ǃʼOǃKung

ǃʼOǃKung ("Forest !Kung", also spelled ǃʼOǃung) is a northern variety of the !Kung dialect continuum. It was once widespread in southern Angola, but now is principally found among a diaspora in northern Namibia.

Sounds

ǃʼOǃKung is famous for having one of the largest sound inventories in the world. The exact number depends upon how one classifies a click's onset and releases, but some authorities place the number at up to 48 distinct click sounds.^[2]

For the complete sound inventory of a related Ju dialect, see Juǀʼhoan.

Phonemic contrasts in ǃKung include:

• Pulmonic - click - twa to finish vs ǂwa to imitate
  • Pulmonic consonants
    • Voiced - voiceless unaspirated - voiceless aspirated stop: da skin, ta wild orange, tʰa bee sting
    • Voiced - voiceless unaspirated - voiceless aspirated - ejective affricate: djau expression of surprise, tca to fetch, t͡sʰe week, tcʼa to pour
    • Voiced - voiceless fricative: za to sexually insult, se to see
  • Click consonants
    • Voiced unaspirated - voiced aspirated: ɡǃaĩ puff adder, ɡǃʰeĩ tree
    • Voiceless unaspirated - voiceless aspirated: ǃẽ noise, ǃʰã to know
    • Unaffricated - affricated release: ǃo behind, ǃxo elephant
    • Plain - glottalised release: ǃábí to roll up a blanket, ǃˀàbú rifle
    • Plain - nasalised: ǀi rhinoceros, nǀi to sit
• Vowels
  • Plain - nasalised: ɡǃa rain, ɡǃã red
  • Plain - pharyngealised: nǀom springhare, nǀo̱m big talker
  • Short - long: ǀu to throw, ǀuː to put in

ǃKung also distinguishes three to five tones.

Grammar

Linguistically, ǃKung is generally termed isolating, meaning that words' meanings are changed by the addition of other, separate words, rather than by the addition of affixes or the changing of word structure. A few suffixes exist - for example, distributive plurals are formed with the noun suffix -si or -mhi, but in the main meaning is given only by series of words rather than by grouping of affixes.

ǃKung distinguishes no formal plural, and the suffixes -si and -mhi are optional in usage. The language's word order is adverb–subject–verb–object, and in this it is similar to English: "the snake bites the man" is represented by ǂʼaama nǃei zhu (ǂʼaama - snake, nǃei - to bite, zhu - man). !Kung-ekoka uses word and sentence tone contours, and has a very finely differentiated vocabulary for the animals, plants and conditions native to the Kalahari Desert, where the language is spoken. For example, the plant genus Grewia is referred to by five different words, representing five different species in this genus.

References

1. ^ ǃʼOǃKung at Ethnologue
2. ^ Glenn R. Morton (2002-09). "Language at the Dawn of Humanity" (PDF). asa3.org. http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/2002/PSCF9-02Morton.pdf. Retrieved 2006-09-19. 

• Snyman, Jan Winston. 1980. The relationship between Angolan ǃXu and Zuǀʼõasi. In Bushman and Hottentot linguistic studies 1979, pp. 1–58. Ed. J. W. Snyman. University of South Africa (UNISA), Pretoria.

External links

• The Ethnologue Report for ǃKung-ekoka
• The Ethnologue Report for ǃOǃung
• The Ethnologue Report for Maligo
• Swadesh word list for ǃKung-ekoka
• Alternate names and classification from Göteborg University.