| Juu-ǂHoan
≈ Northern Khoisan (obsolete)
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| Geographic distribution: |
Angola, Namibia, and Botswana |
| Genetic classification: |
Traditionally considered Khoisan, it may be one of the world's primary language families |
| Subdivisions: | |
The Juu-ǂHoan or Xǃun-Hǂoan languages form a recently proposed family linking the ǂHõã language isolate with the Juu dialect cluster. Along with the Tuu languages, it is one of two language families indigenous to southern Africa.
- ǂHõã (200 speakers, Botswana. Moribund.)
- Juu (also ǃKung, formerly Northern Khoisan) is a single dialect cluster. (~45,000 speakers.) Well known dialects are ǃKung (ǃXũũ), Juǀʼhoan, and ǂKxʼauǁʼein.
ǂHõã had previously been lumped in with the Tuu languages, but the only thing they have in common are typological features such as their bilabial clicks. Starostin (2003)[1] argues that the bilabial clicks are a secondary development in ǂHõã, and thus unrelated to the bilabial clicks of Tuu. He cites as an example the ǂHõã words for 'one' and 'two', /ŋ͡ʘũ/ and /ʘoa/, whereas no other Khoisan language has a labial consonant of any kind in its words for these numerals.
References
- ^ Starostin G. (2003) A lexicostatistical approach towards reconstructing Proto-Khoisan, page 22. Mother Tongue, vol. VIII.
References
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