Nǀu language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Nǀu | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | South Africa | |
| Total speakers: | 10 | |
| Language family: | Tuu ǃKwi Nǀu |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | – | |
| ISO 639-3: | ngh | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Nǀu or Nǀuu, also known as Nǀhuki, ǂKhomani, or Nǁngǃke, is a moribund Tuu (Khoisan) language spoken by the Nǁnǂe people in South Africa. The name ǂKhomani is used by the South African government, but apart from that is not recognized by the Nǁnǂe.
Nǀu belongs to the Tuu (Taʼa-ǃKwi) language family, with extinct ǀXam being its closest relative. The slash symbol in these names represents a click like the English interjection tsk! tsk! used to express pity or shame; "Nǀu" is pronounced like noo, with a tsk pronounced in the middle of the /n/. Its closest living relative is the ǃXóõ language.
Nǀu prospered through the 19th century, but encroaching non-ǃKwi languages and acculturation threatened it, like most other Khoisan languages. The language of the ǂKhomani was mainly displaced by Afrikaans and Nama, especially after they started migrating to towns in the 1930s and found themselves surrounded by non-Nǀu speaking people. In 1973 their language was declared extinct, and the remaining ǂKhomani were evicted from the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park.
In the 1990s, ǂKhomani elders became upset that the language was dying out. It was thought that the language might already be extinct. They finally located 101-year old Elsie Vaalbooi, who could still speak Nǀu. Linguist Anthony Traill interviewed her in 1997. The South African San Institute soon became involved in the pursuit of information on the Nǀu language, and with the help of Vaalbooi they tracked down 25 other people scattered by the eviction who were able to speak or at least understand the language. Thabo Mbeki handed over 400 km² of land to the ǂKhomani in 1999, and 250 km² of land within the park in 2002. Vaalbooi came up with the Nǀu motto of Sa ǁʼa ǃainsi uinsi (We move towards a better life) for her rehabilitated people. At the time there were twenty elderly speakers, eight of whom lived in the Western Cape province signed over to them. As of 2007, fewer than ten are still alive in South Africa, and a few more in Botswana; none live with another speaker, and their daily languages are Afrikaans and Tswana, respectively. Linguist Nigel Crawhall is documenting the language. However, the younger generations of ǂKhomani are proud Nama speakers, and have little affinity to Nǀu, so there is little chance of saving the language.
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[edit] Speech sounds
Nǀuu has one of the more complex sound inventories of the world's languages. It is has a tone system similar to other Tuu and Juu languages, which is not covered here.
[edit] Vowels
Like most languages in southern Africa, Nǀuu has five vowel qualities. These may occur long or short, diphthongized, epiglottalized, and, when long, nasalized.
| Modal | i, iː | e, eː | ɑ, ɑː | o, oː | u, uː |
| Nasal | ĩː | ɑ̃ː | ũː | ||
| Epiglottalized | (eʢ, eːʢ) | ɑʢ, ɑːʢ | oʢ, oːʢ | (uʢ ?) | |
| Nasal epiglottalized | ɑ̃ːʢ | õːʢ |
Nǀuu is the only Khoisan language known to have an epiglottalized front vowel, /eʢ/, though this is rare, attested in only three words, in one of which it is long. /uʢ/ is also rare, and is thought to be an allophone of /oʢ/.
| Modal | ɑe̯ | əi̯ | ɑo̯ | əu̯ | oɑ̯ | oe̯ | ui̯ |
| Nasal | ə̃ĩ̯ | ə̃ũ̯ | õɑ̯̃ | õẽ̯ | ũĩ̯ | ||
| Epiglottalized | ae̯ʢ | ao̯ʢ | oɑ̯ʢ | oe̯ʢ | |||
| Nasal epiglottalized | ɑ̃ẽ̯ʢ | ɑ̃õ̯ʢ | õẽ̯ʢ |
[edit] Consonants
The majority of Nǀuu consonants are clicks. It was once thought that Khoisan languages distinguish velar and uvular consonants, but recent research into Nǀuu, and reevaluation of the data on ǃXóõ, indicates that, for these languages at least, the distinction is one of pure clicks versus click-plosive contours.
| Pulmonic consonants | bilabial | alveolar | palatal | velar | uvular | glottal | |
| nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ̩ | |||
| plosive | voiced | b | ɟ | ɡ | |||
| tenuis | p | c | k | q | (ʔ) | ||
| aspirated | cʰ | kʰ | |||||
| affricate | ts | cχ | |||||
| fricative | voiceless | s | χ | ||||
| voiced | z | (ɦ) | |||||
| liquid | ɾ ~ l | ||||||
The velar nasal /ŋ̩/ only occurs as a syllabic nucleus. A glottal stop [ʔ] begins a few words; it's not clear at this point if it is phonemic. /t, d, f/ are found in unassimilated loanwords. The difference between [ɾ]~[l] is allophonic as well as dialectal.
| Glottalic consonants | bilabial | alveolar | palatal | velar | uvular | |
| affricate | tsʼ | kχʼ | qχʼ | |||
The amount of frication on /kχʼ/ and /qχʼ/ is variable; they may surface as ejective plosives, [kʼ] and [qʼ].
| Lingual consonants |
Labio- uvular |
Denti- pharyngeal |
Alveo-uvular | Palato- pharyngeal |
||
| Central | Lateral | |||||
| nasal | voiced | ŋʘ | ŋǀ | ŋǃ | ŋǁ | ŋǂ |
| glottalized | ŋ̊ʘˀ | ŋ̊ǀˀ | ŋ̊ǃˀ | ŋ̊ǁˀ | ŋ̊ǂˀ | |
| aspirated | ŋ̊ǀʰ | ŋ̊ǃʰ | ŋ̊ǁʰ | ŋ̊ǂʰ | ||
| plosive | voiced | gǀ | gǃ | gǁ | gǂ | |
| tenuis | ʘ | ǀ | ǃ | ǁ | ǂ | |
| aspirated | ǀʰ | ǃʰ | ǁʰ | ǂʰ | ||
These are simple clicks. The traditional term "velaric" is something of a misnomer, for the rear articulation is further back than the velum, and indeed further back than Nǀuu /q/. Miller et al. prefer the term "lingual" for this airstream mechanism; they also reject the existence of click "accompaniments", using the IPA symbols to represent both points of articulation rather than solely the anterior articulation. Besides being motivated phonetically, this has the benefit of better illustrating the parallels between clicks and pulmonic consonants.
In the above rubric, the first element of the name is the forward articulation, and the second is the rear articulation.
| Linguo-pulmonic consonants |
Labio- uvular |
Denti- pharyngeal |
Alveo-uvular | Palato- pharyngeal |
||
| Central | Lateral | |||||
| plosive | tenuis | ʘ͡q | ǀ͡q | ǃ͡q | ǁ͡q | ǂ͡q |
| aspirated | ǀ͡qʰ | ǃ͡qʰ | ǁ͡qʰ | ǂ͡qʰ | ||
| affricate | ʘ͡χ | ǀ͡χ | ǃ͡χ | ǁ͡χ | ǂ͡χ | |
These are airstream contour consonants, which start off with a lingual (velaric) airstream mechanism and finish with a pulmonic airstream, rather as affricates are manner contour consonants, starting as plosives and finishing as fricatives. Traditionally these were considered to be uvular clicks, because the uvular or pharyngeal closure is audible, but in fact the rear closure of all Nǀuu clicks is uvular or pharyngeal. (The distinction between uvular and pharyngeal is not represented here.)
| Linguo-glottalic consonants |
Labio- uvular |
Denti- pharyngeal |
Alveo-uvular | Palato- pharyngeal |
||
| Central | Lateral | |||||
| affricate | ǀ͡χʼ | ǃ͡χʼ | ǁ͡χʼ | ǂ͡χʼ | ||
These differ from the previous consonants in releasing into an ejective. As in simple ejectives, they are all affricates.
[edit] References
- The Sounds of Nǀuu: Place and Airstream Contrasts. Amanda L. Miller, Johanna Brugman, Bonny Sands, Levi Namaseb, Mats Exter, Chris Collins. Working papers of the Cornell Phonetics Laboratory 19, 2007
- Differences in Airstream and Posterior Place of Articulation among Nǀuu Lingual Stops. Amanda L. Miller, Johanna Brugman, Bonny Sands, Levi Namaseb, Mats Exter, Chris Collins. (Submitted to the Journal of the International Phonetic Association, March 2007.)
[edit] External links
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