ǂHõã language

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ǂHõã or ǂHoan, more accurately ǂQhôã, is an unclassified Khoisan language of Botswana. It was once placed in the Tuu family because it has bilabial clicks and other phonological similarities, but no further evidence for that classification was ever produced. Its vocabulary and syntax suggest that it may actually be in a Northern family alongside the Ju languages.

Note that there is a dialect of the unrelated Tuu language ǃXóõ that is also called ǂHua, or sometimes Western ǂHuan. In this case ǂHõã proper may be called Eastern ǂHuan.

ǂHõã has some 200 speakers, all adults, and this number is decreasing.

The language has both uvular and bilabial clicks. Few other languages have either.

Contents 1 Dialects 2 Phonetics 2.1 Clicks 3 Reference 4 External links

[edit] Dialects

• ǂHõã
• Sasi

[edit] Phonetics

[edit] Clicks

Like the Tuu languages, ǂHoan has five click onsets: bilabial, dental, alveolar, palatal, and lateral alveolar. There are thirteen accompaniments, or effluxes, for 65 potential click consonants. Only 55 of these possibilities are attested, though it is unknown whether this is due to actual gaps in the ǂHoan phonemic inventory, or are simply a reflection of linguists' poor knowledge of the ǂHoan language.

Accompaniment (Efflux)	Affricated clicks			'Sharp' clicks
	bilabial clicks	dental clicks	lateral clicks	alveolar clicks	palatal clicks
Voiced velar nasal	ŋʘ	ŋǀ	ŋǁ	ŋǃ	ŋǂ
Voiced velar plosive	ɡʘ	ɡǀ	ɡǁ	ɡǃ	ɡǂ
Tenuis velar plosive	kʘ	kǀ	kǁ	kǃ	kǂ
Aspirated velar plosive		kǀʰ	kǁʰ	kǃʰ	kǂʰ
Glottalized velar plosive (prenasalized between vowels)	kʘˀ (ᵑˀkʘ)	kǀˀ (ᵑˀkǀ)	kǁˀ (ᵑˀkǁ)	kǃˀ (ᵑˀkǃ)	kǂˀ (ᵑˀkǂ)
Preglottalized velar nasal	ˀŋʘ	ˀŋǀ	ˀŋǁ	ˀŋǃ	ˀŋǂ
Delayed aspiration (prenasalized between vowels)			ŋ̊ǁh (ᵑǁh)	ŋ̊ǃh (ᵑǃh)	ŋ̊ǂh (ᵑǂh)
Prenasalized voiced uvular plosive		ᴺɢǀ	ᴺɢǁ		ᴺɢǂ
Tenuis uvular plosive		qǀ	qǁ	qǃ	qǂ
Aspirated uvular plosive		qǀʰ	qǁʰ		qǂʰ
Voiceless uvular affricate	qʘχ	qǀχ	qǁχ	qǃχ	qǂχ
Uvular ejective		qǀʼ	qǁʼ	qǃʼ	qǂʼ
Uvular ejective affricate	qʘχʼ	qǀχʼ	qǁχʼ		qǂχʼ

[edit] Reference

• Chris Collins and Arthur Bell, 2001. "ǂHoan and the Typology of Click Accompaniments in Khoisan", in Cornell Working Papers in Linguistics, vol. 18, pp 126-153.

[edit] External links

• Sound files of ǂHoan clicks at Cornell
• The Ethnologue Report for ǂHõã

Khoisan languages  (classification)	Edit
ǁAni | Gǁana | Gǀwi | Hadza | ǂHõã | Juǀʼhoan | Korana | ǃKung (ǃXũũ) | Kwadi | ǂKxʼauǁʼein | Kxoe | Nama | Naro | Nǀu | Sandawe | Seroa | Shua | Tsoa | ǀXam | ǁXegwi | Xiri | ǃXóõ