Xhosa verbs are highly inflected. People who speak Xhosa as their second language number about 11 million. However, tones are usually not indicated in writing. Corrections? Chokwe, By creating an account, I agree to theTerms of service and Privacy policy. https://www.ethnologue.com/language/xho, Online Xhosa lessons Bonny Sands (1998) concluded that the family is not demonstrable with current evidence. languages as a result of long and extensive interaction between the The origin of Khoisan click consonants and their peculiarly African provenance therefore remains a mystery. Agreements usually reflect part of the original class with which the word agrees. We look forward to https://t.co/QcOGOzgax0, In collaboration with Advertising Week and Hartbeat, the Nelson Mandela foundation presents the Healing Power of La https://t.co/ati9CUOaa0, upon for guidance, support and to turn the tide of favour, , the majority of whom live in Eastern Cape, , and ancient traditions remain strong in this proud people, A certain amount of intermarriage with the Khoisan people they found here, Enchantment winds through the Xhosa language, dress and rituals. Translate files. High tone is represented in writing by an acute accent over the vowel, i.g., , low tone is indicated by by a grave accent, i.g., . The various parts of the sentence must agree in both class and number.[12]. "Die Khoisan-Familie." Long vowels are phonemic but are usually not written except for and , which are each sequences of two vowels with different tones that are realized as long vowels with contour tones ( highlow = falling, lowhigh = rising). Its speakers and people belonging to the group are called isiXhosa. No idea what a clicking language is? The palatalization process only applies once, as evidenced by ukuphuphumisa+wa -> ukuphuphunyiswa "to be made to overflow", instead of the illicit alternative, *ukuphutshunyiswa. In Haacke, Wilfrid and Elderkin, Edward Derek (eds. Impariamo insieme! Xhosa (/ks, kos/,[5][6][7] Xhosa pronunciation:[ksa]), formerly spelled Xosa and also known by its local name isiXhosa, is a Nguni language and one of the official languages of South Africa and Zimbabwe. The Xhosa number approximately 7.1-million, the majority of whom live in Eastern Cape, and ancient traditions remain strong in this proud people. A certain headdress will be a worn by a newly married girl, while a woman who has just given birth to her first child will wear a differently styled headdress. Both Xhosa and Zulu are an official languages in South Africa and Lesotho. Although vowel length distinguishes word meaning, the length is not represented in writing, except for and . Xhosa has a complex system of consonants, including some uncommon ones. [6] Dimmendaal (2008) summarized the general view with, "it has to be concluded that Greenberg's intuitions on the genetic unity of Khoisan could not be confirmed by subsequent research. Swahili, They are typologically very similar to the Kxa languages (below), but have not been demonstrated to be related to them genealogically (the similarities may be an areal feature). Subscribe using the form below to have all of my posts delivered directly to your email. The Kxa family is a relatively distant relationship formally demonstrated in 2010.[11]. (Let's learn together!). Total number of users in all countries is 19.2 million (. Elsewhere many bilingual Khoisan speakers have tended to shift rapidly to the dominant language, thus ceasing transmission of the mother tongue to children and leaving it to contract and die, sometimes quite abruptly. Tentative distribution of the Khoisan languages, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Khoisan-languages, Fu Jen Catholic University - Graduate School of Linguistics - The Khoisan Language Family. Marking of the plural number depends on the noun class. Start learning here! #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/EHxIRKzU37, RT @FIAFormulaE: The Rainbow Nation The word lives on, however, in the names of several African animal and plant species, such as the Hottentot Fig or Carpobrotus. But, as with any language, Xhosa had a rich history of oral traditions from which the society taught, informed, and entertained one another. A member of a Bantu people inhabiting the eastern part of Cape Province, South Africa. I will never give away, trade or sell your email address. The Tanzanian languages, Sandawe and Hadza, use only three basic clicks: |, , and !. magazines and newspapers in Xhosa, as well as TV and radio programmes, work in Xhosa was published in 1823. The name Khoisan derives from the name of the Khoikhoi (people people or real people) group of South Africa and the San (Bushmen) group of Namibia. As a result of this contact, the Xhosa people borrowed some Khoisan words along with their pronunciation, for instance, the click sounds of the Khoisan languages. Gwere, F https://t.co/s7IkqA9Utl, It feels good to have @KevinHart4real also known as Mpho here in Johannesburg, South Africa. Rafiki, the sagely mandrill chants Xhosa on The Lion King and its reboot. ", Commission for Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Community Rights, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Khoisan_languages&oldid=1132757639, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from July 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Ehret, Christopher. The majority of languages which contain clicks originate with the Khoisan languages. The original and unique use of clicks in the Khoisan languages has invited speculation that these unusual sounds might reflect an earlier stage in the evolution of language when sounds were natural vocal adaptations to the environment. Other languages have little more than 1,000 speakers while several are known to have become extinct. Mushungulu, Xhosa is rich in uncommon consonants. uku-sebenz-is-el + wa -> ukusetyenziselwa "be used for"), but does not affect morpheme-initial consonants (i.e. Emeritus Professor of African Studies; former Director, Institute for African Studies, University of Cologne. Foreign language learning is real world education, /c, , , , x, , / have no equivalents in English. #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/ncCaKrq4Fa, The Summit includes a Sustainability Village that aims to boost the local economy and power positive economic activ https://t.co/OEOnUXyWdU, Clareb accessories is your one stop shop for all things, unique earrings, necklaces, bracelets. 2. Like other Southern Bantu languages, Xhosa has borrowed words from the Khoisan languages, as well as from English and Afrikaans. Xhosa, derived from the Khoisan language, refers to "angry men." The majority of the South African languages that use tongue-clicking have roots in the indigenous Khoisan . While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. [13] There is a small but significant Xhosa community of about 200,000 in Zimbabwe. Xhosa has several dialects, including Mpondo (Pondo), Xesibe, Bomwana, Gaika, Gcaleka, Thembu, Mpondomise, Ndlambe (Ethnologue). As of 2003[update] approximately 5.3million Xhosa-speakers, the majority, live in the Eastern Cape, followed by the Western Cape (approximately 2million), Gauteng (671,045), the Free State (246,192), KwaZulu-Natal (219,826), North West (214,461), Mpumalanga (46,553), the Northern Cape (51,228), and Limpopo (14,225). Below are some common words and sentences in Xhosa. The Xhosa noun consists of two essential parts, the prefix and the stem. [12] It is the second most common Bantu home language in South Africa as a whole. Voiceless palatal plosive becomes voiced. Only a few consonants, such as /b/, /m/, /n/, /r/, and /l/ can appear between vowels, and even fewer can appear at the end of words. Nyemba, Planning a trip? They are now held to comprise three distinct language families and two language isolates. 1998. Xhosa, which is also known as Xosa or Koosa, is a clicking language. http://www.salanguages.com/isixhosa/xhowrd.htm [8] Despite their shared clicks, the Khoisan languages diverge significantly from each other. Subscribe to my newsletter to receive detailed travel guides, exclusive travel and language learning tips, priority access to giveaways and more! if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'omniglot_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_1',141,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-omniglot_com-medrectangle-4-0'); Download an alphabet chart for Xhosa (Excel). Sample basic vocabulary for Khoisan language families: On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Language use is quite strong among the 20,000 speakers of Naro,[clarification needed] half of whom speak it as a second language. [1][2] Khoisan is defined as those languages that have click consonants and do not belong to other African language families. The Xhosa people, or Xhosa-speaking people (/ k s , k o s /; Xhosa pronunciation: [ksa] ()) are a Nguni ethnic group whose traditional homeland is primarily the Cape Provinces of South Africa.They are the second largest ethnic group in Southern Africa and are native speakers of the IsiXhosa language. https://t.co/qATXK8AEqg, A room filled with great minds, sharing a valuable outlook on living the legacy of the @NelsonMandela Foundation. It is also The verb root occupies the 0 position. Because Xhosa and Zulu are both classed as Bantu languages, they are quite similar. Xhosa is spoken as a first language by 8.2 million people and by 11 million as a second language in South Africa, mostly in Eastern Cape Province and Transkei. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Punu, Planning a trip? Ernst Oswald Johannes Westphal is known for his early rejection of the Khoisan language family (Starostin 2003). Group of African language families with click consonants, "San language" redirects here. Learning materials, Information about the Xhosa language The phonology of Xhosa is characterized by a simple vowel inventory and a complex system of consonants. Maore, Learn more about the Khoisan language family on Ethnologue. Xhosa is a member of the Southeastern, or Nguni, subgroup of the Bantu group of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The South African Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts in Xhosa on both radio (on Umhlobo Wenene FM) and television, and films, plays and music are also produced in the language. The Xhosa themselves are somewhat ambivalent about the use of their language in education. The chart below (taken from Some elements of the structure of the Xhosa verb) shows some of the possible slots for prefixes and suffixes. 2000. Watch this video of Miriam Makebas singQongqothwane in Xhosa, also known as The Click Song. The best-known performer of Xhosa songs outside South Africa was Miriam Makeba, whose Click Song #1 (Xhosa Qongqothwane) and "Click Song #2" (Baxabene Ooxam) are known for their large number of click sounds. They are thought to have migrated to this region along the east coast of Africa and through central Africa. Nyakyusa, The sustainability village focused on boo https://t.co/BDeRnlGHot, Experience the most exciting electric street racing here in Cape Town as the world's best street racers battle. https://t.co/ZihxkpWwe7, Undoubtedly the best spots to experience unbridled views of the Mother City. 1998. 2. Languages Gulper/Khoisan Peoples/About World Languages/Wikipedia/The Week. South African Culture and Tradition Explored. are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another Interestingly, the word Xhosa is from the Khoisan language and means The angry men. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. They are marked with a raised //. The sociolinguistic story of the South African Khoesan languages is one of language death (Dorian 1989), and finds its place in the discussion of language death in Africa (Dimendaal 1989, Brenzinger 1992, Brenzinger et al. Ejective consonants How difficult is it to learn Xhosa? However, linguists who study Khoisan languages reject their unity, and the name "Khoisan" is used by them as a term of convenience without any implication of linguistic validity, much as "Papuan" and "Australian" are. Clicks They The Xhosas started facing serious trouble during the 18th and 19th Centuries when they engaged in frequent conflicts with the European settlers attempting to annex their native lands. A Beginners Guide Khoisan: Africas Clicking Languages. Some languages have become extinct and others are endangered. It has 18 click consonants (in comparison, Ju'hoan, spoken in Botswana and Namibia, has 48, and Taa, with roughly 4,000 speakers in Botswana, has 83). Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people. You can unsubscribe at any time. is that you can jump around their extensive library of topics and choose what you want to learn, when you want, and at your own pace. 1991). Consequently, the languages with the greatest numbers of consonants in the world are Khoisan. Proto-Central-Khoisan. Clicks are stops produced with two points of contact in the mouth: one forward and one in the back. The Khoisan (Khoesan) language family is the smallest of the language families of Africa. In Xhosa culture, women are easily recognised by their heavy dress, matching turban and coloured dots . Copyright 1995-2023 Southafrica.com. The following table lists the consonant phonemes of the language, with the pronunciation in IPA on the left and the orthography on the right: In addition to the ejective affricate [t], the spelling tsh may also be used for either of the aspirated affricates [ts] and [t]. http://www.gononda.com/xhosa/, Xhosa phrases Can you reproduce these click types? The majority of languages which contain clicks originate with the Khoisan languages. This distinctive linguistic characteristic was adopted by a number of neighbouring Bantu languages, such as Xhosa and Zulu in South Africa. Beadwork similar to the Ndebele is an integral aspect of Xhosa tradition. In, Honken, Henry. Total number of users in all countries is 19.2 million (Ethnologue). In Nguni. [12] It is the second most common Bantu home language in South Africa as a whole. Bulu, and is made by putting the tongue just behind the front teeth. Densely populated with uncommon consonants, Xhosa consists of the usual pulmonic egressive sounds (used in English), ejectives, 15 clicks and an implosive. Shona, Every single click in Miriam Makebas Click Song, which is in Xhosa, is a sound that was borrowed from a neighbouring language and swapped into existing words and not all that long ago, either. http://www.freelang.net/dictionary/xhosa.php I don't know, but I think you can compare them to Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. Hadza (Hatsa), one of the East African Khoisan languages, is a remarkable exception to this, having retained its vitality through a pattern of stable bilingualism with Swahili, the dominant Bantu language in the area. [3] Ethnically, their speakers are the Khoikhoi and the San (Bushmen). Kikuyu, . The word order is subjectverbobject, like in English. Xhosa is a Bantu language spoken in South Africa, mainly in the The spirits of those who have passed on are honoured in rituals and ceremonies. A Niger-Congo language and a member of the Bantu family (Nguni group), spoken by more than 5 million people in the south-eastern part of South Africa, most notably in Cape Province and Transkei; also known as isiXhosa. (Their numbers have been included under Nama above.) Tone, stress and vowel length are not indicated. / This term, now considered derogatory, means stutterer in Dutch. It is spoken by the Xhosa people in South Africa, and has around 8 million speakers. Please check your inbox to confirm your email. are about 8.2 million native speakers of Xhosa, and another 11 million Before the Bantu expansion, Khoisan languages, or languages like them, were likely spread throughout southern and eastern Africa. Xhosa beliefs dictate that people turn to a diviner or healer, usually attired in a headdress and shawl of fur, when needing advice on how to deal with the spirits, help with illnesses, or to ward off evil from unnatural forces such as thetokoloshe a potentially malevolent goblin who attacks at night. While palatalisation occurred historically, it is still productive, as is shown by palatalization before the passive suffix /-w/ and before diminutive suffix /-ana/. In, Khler, O. As a balance to consonant complexity, strict rules restrict clicks and most of the non-clicks to the beginning of a word being followed always by a vowel. In, Honken, Henry. A certain headdress will be a worn by a newly married girl, while a woman who has just given birth to her first child will wear a different, Xhosa beliefs recognise the presence of ancestral spirits and a supreme authority. Konjo, There are several places of articulation at which click consonants occur, as shown in the table below. Baucom, Kenneth L. 1974. Download your free PDF guide with 125 Italian travel phrases. This produces an audible noise. Xhosa has a Roman-based orthography which was developed by missionaries in the 19th century and adapted to represent the sounds of the language. Several radio stations and one TV station broadcast in Xhosa. The Khoisan languages ( / ksn /; also Khoesan or Khoesaan) are a number of African languages once classified together, originally by Joseph Greenberg. Omniglot is how I make my living. The ceremonial slaughtering of animals is one of the many ways by which ancestors are invoked. Xhosa is, to a large extent, mutually intelligible with Zulu and with other Nguni languages to a lesser extent. Digo, In, Treis, Yvonne. Fricatives become affricated and, if voiceless, they become ejectives as well: mf is pronounced [pf], ndl is pronounced [nd], n+hl becomes ntl [nt], n+z becomes ndz [ndz], n+q becomes [n] etc. (Reprints, with minor corrections, a series of eight articles published in the ''Southwestern Journal of Anthropology'' from 1949 to 1954. On commence, ce tour d'horizon des onze langues officielles en Afrique du Sud par le xhosa. They are known as the Saa by the Nama, and this is the source of the word San. . 2014 - 2023. Xhosa's click consonants were most likely borrowed from the Khoisan Southern Ndebele, Xhosa, Northern Ndebele (South Africa), Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Free State and Northern Cape. There are books, There is also the South Cushitic language Dahalo in Kenya, which has dental clicks in a few score words, and an extinct and presumably artificial Australian ritual language called Damin, which had only nasal clicks. Release of the forward closure results in a pop-like sound. [citation needed], Khoisan was proposed as one of the four families of African languages in Joseph Greenberg's classification (19491954, revised in 1963). The Xhosa comprise a number of clans such as Gcaleka, Ngika, Ndlambe, Dushane and the Qayi. Prenasalisation occurs in several contexts, including on roots with the class 9 prefix /iN-/, for example on an adjective which is feature-matching its noun: /iN- + / [int] "beautiful" (of a class 9 word like inja "dog"). The 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, however, have witnessed the death of many of the recorded languages and dialects, and their distribution is now largely confined to Botswana and Namibia. Tradues em contexto de "Khoisan" en portugus-ingls da Reverso Context : Palavras-chave: Khoisan; reconciliation; identity; narrative; communication. OshiWambo, Xhosa language, Xhosa formerly spelled Xosa, a Bantu language spoken by seven million people in South Africa, especially in Eastern province. #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/A4fSLf2jvP, Hello Cape Town http://www.southafricalogue.com/travel-tips/south-african-phrases-xhosa.html, Basaa, The linguistic use of clicks, whether original or borrowed, is restricted to these few African languages, with one exception: Damin. Xhosa nouns belong to 17 different classes, roughly based on semantic categories, e.g., there are classes for human beings, animals, plants, objects of various shapes, etc. 15000 characters left today. The basic clicks are four: dental (|), alveolar (! Besides pulmonic egressive sounds, which are found in all spoken languages, it has a series of ejective stops and one implosive stop. No change when the following consonant is itself a nasal. Thus their language is variously said to be extinct or to have 18,000 speakers, to be Ju or to be Khoe. isandla/izandla (hand/hands). sokwenza isenzo ongathanda ukuba senziwe kumzalwane wakho. Indeed, the use of the term 'Khoikhoi' meaning . second language speakers. ), Gldemann, Tom and Edward D. Elderkin (forthcoming) '. tsk! Click consonants can be modified in a variety of ways. Although all the Khoisan languages use click sounds, Sandawe and Hatsa are . Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Although little Kwadi data is available, proto-KhoeKwadi reconstructions have been made for pronouns and some basic vocabulary. Soga, The Xhosa language employs 26 letters from the Latin alphabet. The debate about these relationships remains a prominent feature in the linguistic study of Khoisan languages, and the disagreements that sustain it have never been satisfactorily resolved. This offer isnt available anywhere else! There is a series of six dental clicks, represented by the letter c, similar to the sound represented in English by "tut-tut" or "tsk-tsk"; a series of six alveolar lateral clicks, represented by the letter x, similar to the sound used to call horses; and a series of alveolar clicks, represented by the letter q, that sound somewhat like a cork pulled from a bottle. The Origins of the Xhosa Language The Xhosa Language has its roots in South Africa from an ethnic group known as the amaXhosa. Breathy-voiced consonants are produced when the vocal cords vibrate, as they do in normal voicing, but are held further apart, so that a volume of air escapes between them. The click consonant sounds are a typical and unique feature of the San and Khoikhoi languages. "Khoisan." See also Khoisan languages, which contains several audio clips. Aspiration is lost on obstruents; ejection is added on voiceless consonant. Lambya, However, not all noun classes can be so easily defined. The 15 clicks (which learners tend to battle with the most) are divided into three categories. "Comparison and Classification of Khoisan languages." For Black Panther, director Ryan Coogler "wanted to make it a priority to use Xhosa as much as possible" in the script, and provided dialect coaches for the film's actors. It is one of the eleven official languages of the Republic of South Africa. At present, Xhosa is used as the main language of instruction in many primary schools and some secondary schools, but is largely replaced by English after the early primary grades, even in schools mainly serving Xhosa-speaking communities. Choose your English to Xhosa translation service. In Xhosa, the verb "have" is represented by the word "nga" and its various forms. Of these languages, Xhosa, Zulu, Ndebele and Yeyi have intricate systems of click consonants; the others, despite the click in the name Gciriku, more rudimentary ones. Their language is often called the click language because of its three dominant clicks, which entered the isiXhosa language when the Nguni arrivals mixed with the Khoisan. Northern Ndebele (Zimbabwe), Xhosa has three basic clicks . ), Africa: Journal of the International African Institute. Omissions? Khoisan languages, a unique group of African languages spoken mainly in southern Africa, with two outlying languages found in eastern Africa. . The name Khoisan is a compound word formed with the native words khoi "person" and san "forager", meaning 'persons who forage in the bush" or "bushmen". Most have no written record. They are currently restricted to the Kalahari Desert, primarily in Namibia and Botswana, and to the Rift Valley in central Tanzania.[2]. The status of Xhosa, like all other African languages in the Republic of South Africa, is complex. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Ethnologue lists 27 Khoisan languages which are spoken by half a million people or less. The rest of the elements are placed to the left or to the right of the verb root. A bilabial click is a pop made by bringing the lips together and releasing them, just like the sound of a kiss. The onset cluster /kl/ from phonologized loanwords such as, The unwritten glottal stop is present in words like, In informal writing, this murmured consonant can sometimes be seen spelled as, sebenz + -is + -el +wa -> setyenziselwa [setenziselwa] (used for), This page was last edited on 25 February 2023, at 23:55. Believed to be the oldest of the four language families, it is the smallest of the four and is found mainly in Southern Africa. The /i/ vowel is long in the penultimate syllable and short in the last syllable.[16]. When consonants are prenasalised, their pronunciation and spelling may change. South Khoisan includes a couple of endangered and several extinct languages of the Kalahari Desert. Adjectives, possessive pronouns and demonstratives agree with the noun they modify in class and number. When aspirated clicks (ch, xh, qh) are prenasalised, the silent letter k is added (nkc, nkx, nkq) to prevent confusion with the nasal clicks nc, nx, nq, and are actually distinct sounds. You can unsubscribe at any time. Traill demonstrated this linguistic diversity in the data presented in the below table. #CapeTownEPrix We use the verb "have" to denote possession, ownership, and other related meanings. The following three are languages from the Khoe family, the Kxa family, and the Tuu family, respectively. These famous click sounds are found in Khoisan languages (alternative names include Khoesaan or Khoesan). They are not prenasalized, as can be seen in words such as , Incorrectly described as glottal clicks by, Last edited on 25 February 2023, at 23:55, "Xhosa alphabet, pronunciation and language", "South Africa Population grows to 44.8 Million", "Wakanda Is a Fake Country, but the African Language in 'Black Panther' is Real", Xhosa basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Xhosa_language&oldid=1141620598, [mp], [nt], [nt], [k], [n], [n], [n]. #VisitSouthAfrica https://t.co/xwXs0dxd2l, We've got you covered! In, Gldemann, Tom and Rainer Vossen. The red letters are orthographic representations of the sounds. The Bantu languages adopted the use of clicks from neighboring, displaced, or absorbed Khoisan populations (or from other Bantu languages), often through intermarriage, while the Dahalo are thought to have retained clicks from an earlier language when they shifted to speaking a Cushitic language; if so, the pre-Dahalo language may have been something like Hadza or Sandawe. Get her free guide 9 reasons youre not fluentYET & how to fix it! But this line of thinking has proved fruitless. #CapeTownEPrix women are easily recognised by their heavy dress, matching turban and coloured dots decorating their faces. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xhosa_language Mandekan, But those simple 5 clicks can add a lot to a sentence. [20] The Bantu ancestor of Xhosa did not have clicks, which attests to a strong historical contact with a Khoisan language that did. Genetically, the Hadza people are unrelated to the Khoisan peoples of Southern Africa, and their closest relatives may be among the Pygmies of Central Africa. However, some of the letters have a different pronunciation from English. Lozi, It is a national of Namibia, along with English and a number of other regional languages. Tonga, The pocket of air produced by the resulting enclosure is rarefied by the sucking action of the tongue. Xhosa is a tonal language with two inherent phonemic tones: low and high. Using the prefixes, nouns can be grouped into noun classes, which are numbered consecutively, to ease comparison with other Bantu languages. Those who speak this language typically form part of the ethnic group called the amaXhosa and refer to their language as isiXhosa. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Khoisan people appeared in southern Africa some 60,000 years ago. This produces something like the English tut-tut. Xhosa and Khoisan peoples. This ritual vocabulary of the Lardil of Australia contains some words with clicks together with other peculiar sounds, but the use of clicks is limited, and they have a symbolic value in addition to their linguistic function. Khoisan languages Bushman languages, also called San languages, loose grouping of languages that confusingly have been considered to be a separate group within the Khoisan languages. De Aar is the commercial center for the wool production and livestock farming industry in this semi-arid region of South Africa. secondary schools. for $0.07/word. Click here to claim your exclusive 30% discount. Grammatically, the southern Khoisan languages are generally analytic, having several inflectional morphemes, but not as many as the click languages of Tanzania. (Click here for an audio sample of the extinct !Ora language.)