!Xóõ language

!Xóõ is a Khoisan language with a very large number of phonemes, the most of any known language. These include many clicks and vowel phonations.

Xóõ is spoken in Botswana (mainly) and Namibia by about 4,200 people as of 2002.

Relatives

Until the rediscovery of a few elderly speakers of N/u in the 1990s, !Xóõ was thought to be the last surviving member of the Ta’a-!Kwi language family.

(Note: Ethnologue currently lists ‡Hõã as a relative. This is an error.)

Alternate names

ǀʼAuni (extinct), Kakia (extinct), Kiǀhazi (extinct), Nǀgamani (extinct), Ngǀuǁen (extinct), Nǀu-san, Xatia (Katia, Kattea, Khatia, Vaalpens, ǀKusi, ǀEikusi, Masarwa), ǃKwi.

There is much confusion with these names. For example, ǀʼAuni is actually a dialect of N/u, in the !Kwi family, and Ngǀuǁen, N/u-san are alternate names of that language. !Kwi may also be a !Kwi dialect rather than a dialect of !Xóõ. Kakia may be a separate language in the Ta’a family, and Xatia etc may be variants of that name. Nonetheless, there is dialectal variation in !Xóõ, which might be better described as a dialect continuum than as a single language.

Phonemes

Tones

There are 4 tones: high mid ^*," target="_blank" >and mid-falling [â.

Vowels

There are 5 vowel qualities, e i o u, which may be plain, murmured, or glottalized. o u may also be both glottalized and murmured, as well as pharyngealized or strident. u may be both pharyngealized and glottalized, for 26 vowels not counting nasalization or length.

Murmured vowels after plain consonants contrast with plain vowels after aspirated consonants, and likewise glottalized vowels with ejective consonants, so these are phonations of the vowels and not assimilation with consonant phonation.

Vowels may be long or short, but long vowels may be sequences rather than distinct phonemes. The other vowel quality sequences (diphthongs?), disregarding the added complexity of phonation, are ae, ao, au, oi, oe, oa, ou, ui, ue, ua.

All plain vowels may be nasalized. No other phonation may be nasalized, but nasalization occurs in combination with other phonations as the second vowel of a sequence ("long vowel" or "diphthong"). These sequences alternate dialectically with vowel plus velar nasal. That is, the name !Xóõ may be dialectically ^*, and this in turn may be phonemically , since does not occur word-finally. However, this cannot explain the short nasal vowels, so !Xóõ has at least 31 vowels.

A long, glottalized, murmured, nasalized o with falling tone is written <ô’hõ>. A long, strident nasalized o with low tone is written <òqhõ>, since Traill analyzes stridency as phonemically pharyngealized murmur. (Note that phonetically these are distinct phonations.)

Consonants

Xóõ is unusual in allowing mixed voicing in its consonants. These have been called "prevoiced", but they actually appear to be consonant clusters. When homorganic, as in ^*, such clusters are listed in the chart below.

non-click consonants		labial	dental	alveolar	palatal	velar	corresponding clicks?	uvular	corresponding clicks?	glottal
oral stop	voiced						etc.		etc.
	tenuis						etc.		etc.
	aspirated						etc.
	ejective						etc.		etc.
	aspirated cluster						etc.		etc.
	ejective cluster						etc.
fricative	voiceless						etc. ?
nasal	voiced						etc.
nasal	glottalized						etc.
other

The nasal only occurs between vowels, and only word finally (and then only in some dialects), so these may be allophones.

There are additional consonant clusters: . The click accompaniments seen in also do not fit into the chart.

Xóõ has 83 click sounds. Given the intricate clusters seen in the non-click consonants, it is not surprising that many of the !Xóõ clicks should be analyzed as clusters. However, while some are clearly simplex and some clearly complex, there is debate over others.

There are five click releases: bilabial, dental, lateral, alveolar, and palatal. There are seventeen accompaniments, both velar and uvular. These are perfectly normal consonants in !Xóõ, and indeed are preferred over non-clicks in word-initial position.

affricated clicks			'sharp' clicks		accompaniment, along with speaker or dialect variation
labial clicks	dental clicks	lateral clicks	alveolar clicks	palatal clicks	accompaniment, along with speaker or dialect variation
					Tenuis ()
					Tenuis uvular ()
					Voiceless nasal ()
					Voiced ()
					(Prenasalized) voiced uvular ()
					Voiced nasal ()
					Aspirated ()
					Ingressive voiceless nasal with delayed aspiration (↓ŋ̊ʰ)
					Voiceless affricate ()
					Preglottalized nasal ()
					Uvular ejective ()
					Glottalized plosive ()
					Voiced velar plosive followed by voiceless velar fricative ()
					Velar ejective followed by uvular ejective ()
					Voiced velar plosive followed by uvular ejective ()
					Voiced velar plosive followed by aspiration ()
					Voiced (prenasalized) uvular plosive followed by aspiration, velar frication, or uvular trill ()

Peter Ladefoged analyses the first ten accompaniments (through the series) as simplex, and the last seven as complex. This would mean that !Xóõ has 50 simple clicks. However, it is not clear that the uvular ejective click series (, etc) are consonant clusters, since the double-ejective clicks ( etc) are analysed as two segments, not three. Also, glottalized clicks similar to the series are analysed as simple consonants in other Khoisan languages.

Grammar

Xóõ is a Subject Verb Object language, and grammar is prepositional. Genitives, adjectives, relative clauses, and numbers come after the nouns they apply to. Reduplication is used to form causatives. Like some other Khoisan languages, !Xóõ has a tendency to put the question word at the beginning of sentences.

Anthony Traill has done extensive research concerning the language and its various aspects. He has even written a dictionary over the !Xóõ language, named A !Xóõ Dictionary, as well as a book on the phonetics of the language.

References

External links

Ethnologue Report for !Xóõ

Khoisan languages | Languages of Botswana | Languages of Namibia

!Xóõ-gú | !Xóõ | !Xóõ | 꽁옹어 | !Xóõ | !Xóõ | !Xóõ | !Xóõ

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