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Nǁng language

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An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a " dead language ". If no one can speak the language at all, it becomes an " extinct language ". A dead language may still be studied through recordings or writings, but it is still dead or extinct unless there are fluent speakers. Although languages have always become extinct throughout human history, they are currently dying at an accelerated rate because of globalization , mass migration , cultural replacement, imperialism , neocolonialism and linguicide (language killing).

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66-571: Nǁng [ᵑǁŋ] or Nǁŋǃke , commonly known by the name of its only spoken dialect Nǀuu (Nǀhuki), is a moribund Tuu language once spoken in South Africa. It is no longer spoken on a daily basis, as the speakers live in different villages. The ǀʼAuni name for the Nǀuu, ǂKhomani , is used by the South African government. As of June 2021, only one speaker of the Nǀuu dialect remains,

132-432: A 5–1 margin. CVV and CVN roots are HH, HL, and LH with about equal frequency, with LL slightly less common. However, half of all CVcV roots are LH, making it markedly frequent, while only 5% are HL. In an additional CV foot the distribution of H and L is approximately equal; an additional CVN or CVcV foot may pattern like an initial foot, but they are too infrequent to be sure. The majority of Nǁng consonants are clicks . It

198-485: A community with special collective rights . Language can also be considered as scientific knowledge in topics such as medicine, philosophy, botany, and more. It reflects a community's practices when dealing with the environment and each other. When a language is lost, this knowledge is often lost as well. In contrast, language revitalization is correlated with better health outcomes in indigenous communities. During language loss—sometimes referred to as obsolescence in

264-412: A consonant (CV). The second mora may be a single vowel (V), a nasal consonant m or n (N), or one of a drastically reduced number of consonants plus a vowel (cV). That is, lexical roots, not counting sometimes lexicalized CV prefixes and suffixes, are typically CVcV, CVV, CVN, though there are also a few which are CV, as well as longer words of two phonological feet: CVCV, where the second C is not one of

330-470: A dominant position in a country. Speakers of endangered languages may themselves come to associate their language with negative values such as poverty, illiteracy and social stigma, causing them to wish to adopt the dominant language that is associated with social and economical progress and modernity . Immigrants moving into an area may lead to the endangerment of the autochthonous language. Dialects and accents have seen similar levels of endangerment during

396-433: A fraction of the world's linguistic diversity, therefore their picture of what human language is—and can be—will be limited. Some linguists consider linguistic diversity to be analogous to biological diversity, and compare language endangerment to wildlife endangerment . Linguists, members of endangered language communities, governments, nongovernmental organizations, and international organizations such as UNESCO and

462-499: A fricative, with the exception of three female kin terms where the second syllable is /χè/ . As with the lack of strident front vowels, there are thus a small number of exceptions for these constraints with /e/ , but none with /i/ . Nǁng moras may carry a high or low tone , /H/ or /L/. A typical lexical word consists of two moras, and so may have a high (HH), low (LL), rising (LH), or falling (HL) tone. Monomoraic lexical roots, such as /cú/ 'mouth', are high- rather than low-tone by

528-655: A larger sign language or dispersal of the deaf community) can lead to the endangerment and loss of their traditional sign language. Methods are being developed to assess the vitality of sign languages. While there is no definite threshold for identifying a language as endangered, UNESCO 's 2003 document entitled Language vitality and endangerment outlines nine factors for determining language vitality: Many languages, for example some in Indonesia , have tens of thousands of speakers but are endangered because children are no longer learning them, and speakers are shifting to using

594-408: A long vowel or diphthong. The strident vowels are thought to have the phonation called harsh voice . They are strongly pharyngealized, and for some speakers involve low-frequency trilling that presumably involves the aryepiglottic fold . The four strident vowel qualities (there is no strident i ) are rather different from the non-strident vowels, as is common when a vowel is pharyngealized . Nǁng

660-407: A secondary stress in the first part of the word. The syllable on which the stress falls is lengthened. Thus, mosadi (woman) is realised as [mʊ̀ˈsáːdì] . Tswana has two tones , high and low, but the latter has a much wider distribution in words than the former. Tones are not marked orthographically , which may lead to ambiguity. An important feature of the tones is the so-called spreading of

726-455: Is also sometimes referred to as language revival or reversing language shift . For case studies of this process, see Anderson (2014). Applied linguistics and education are helpful in revitalizing endangered languages. Vocabulary and courses are available online for a number of endangered languages. Language maintenance refers to the support given to languages that need for their survival to be protected from outsiders who can ultimately affect

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792-504: Is known as Pretoria Sotho , and is the principal unique language of the city of Pretoria . The three South African provinces with the most speakers are Gauteng (circa 11%), Northern Cape , and North West (over 70%). Until 1994, South African Tswana people were notionally citizens of Bophuthatswana , one of the bantustans of the apartheid regime. The Setswana language in the Northwest Province has variations in which it

858-411: Is possible the languages have gotten mixed up in the literature. Güldemann (2017) lists the following pre-democracy doculects as being Nǁng. Nǁng prospered through the 19th century, but encroaching non-ǃKwi languages and acculturation threatened it, like most other Khoisan languages. The language was mainly displaced by Afrikaans and Nama , especially after speakers started migrating to towns in

924-508: Is pronounced like noo , with a tsk! in the middle of the [n] . The double-vertical-bar in "Nǁng" is a (single) lateral click , pronounced like the tchick! used to spur on a horse; the name is pronounced like the ng of sung with this click in it. The word nǀuu /ᵑǀùú/ is actually a verb, 'to speak a Bushman language', possibly from Khoekhoe . Nǀhuki is a deverbal , 'a Bushman language'. The people call themselves Nǁŋ-ǂe /ᵑǁŋ̀ŋ̀ ǂé/ 'Nǁng people', and Westphal believes this may be

990-530: Is realised as either /x/ or /h/ by many speakers; /f/ is realised as /h/ in most dialects; and /tɬ/ and /tɬʰ/ are realised as /t/ and /tʰ/ in northern dialects. The consonant /ŋ/ can exist at the end of a word without being followed by a vowel (as in Jwaneng and Barolong Seboni ). Stress is fixed in Tswana and thus always falls on the penult of a word, although some compounds may receive

1056-552: Is spoken according to the ethnic groups found in the Tswana culture (Bakgatla, Barolong, Bakwena, Batlhaping, Bahurutshe, Bafokeng, Batlokwa, Bataung, and Batswapong, among others); the written language remains the same. A small number of speakers are also found in Zimbabwe (unknown number) and Namibia (about 10,000 people). The first European to describe the language was the German traveller Hinrich Lichtenstein , who lived among

1122-400: Is the only Khoisan language known to have a strident front vowel, /e𐞴/ , though this is rare, occurring in only two known words, /zḛ̰́é/ 'to fly' and /ᵑ̊ǂḛ̰̀βé/ 'loincloth'. The lack of a nasalized equivalent is thought to be an accidental gap or simply unattested due to the small number of known words. The tone-bearing segment may be a syllabic nasal, /ŋ̍/ , rather than a vowel, as in

1188-500: The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages , there are four main types of causes of language endangerment: Causes that put the populations that speak the languages in physical danger, such as: Causes that prevent or discourage speakers from using a language, such as: Often multiple of these causes act at the same time. Poverty, disease and disasters often affect minority groups disproportionately, for example causing

1254-639: The Kgalagadi language and the Lozi language . Setswana is an official language of Botswana , South Africa , and Zimbabwe . It is a lingua franca in Botswana and parts of South Africa, particularly North West Province . Tswana speaking ethnic groups are found in more than two provinces of South Africa, primarily in the North West , where about four million people speak the language. An urbanised variety

1320-728: The Northwest Pacific Plateau . Other hotspots are Oklahoma and the Southern Cone of South America. Almost all of the study of language endangerment has been with spoken languages. A UNESCO study of endangered languages does not mention sign languages. However, some sign languages are also endangered, such as Alipur Village Sign Language (AVSL) of India, Adamorobe Sign Language of Ghana, Ban Khor Sign Language of Thailand, and Plains Indian Sign Language . Many sign languages are used by small communities; small changes in their environment (such as contact with

1386-761: The Tswana people Batlhaping in 1806 although his work was not published until 1930. He mistakenly regarded Tswana as a dialect of the Xhosa , and the name that he used for the language "Beetjuana" may also have covered the Northern and Southern Sotho languages . The first major work on Tswana was carried out by the British missionary Robert Moffat , who had also lived among the Batlhaping , and published Bechuana Spelling Book and A Bechuana Catechism in 1826. In

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1452-529: The Upington area and two in Olifantshoek (ǁʼAu), speaking the western and eastern dialects, respectively. The younger generations of ǂKhomani are proud Nama speakers and have little affinity to Nǁng. Recent research on Nǁng led by Amanda Miller of Cornell University has helped describe the physics of its clicks , leading to a better understanding of click sounds in general. Efforts to perpetuate

1518-612: The close-mid vowels /e/ and /o/ . The circumflex on e and o in general Setswana writing is only encouraged at elementary levels of education and not at upper primary or higher; usually these are written without the circumflex. The consonant inventory of Tswana can be seen below. The consonant /d/ is merely an allophone of /l/ , when the latter is followed by the vowels /i/ or /u/ . Two more sounds, v /v/ and z /z/ , exist only in loanwords. Tswana also has three click consonants , but these are only used in interjections or ideophones , and tend only to be used by

1584-611: The national language (e.g. Indonesian ) in place of local languages. In contrast, a language with only 500 speakers might be considered very much alive if it is the primary language of a community, and is the first (or only) spoken language of all children in that community. Asserting that "Language diversity is essential to the human heritage", UNESCO's Ad Hoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages offers this definition of an endangered language: "... when its speakers cease to use it, use it in an increasingly reduced number of communicative domains, and cease to pass it on from one generation to

1650-485: The 1930s and found themselves surrounded by non-Nǁng-speaking people. In 1973 their language was declared extinct, and the remaining Nǁnǂe ("ǂKhomani") were evicted from the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park . In the 1990s, linguists located 101-year-old Elsie Vaalbooi , who could still speak Nǁng. Anthony Traill interviewed her in 1997. The South African San Institute soon became involved in

1716-472: The 21st century due to similar reasons. Language endangerment affects both the languages themselves and the people that speak them. This also affects the essence of a culture. As communities lose their language, they often lose parts of their cultural traditions that are tied to that language. Examples include songs, myths, poetry, local remedies, ecological and geological knowledge, as well as language behaviors that are not easily translated. Furthermore,

1782-678: The European Union are actively working to save and stabilize endangered languages. Once a language is determined to be endangered, there are three steps that can be taken in order to stabilize or rescue the language. The first is language documentation, the second is language revitalization and the third is language maintenance. Language documentation is the documentation in writing and audio-visual recording of grammar , vocabulary, and oral traditions (e.g. stories, songs, religious texts) of endangered languages. It entails producing descriptive grammars, collections of texts and dictionaries of

1848-509: The Nǁng language continued in 2017 and in 2021. The first Nǁng children's book, !Qhoi n|a Tjhoi (Tortoise and Ostrich), was written by Katrina Esau, one of the two surviving speakers at the time, in May 2021. In June 2021, her brother Simon Sauls died, leaving 88-year-old Katrina Esau as the last speaker of the language. Esau had opened a school with her granddaughter to teach the language to children, but it

1914-518: The U.S. as experts aiming to share their knowledge and expand their skills". Tswana language Tswana , also known by its native name Setswana , and previously spelled Sechuana in English, is a Bantu language spoken in and indigenous to Southern Africa by about 8.2 million people. It is closely related to the Northern Sotho and Southern Sotho languages, as well as

1980-427: The above rubric, the first element of the name is the forward articulation, and the second is the rear articulation. These are airstream contour consonants , which start off with a lingual (velaric) airstream mechanism and finish with a pulmonic airstream (whereas affricates are manner contour consonants, starting as plosives and finishing as fricatives). Traditionally, these were considered to be uvular clicks, because

2046-480: The cities or to other countries, thus dispersing the speakers. Cultural dominance occurs when literature and higher education is only accessible in the majority language. Political dominance occurs when education and political activity is carried out exclusively in a majority language. Historically, in colonies, and elsewhere where speakers of different languages have come into contact, some languages have been considered superior to others: often one language has attained

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2112-575: The contributions of linguists globally. Ethnologue's 2005 count of languages in its database, excluding duplicates in different countries, was 6,912, of which 32.8% (2,269) were in Asia, and 30.3% (2,092) in Africa. This contemporary tally must be regarded as a variable number within a range. Areas with a particularly large number of languages that are nearing extinction include: Eastern Siberia , Central Siberia , Northern Australia , Central America , and

2178-461: The cycles of language death and emergence of new languages through creolization as a continuous ongoing process. A majority of linguists do consider that language loss is an ethical problem, as they consider that most communities would prefer to maintain their languages if given a real choice. They also consider it a scientific problem, because language loss on the scale currently taking place will mean that future linguists will only have access to

2244-408: The dispersal of speaker populations and decreased survival rates for those who stay behind. Among the causes of language endangerment cultural, political and economic marginalization accounts for most of the world's language endangerment. Scholars distinguish between several types of marginalization: Economic dominance negatively affects minority languages when poverty leads people to migrate towards

2310-517: The earliest is GIDS (Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale) proposed by Joshua Fishman in 1991. In 2011 an entire issue of Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development was devoted to the study of ethnolinguistic vitality, Vol. 32.2, 2011, with several authors presenting their own tools for measuring language vitality. A number of other published works on measuring language vitality have been published, prepared by authors with varying situations and applications in mind. According to

2376-544: The first vowel is /o/ or /u/ , then the second may be either /a/ or a vowel of the same height : that is, oa, oo, oe; ua, uu, ui . The vowels must be both oral or both nasal; nasal vowels cannot follow a nasal stop (though they may follow nasal clicks ). Only the first vowel may be strident. Front vowels can only follow the click types ǀ and ǂ (the back-vowel constraint ), with a single known exception, [ᵑǁˀé] 'to go'. Front vowels and strident vowels may also not follow [ χ ] , whether an affricate release or

2442-547: The following years, he published several other books of the Bible , and in 1857, he was able to publish a complete translation of the Bible. The first grammar of Tswana was published in 1833 by the missionary James Archbell although it was modelled on a Xhosa grammar. The first grammar of Tswana which regarded it as a separate language from Xhosa (but still not as a separate language from the Northern and Southern Sotho languages)

2508-655: The high tone. If a syllable bears a high tone, the following two syllables will have high tones unless they are at the end of the word. Tswana orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. The letter š was introduced in 1937, but the corresponding sound is still sometimes written as ⟨sh⟩. The letters ⟨ê⟩ and ⟨ô⟩ are used in textbooks and language reference books, but not so much in daily standard writing. Nouns in Tswana are grouped into nine noun classes and one subclass, each having different prefixes . The nine classes and their respective prefixes can be seen below, along with

2574-416: The languages, and it requires the establishment of a secure archive where the material can be stored once it is produced so that it can be accessed by future generations of speakers or scientists. Language revitalization is the process by which a language community through political, community, and educational means attempts to increase the number of active speakers of the endangered language. This process

2640-399: The linguistic literature—the language that is being lost generally undergoes changes as speakers make their language more similar to the language that they are shifting to. For example, gradually losing grammatical or phonological complexities that are not found in the dominant language. Generally the accelerated pace of language endangerment is considered to be a problem by linguists and by

2706-536: The most part, not learning the language. The third stage of language extinction is seriously endangered . During this stage, a language is unlikely to survive another generation and will soon be extinct. The fourth stage is moribund , followed by the fifth stage extinction . Many projects are under way aimed at preventing or slowing language loss by revitalizing endangered languages and promoting education and literacy in minority languages, often involving joint projects between language communities and linguists. Across

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2772-404: The name Nǁng. Only certain sequences of vowels may occur in a bimoraic foot, regardless of whether there is an intervening consonant. (That is, the permitted vowels are the same whether a word is CVcV or CVV.) If the first vowel is any variety (nasal, strident, etc.) of /i, e, ŋ̍/ , then the second vowel must be identical. If the first vowel is /a/ , then the second may be anything but /ŋ̍/ . If

2838-455: The next. That is, there are no new speakers, adults or children." UNESCO operates with four levels of language endangerment between "safe" (not endangered) and "extinct" (no living speakers), based on intergenerational transfer: "vulnerable" (not spoken by children outside the home), "definitely endangered" (children not speaking), "severely endangered" (only spoken by the oldest generations), and "critically endangered" (spoken by few members of

2904-545: The number of speakers of a language. UNESCO seeks to prevent language extinction by promoting and supporting the language in education, culture, communication and information, and science. Another option is "post-vernacular maintenance": the teaching of some words and concepts of the lost language, rather than revival proper. As of June 2012 the United States has a J-1 specialist visa , which allows indigenous language experts who do not have academic training to enter

2970-404: The older generation, and are therefore falling out of use. The three click consonants are the dental click /ǀ/ , orthographically ⟨c⟩ ; the lateral click /ǁ/ , orthographically ⟨x⟩ ; and the alveolar click /ǃ/ , orthographically ⟨q⟩ . There are some minor dialectal variations among the consonants between speakers of Tswana. For instance, /χ/

3036-731: The oldest generation, often semi-speakers ). UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger categorises 2,473 languages by level of endangerment. Using an alternative scheme of classification, linguist Michael E. Krauss defines languages as "safe" if it is considered that children will probably be speaking them in 100 years; "endangered" if children will probably not be speaking them in 100 years (approximately 60–80% of languages fall into this category) and "moribund" if children are not speaking them now. Many scholars have devised techniques for determining whether languages are endangered. One of

3102-450: The perceived prestige of certain languages. The ultimate result is the loss of linguistic diversity and cultural heritage within affected communities. The general consensus is that there are between 6,000 and 7,000 languages currently spoken. Some linguists estimate that between 50% and 90% of them will be severely endangered or dead by the year 2100. The 20 most common languages , each with more than 50 million speakers, are spoken by 50% of

3168-433: The previous consonants in that the second, rear release is an ejective. Moribund language Language shift most commonly occurs when speakers switch to a language associated with social or economic power or one spoken more widely, leading to the gradual decline and eventual death of the endangered language. The process of language shift is often influenced by factors such as globalisation, economic authorities, and

3234-492: The pursuit of information on the Nǁng 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 km of land to the Nǁnǂe in 1999, and 250 km of land within the park in 2002. Vaalbooi came up with the Nǁng motto of Sa ǁʼa ǃainsi uinsi "We move towards a better life" for her rehabilitated people. This

3300-533: The reduced set of consonants but cannot be a click, CVCVN, CVVCV, CVNCV, CVVCVN, CVNCVN, CVcVCV, CVVCVcV. Grammatical words tend to be CV or V. There are occasional exceptions to these patterns in ideophonic words such as /ɟùɾùkúɟúí-sí/ 'Namaqua sandgrouse' (CVcVCVCVV + suffix) and historically reduplicated words with clicks such as /ǁáḿǁàm̀/ 'to talk'. Like most languages in southern Africa, Nǁng has five vowel qualities. These may occur strident and nasalized . A word may have two adjacent vowels, which resemble

3366-497: The rest of the population having shifted to Khoekhoe and Afrikaans . Nǁng belongs to the Tuu (Taa–ǃKwi) language family, with extinct ǂUngkue being its closest relative and Taa its closest living relative. The two recent dialects are a western/northwestern one, to which Nǀuu (Nǀhuki) is sometimes restricted, and a nameless eastern dialect from the area of Langeberg . As of 2010, most remaining speakers spoke Nǀuu dialect, and this

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3432-661: The social structure of one's community is often reflected through speech and language behavior. This pattern is even more prominent in dialects. This may in turn affect the sense of identity of the individual and the community as a whole, producing a weakened social cohesion as their values and traditions are replaced with new ones. This is sometimes characterized as anomie . Losing a language may also have political consequences as some countries confer different political statuses or privileges on minority ethnic groups, often defining ethnicity in terms of language. In turn, communities that lose their language may also lose political legitimacy as

3498-502: The speakers. However, some linguists, such as the phonetician Peter Ladefoged , have argued that language death is a natural part of the process of human cultural development, and that languages die because communities stop speaking them for their own reasons. Ladefoged argued that linguists should simply document and describe languages scientifically, but not seek to interfere with the processes of language loss. A similar view has been argued at length by linguist Salikoko Mufwene , who sees

3564-407: The term recorded by Bleek and variously rendered in the literature as ǁNg ǃʼe, ǁn-ǃke, ǁŋ.ǃke . The name Nǀusan is an ambiguous Khoekhoe exonym, and is used for several Tuu languages. Traill says that the ǀʼAuni call their language Nǀhuki, but others have recorded their name for their language as ǀʼAuo, and both Westphal and Köhler state that Nǀhuki (Nǀhuci, nǀɦuki) is a variety of Nǁng. It

3630-400: The uvular or pharyngeal closure is audible, but in fact the rear closure of all Nǁng clicks is uvular or pharyngeal. (The distinction between uvular and pharyngeal is not represented here.) Effectively, in these clicks the release of the rear articulation is delayed, so that there is a double release burst, the forward (lingual) release followed by the rear (pulmonic) release. These differ from

3696-480: The velum, and indeed further back than Nǁng /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

3762-418: The western dialect there is a single exception, ná 'I'; in the eastern dialect even that has merged, for ɲá 'I'. Only sonorants may occur as the medial consonant of a phonological foot. /l/ is only known from three words. The oral sonorants do not occur in initial position. These are simple clicks. The traditional term "velaric" is something of a misnomer, for the rear articulation is further back than

3828-457: The world is not known, and it is not well defined what constitutes a separate language as opposed to a dialect. Estimates vary depending on the extent and means of the research undertaken, and the definition of a distinct language and the current state of knowledge of remote and isolated language communities. The number of known languages varies over time as some of them become extinct and others are newly discovered. An accurate number of languages in

3894-418: The world was not yet known until the use of universal, systematic surveys in the later half of the twentieth century. The majority of linguists in the early twentieth century refrained from making estimates. Before then, estimates were frequently the product of guesswork and very low. One of the most active research agencies is SIL International , which maintains a database, Ethnologue , kept up to date by

3960-438: The world's population, but most languages are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people. The first step towards language death is potential endangerment . This is when a language faces strong external pressure, but there are still communities of speakers who pass the language to their children. The second stage is endangerment . Once a language has reached the endangerment stage, there are only a few speakers left and children are, for

4026-413: The world, many countries have enacted specific legislation aimed at protecting and stabilizing the language of indigenous speech communities . Recognizing that most of the world's endangered languages are unlikely to be revitalized, many linguists are also working on documenting the thousands of languages of the world about which little or nothing is known. The total number of contemporary languages in

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4092-554: Was also adopted as the official motto for the Northern Cape Province . 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 were still alive in South Africa, and a few more in Botswana; none live with another speaker, and their daily languages are Khoekhoe and Tswana , respectively. In 2013 there were three speakers in

4158-628: Was once thought that Khoisan languages distinguish velar and uvular clicks, but recent research into Nǁng, 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 . "(?)" marks possible accidental gaps; these consonants might be expected based on their occurrence in neighboring languages with similar phonologies, but are expected to be rare, and may occur in Nǁng words that have not been recorded. What were historically initial alveolar occlusives have become pre-palatal in lexical words. Among grammatical words in

4224-504: Was published by the French missionary, E. Casalis in 1841. He changed his mind later, and in a publication from 1882, he noted that the Northern and Southern Sotho languages were distinct from Tswana. Solomon Plaatje , a South African intellectual and linguist , was one of the first writers to extensively write in and about the Tswana language. The vowel inventory of Tswana can be seen below. Some dialects have two additional vowels,

4290-420: Was the name Nǁng appeared under when it was rediscovered. However, two spoke the eastern dialect and rejected the label Nǀuu. The easiest of the various names for English speakers to pronounce is Nǀuu . The letter that looks like a vertical bar (sometimes substituted with a slash) represents a dental click like the English interjection tsk! tsk! (tut! tut!) used to express pity or shame, but nasalized; "Nǀuu"

4356-591: Was vandalized during the COVID pandemic and abandoned. In October 2022, the Dutch NOS referred to Esau, or "Oma Katrina", as the last speaker of Nǀuu. She was teaching the language to a group of children, including her grandson and great-grandson, all speakers of Afrikaans. Nǁng has one of the more complex sound inventories of the world's languages. Most lexical words consist of a phonological foot with two moras ( tone -bearing units). The first mora must start with

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