Click language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A click language is a tribal tongue of Africa which uses click consonants in its phonetic functions. Today only 30 click languages survive and are spoken by indigenous tribes in the southern and eastern parts of Africa. The only click language known to have existed outside the African continent is Damin in Australia. The African click languages belong to various linguistic groups that are most likely unrelated to each other. As the usage of clicks doesn't imply a common linguistic origin, it is assumed that they were adapted via tribal contacts that took place in prehistoric times.
[edit] Groups
These groups include all Southern African languages of:
- Khwe (Hottentots)
- San (Bushmen)
These languages are often regarded as a "South African Khoisan languages" group, a term which implies a geographical, not linguistic, link between its members. In that respect, Northern Khoisan (which includes Ju’hoansi) is only distantly related to Central Khoisan, which includes Nama and two other Southern groups unrelated to all others.
Two other click languages that are spoken by a small number of people in central Tanzania are:
The two languages are unrelated to each other (Hadza has no close relatives) but they have strong influences from neighbouring territories. Sandawe's close linguistic similarity to the Central Khoisan languages suggests that the two may have a common origin or prehistoric connection. A Southern Cushitic language which uses clicks (but is not categorised as a click language itself) is Dahalo, near the mountain Tana in Kenya. Its usage of clicks must have been adapted from Southern Cushites and other peoples of central Kenya over two millennia ago.
Finally, the Nguni-branch of the Bantu branch includes the following click languages:
It is most likely that the Bantu adopted clicks from the San people who dwelled in the region during their arrival.
