he also spoke "Otjiherero", Tswana, and Afrikaans. The first is almost definitely Ethnologue code KTZ, but I'm not sure of the second.
• IMDB says he spoke "Ungwatsi", which doesn't correspond to any real language I can find (or perhaps is just a mangling of Ju/'hoansi).

Anyone else? --Ptcamn 29 June 2005 16:20 (UTC)

Looks like Ju/’hoan language which is also written Ju/'Hoansi. Secretlondon 11:32, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Transcription

The article says:

The exclamation mark in his name substitutes for the clicking sound in his native tongue, Ungwatsi, that cannot be rendered in the Latin Alphabet.

This is misleading. Anything can "be rendered in the Latin alphabet" (and most languages have been indeed). The mapping from letters to sounds is arbitrary. The exclamation mark is used as a letter (or diacritic, I don't know), but an unused sequence of more traditional letters would have done as well. I'd suggest another wording:

The exclamation mark in his name denotes the clicking sound in his native tongue, Ungwatsi.

(Btw, is there only one click in Ungwatsi?)

[edit] Date of Death

On imdb the DoD of N!xau is 5th July, 2003. Whereas here it's stated 1st of July. Changed it. migo 21:00, 20 May 2006 (UTC)