Kx'a languages
| Kx'a | |
|---|---|
| Ju–ǂHoan | |
| Geographic distribution: |
Angola, Namibia, and Botswana |
| Linguistic classification: | One of the world's primary language families (traditionally considered Khoisan) |
| Subdivisions: |
ǃKung (Juu)
ǂ’Amkoe (ǂHoan)
|
The Kx'a languages, also called Ju–ǂHoan, are a recently established family linking the ǂ’Amkoe (ǂHoan) language with the ǃKung (Juu) dialect cluster, a relationship that had been suspected for a decade.[1] Along with the Tuu languages, they are one of two language families indigenous to southern Africa, which are typologically similar due to areal effects.
Contents |
Languages
- ǂ’Amkoe (two dialects, ǂHȍȁn and Sàsí. Ca. 100 speakers, Botswana. Moribund.)
- ǃKung (also ǃXun or Ju, formerly Northern Khoisan) is a single dialect cluster. (≈50,000 speakers.)
ǂHoan had previously been lumped in with the Tuu languages, perhaps over confusion with its name, but the only thing they have in common are typological features such as their bilabial clicks.
Heine & Honken (2010) coined the term Kx'a for the family as a replacement for the rather inaccessible compound Ju–ǂHoan (easily confused with the Juǀʼhoan language), after the word [kxʼà] 'earth, ground', which is shared by the two branches of the family, though also by neighboring languages such as Kwadi.
Features
Heine & Honken (2010) reconstruct six click families for Kx'a: the five that occur in the most conservative dialects of ǃKung, plus the bilabial clicks of ǂHoan. Bilabial clicks became dental in ǃXun; retroflex clicks became lateral in ǂHoan and northern ǃXun, alveolar in southern ǃXun, and remained retroflex only in central ǃXun. However, Starostin (2003)[2] argues that the bilabial clicks are a secondary development in ǂHoan. He cites the ǂHoan words for 'one' and 'two', /ŋ͡ʘũ/ and /ʘoa/, where no other Khoisan language has a labial consonant of any kind in its words for these numerals. This would of course also be explained by their loss of labial articulation in ǃXun; Heine & Honken report they could find no way to avoid postulating a series of labial clicks for the protolanguage.
External links
References
- ^ Heine, B. and Honken, H. 2010. "The Kx'a Family: A New Khoisan Genealogy". Journal of Asian and African Studies (Tokyo), 79, p. 5–36.
- ^ Starostin G. (2003) A lexicostatistical approach towards reconstructing Proto-Khoisan, page 22. Mother Tongue, vol. VIII.
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