Nǀu language Totally Explained

Everything about N U Language totally explained

Nǀu or Nǀuu, also known as Nǀhuki, ǂKhomani, or Nǁngǃke, is a moribund Tuu (Khoisan) language spoken by the Nǁnǂe people in South Africa. The name ǂKhomani is used by the South African government, but apart from that isn't recognized by the Nǁnǂe.
   Nǀu belongs to the Tuu (Taʼa-ǃKwi) language family, with extinct ǀXam being its closest relative. The slash symbol in these names represents a click like the English interjection tsk! tsk! used to express pity or shame; "Nǀu" is pronounced like noo, with a tsk pronounced in the middle of the /n/. Its closest living relative is the ǃXóõ language.
   Nǀu prospered through the 19th century, but encroaching non-ǃKwi languages and acculturation threatened it, like most other Khoisan languages. The language of the ǂKhomani was mainly displaced by Afrikaans and Nama, especially after they started migrating to towns in the 1930s and found themselves surrounded by non-Nǀu speaking people. In 1973 their language was declared extinct, and the remaining ǂKhomani were evicted from the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park.
   In the 1990s, ǂKhomani elders became upset that the language was dying out. It was thought that the language might already be extinct. They finally located 101-year old Elsie Vaalbooi, who could still speak Nǀu. Linguist Anthony Traill interviewed her in 1997. The South African San Institute soon became involved in the pursuit of information on the Nǀu 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 km² of land to the ǂKhomani in 1999, and 250 km² of land within the park in 2002. Vaalbooi came up with the Nǀu motto of Sa ǁʼa ǃainsi uinsi (We move towards a better life) for her rehabilitated people. 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 are still alive in South Africa, and a few more in Botswana; none live with another speaker, and their daily languages are Afrikaans and Tswana, respectively. Linguist Nigel Crawhall is documenting the language. However, the younger generations of ǂKhomani are proud Nama speakers, and have little affinity to Nǀu, so there's little chance of saving the language.

Speech sounds

Nǀuu has one of the more complex sound inventories of the world's languages. It is has a tone system similar to other Tuu and Juu languages, which isn't covered here.

Vowels

Like most languages in southern Africa, Nǀuu has five vowel qualities. These may occur long or short, diphthongized, epiglottalized, and, when long, nasalized.

Modal	i, iː	e, eː	ɑ, ɑː	o, oː	u, uː
Nasal	ĩː		ɑ̃ː		ũː
Epiglottalized		(e^ʢ, eː^ʢ)	ɑ^ʢ, ɑː^ʢ	o^ʢ, oː^ʢ	(u^ʢ ?)
Nasal epiglottalized			ɑ̃ː^ʢ	õː^ʢ

Nǀuu is the only Khoisan language known to have an epiglottalized front vowel, /e^ʢ/, though this is rare, attested in only three words, in one of which it's long. /u^ʢ/ is also rare, and is thought to be an allophone of /o^ʢ/.

Modal	ɑe̯	əi̯	ɑo̯	əu̯	oɑ̯	oe̯	ui̯
Nasal		ə̃ĩ̯		ə̃ũ̯	õɑ̯̃	õẽ̯	ũĩ̯
Epiglottalized	ae̯^ʢ		ao̯^ʢ		oɑ̯^ʢ	oe̯^ʢ
Nasal epiglottalized	ɑ̃ẽ̯^ʢ		ɑ̃õ̯^ʢ			õẽ̯^ʢ

Consonants

The majority of Nǀuu consonants are clicks. It was once thought that Khoisan languages distinguish velar and uvular consonants, but recent research into Nǀuu, and reevaluation of the data on contours.

Pulmonic consonants		bilabial	alveolar	palatal	velar	uvular	glottal
nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ̩
plosive	voiced	b		ɟ	ɡ
	tenuis	p		c	k	q	(ʔ)
	aspirated			cʰ	kʰ
affricate			ts	c^χ
fricative	voiceless		s			χ
fricative	voiced		z				(ɦ)
liquid			ɾ ~ l

The velar nasal /ŋ̩/ only occurs as a syllabic nucleus. A glottal stop [ʔ] begins a few words; it's not clear at this point if it's phonemic. /t, d, f/ are found in unassimilated loanwords. The difference between [ɾ]~[l] is allophonic as well as dialectal.

Glottalic consonants		bilabial	alveolar	palatal	velar	uvular
affricate			tsʼ		k^χʼ	q^χʼ

The amount of frication on /k^χʼ/ and /q^χʼ/ is variable; they may surface as ejective plosives, [kʼ] and [qʼ].

Lingual consonants		Labio- uvular	Denti- pharyngeal	Alveo-uvular		Palato- pharyngeal
Lingual consonants		Labio- uvular	Denti- pharyngeal	Central	Lateral	Palato- pharyngeal
nasal	voiced	^ŋʘ	^ŋǀ	^ŋǃ	^ŋǁ	^ŋǂ
	glottalized	^ŋ̊ʘˀ	^ŋ̊ǀˀ	^ŋ̊ǃˀ	^ŋ̊ǁˀ	^ŋ̊ǂˀ
	aspirated		^ŋ̊ǀʰ	^ŋ̊ǃʰ	^ŋ̊ǁʰ	^ŋ̊ǂʰ
plosive	voiced		^gǀ	^gǃ	^gǁ	^gǂ
	tenuis	ʘ	ǀ	ǃ	ǁ	ǂ
	aspirated		ǀʰ	ǃʰ	ǁʰ	ǂʰ

These are simple clicks. The traditional term "velaric" is something of a misnomer, for the rear articulation is further back than the velum, and indeed further back than Nǀuu /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 the above rubric, the first element of the name is the forward articulation, and the second is the rear articulation.

Linguo-pulmonic consonants		Labio- uvular	Denti- pharyngeal	Alveo-uvular		Palato- pharyngeal
Linguo-pulmonic consonants		Labio- uvular	Denti- pharyngeal	Central	Lateral	Palato- pharyngeal
plosive	tenuis	ʘ͡q	ǀ͡q	ǃ͡q	ǁ͡q	ǂ͡q
plosive	aspirated		ǀ͡qʰ	ǃ͡qʰ	ǁ͡qʰ	ǂ͡qʰ
affricate		ʘ͡χ	ǀ͡χ	ǃ͡χ	ǁ͡χ	ǂ͡χ

These are airstream contour consonants, which start off with a lingual (velaric) airstream mechanism and finish with a pulmonic airstream, rather as affricates are manner contour consonants, starting as plosives and finishing as fricatives. Traditionally these were considered to be uvular clicks, because the uvular or pharyngeal closure is audible, but in fact the rear closure of all Nǀuu clicks is uvular or pharyngeal. (The distinction between uvular and pharyngeal isn't represented here.)

Linguo-glottalic consonants	Labio- uvular	Denti- pharyngeal	Alveo-uvular		Palato- pharyngeal
			Central	Lateral
affricate		ǀ͡χʼ	ǃ͡χʼ	ǁ͡χʼ	ǂ͡χʼ

These differ from the previous consonants in releasing into an ejective. As in simple ejectives, they're all affricates.

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