Xoo

8/12/2019 Xoo

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DOBES

Within Africa, research on Khoisan languages isone of the least developed areas. Out of circa 100varieties that are attested, only three (StandardNamibian Khoekhoe alias Nama/Damara, Khwealias Kxoe, and Ju|'hoan) are described in readilyavailable sources. The situation is worse for theTuu family: less than half a dozen of some 40attested varieties are still spoken today. Amongthese, the !Xõo language complex is the onlysurviving member with a substantial number ofspeakers: a dialect cluster stretching from west-central Namibia into south-eastern Botswana.The major distinction is between Western andEastern !Xõo, which might be considered separatelanguages, since they diverge remarkably ingrammar and lexicon, up to the point of mutualnon-intelligibility.

!Xõo qualifies as a language that is of particularimportance in the documentation of linguisticdiversity encountered on our planet, since itpossesses some rare linguistic features on acontinental and even global scale and thus is likelyto widen in certain areas our general perspectiveon human languages.

Roland KießlingAsien-Afrika-InstitutAbteilung für Afrikanistik & ÄthiopistikUniversität HamburgEdmund-Siemers-Allee 1 (Ostflügel)20146 Hamburg

 CONTACT ADDRESS

Max Planck Institute for EvolutionaryAnthropology, Linguistics Section, Leipzig»  Gertrud Boden»  Tom Güldemann»  Roland Kießling»  Christfried Naumann

 General Orientation

 The Team

Western !Xõo is a heretofore undescribed languageof the Tuu family a.k.a. !Ui-Taa - the languagegroup that is more commonly known as the

southern branch of an assumed phylum 'SouthAfrican Khoisan' (SAK), whose genealogical unityhas not been demonstrated by historical-comparative methodology. Spoken by a small Sancommunity living in the southern Omaheke region(Namibia) and adjacent areas in Botswana (seeMap), Western !Xõo is highly endangered becauseit has no official recognition in Namibia and itsspeech community numbers no more than possibly300 socially and economically marginalizedspeakers.

 One of the least known linguistic lineages in the world

 Stigmatization and marginalization of the !Xõo

 Unique linguistic features

In sheer phonological complexity !Xõo seems tobe unexcelled worldwide: among its 126 con-sonant phonemes are 83 click phonemes. Fivebasic vowels could be modified by nasalisation,glottalisation, breathy voicing, pharyngealisa-tion. Combinations of these features aside, !Xõohas 25 vowel phonemes. On top of this, there isa phonemic contrast of two tonal levels atleast. The extraordinary high number of clicksresults from five basic influx types combiningwith as many as 17 different effluxes.

 Phonological world record

» largely isolating with little bound morphology(mostly host-final)

» clause order: Subject-Predicate-Object-Adjunct

» verb serialization» verbal cross-reference of the object, but not

the subject» neutral alignment and a particular type of

multifunctional relational gram» general nominal head-modifier structure with

the reverse in genitive constructions» productive noun compounding» rare type of noun categorization with two

sub-systems of gender assignment» complex and largely unpredictable number

marking.

 Salient typological features of  !Xõo morphosyntax

The speakers of Western !Xõo count among thepeople called San or by the older derogatorydenotation Bushmen. Their ancestors are known tobe the oldest attested populations in southernAfrica. The present settlement areas of thedifferent San people are located in or at themargins of the large, but thinly populated arid andsemi-arid Kalahari Basin, an area distributed overthe modern African states of Namibia, Botswana,and South Africa. Formerly hunter-gatherers andmembers of egalitarian band societies, most Sanpopulations entered more complex economic and

social relationships since the intrusion of agro-pastoralists into the area, who in the majorityspeak languages of the Bantu family. These werefollowed by European colonial settlers since themiddle of the 17th century. Even more than deathand plain expulsion, the expansion of Bantu andEuropeans meant to the San the loss of rights totheir land and resources, the forced surrender oftheir autonomous lives and the exploitation oftheir labor force within slave-like patron-client orother working relationships. Wherever San are stillto be found as distinct ethnic groups they aresituated at the bottom of the social hierarchy:landlessness, lack of education, socialstigmatization, bad health services, extremepoverty and economic dependency are the aspectsof their marginalization and hence theendangerment of their lives, cultures, andlanguages. A process of complete culturalassimilation cum language shift away fromWestern !Xõo, is well under way in great parts ofthe earlier distribution area and is likely to spreadto the few remaining pockets along the borderwith Botswana.

!Xõo hunter

Presenting the DOBES projectto a gathering of !Xõo

Map of Khoisan languages

"Give him their stinking genitals with the fat!"

 Sample Sentences

"As for Hare, she took Eland's child away."

Data from Eastern !Xõo (Anthony Traill)

Moreover, there is aphonemic distinctionbetween a primary velarclosure and a uvularclosure. The uvularclosure provides again apalette of modifications.

plain

voiced

glottalised

aspirated

voiced aspirated

exemplified with the centralalveolar click

Efflux types

Uvular closure

exemplified with the centralalveolar click

plain voiceless

voiced

prevoiced voiceless

("voice lead")

glottalised

voiceless aspirated

voiced aspirated

affricated

glottalised affricated

voiced affricated

voiced nasalised

voiceless nasalised

glottalised nasalised

palatal

Suction cavity of the palatal click (Traill 1985:115)

Suction cavity of the alveolar lateral click (Traill 1985:115)

alveolar lateral

Suction cavity of the alveolar central click (Traill 1985:115)

alveolar central

Suction cavity of the dental click (Traill 1985:115)

dental

Suction cavity of the bilabial click (Traill 1985:115)

bilabial

Influx types

Western !Xõo

Documentation of Western !Xõo of Namibia