Juǀʼhoansi

Juǀʼhoan
Zuǀʼhõasi
Spoken in	Namibia, Botswana
Region	near border with Angola
Native speakers	35,000  (date missing)
Language family	Kx'a !Kung Southeastern Juǀʼhoan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ktz
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Juǀʼhoan (also called Zhuǀʼhõasi, Dzuǀʼoasi, Zû-ǀhoa, JuǀʼHoansi) is a southern variety of the !Kung dialect continuum spoken by about 30,000 people in the northeast of Namibia and by another 5,000 in the Northwest District of Botswana. Four regional (sub)dialects are distinguished: Epukiro, Tsumkwe, Rundu, and Omatako, with Tsumkwe being the best described.

Phonetics

Juǀʼhoan has four tones.

There are five vowel qualities, /i e a o u/. However, these may be nasalized, glottalized, murmured, or combinations of these, and most of these possibilities occur both long and short. The qualities /a/ and /o/ may also be pharyngealized and strident (epiglottalized). Thus, there are a good 30 vowel phonemes, perhaps more, depending on one's analysis. There are, in addition, many vowel sequences and diphthongs.

Juǀʼhoan has an unusually large number of consonants. The following occur at the beginnings of roots. For brevity, only the alveolar clicks are listed with the other consonants; the complete set of clicks is found below.

		Labial	Alveolar		Postalveolar /Palatal	Velar	Corresponding Click	Glottal
Nasal	voiced	m	n			ŋ	ᵑǃ
	murmured	(mʱ)					ᵑǃʱ
	aspirated						ᵑ̊ǃʰ
Plosive	voiced	b	d	dz	dʒ	ɡ	ᶢǃ
	tenuis	p	t	ts	tʃ	k	ǃ	(ʔ)
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	tsʰ	tʃʰ	kʰ	ǃʰ
	breathy voiced	bʱ	dʱ	dsʱ	dʃʱ	ɡʱ	ᶢǃʱ
	glottalized		tsʼ		tʃʼ	kxʼ	ǃˀ
	voiced ɡlottalized		dzʼ, dsʼ		dʒʼ, dʃʼ
	uvularized		tᵡ				ǃᵡ
	voiced uvularized		dᵡ	dzᵡ	dʒᵡ		ᶢǃʶ
	epiglottalized		tʜ			kʜ	ǃʜ
	voiced epiglottalized					ɡʢ	ᶢǃʢ
Fricative	voiced		z		ʒ			ɦ
	voiceless	(f)	s		ʃ	χ

Tenuis and voiced consonants (blue) may occur with any vowel quality. However, other consonants (grey, transcribed with a superscript diacritic to their right) do not occur in the same root as murmured, glottalized, or epiglottalized vowels.

The phonemic status of [ʔ], [dz] and [dʒ] is uncertain. [ʔ] may be epenthetic before vowel-initial words; alternatively, it may be that no word may begin with a vowel. /mʱ/ occurs only in a single morpheme, the plural diminutive enclitic /mʱi/. /f/ and /l/ (not shown) only occur in loan words, and some accounts posit a /j/ and /w/. Labials (/p, pʰ, b, bʱ, m/) are very rare initially, though common between vowels. Velar stops (oral and nasal) are rare initially and very rare medially.

The consonants listed as epiglottalized, following Miller-Ockhuizen (2003), have uvular frication and glottalization; they are similar to consonants in Nǀuu described as uvular ejective by Miller et al. (2009).

Only a small set of consonants occur between vowels within roots. These are:

Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
β̞	ɾ	ɣ
m	n	ŋ
		k, ŋk	kʜ
			χ	ɦ

Medial [β̞, ɾ, m, n] (green) are very common; [ɣ, ŋ] are rare, and the other medial consonants occur in only a very few roots, many of them loans. [β̞, ɾ, ɣ] are generally analyzed as allophones of /b, d, ɡ/. However, [ɾ] especially may correspond to multiple root-initial consonants.

Juǀʼhoan has 48 click consonants. There are four releases: dental, lateral, alveolar, and palatal. There are twelve accompaniments. These are perfectly normal consonants in Juǀʼhoan, and indeed are preferred over non-clicks in word-initial position.

affricated clicks		'sharp' clicks		accompaniment
dental	lateral	alveolar	palatal
ǀ	ǁ	ǃ	ǂ	Tenuis
ᶢǀ	ᶢǁ	ᶢǃ	ᶢǂ	Voiced
ᵑǀ	ᵑǁ	ᵑǃ	ᵑǂ	Nasal
ǀʰ	ǁʰ	ǃʰ	ǂʰ	Aspirated
ᶢǀʱ	ᶢǁʱ	ᶢǃʱ	ᶢǂʱ	Murmured
ᵑ̊ǀʰ	ᵑ̊ǁʰ	ᵑ̊ǃʰ	ᵑ̊ǂʰ	Aspirated nasal
ᵑǀʱ	ᵑǁʱ	ᵑǃʱ	ᵑǂʱ	Murmured nasal
ǀˀ	ǁˀ	ǃˀ	ǂˀ	Glottalized (perhaps w nasal accompaniment)
ǀᵡ	ǁᵡ	ǃᵡ	ǂᵡ	Uvularized
ᶢǀʶ	ᶢǁʶ	ᶢǃʶ	ᶢǂʶ	Voiced uvularized
ǀʜ	ǁʜ	ǃʜ	ǂʜ	Epiglottalized
ᶢǀʢ	ᶢǁʢ	ᶢǃʢ	ᶢǂʢ	Voiced epiglottalized

Glottalized clicks occur almost exclusively before nasal vowels. This may indicate that these clicks are nasalized [ᵑǃˀ] etc, as is the case in most if not all other languages with glottalized clicks. The nasalization would not be audible during the click itself due to the glottalization, which would prevent any nasal airflow, but the velum would be lowered, potentially nasalizing following vowels.

Orthography

In the 1960s the South African Department of Education set about establishing official orthographies for the languages of Southwest Africa (Namibia). Jan Snyman was selected to develop an orthography for the then-unwritten Juǀʼhoasi, which was accepted in 1969. In this orthography, the name of the language is spelled Žuǀʼhõasi. A slightly modified form (Snyman 1975) is shown below.

In the 1980s the Bible Society of South Africa requested a new orthography, one which used only letters of the Latin alphabet, avoided diacritics as much as possible, and conformed as much as possible to the conventions of Afrikaans. This second orthography was accepted in 1987, in which the language is spelled Zjuc'hôa.

A third orthography was developed by the Ju|wa Bushman Development Foundation in 1994. The three are compared with the IPA below. Tone is evidently unmarked:

Three Juǀʼhoan orthographies

	Labial plosives				Alveolar plosives				Velar plosives				Alveolar affricates					Postalveolar affricates
IPA	[b]	[p]	[bʱ]	[pʰ]	[d]	[t]	[dʱ]	[tʰ]	[ɡ]	[k]	[ɡʱ]	[kʰ]	[ts]	[dsʱ]	[tsʰ]	[ds’]	[ts’]	[tʃ]	[dʃʱ]	[tʃʰ]	[dʃ’]	[tʃ’]	[kx’]
1975	b	p	bh	ph	d	t	dh	th	g	k	gh	kh	ts	dsh	tsh	ds’	ts’	tš	dšh	tšh	dš’	tš’	kx’
1994																ds	tz	tc	dch	tch	dc	tj	kx
1987									gh		’gh					ds’	ts’	tj	djh	tjh	dj’	tj’	kg

	Hetero-organic affricates							Fricates							Nasals		Syllabic Nasals				Approximants
IPA	[dʶ]	[tᵡ]	[tʜ]	[dzʶ]	?	[dʒʶ]	?	[z]	[s]	[ʒ]	[ʃ]	[χ]	[h]	[ɽ]	[m]	[n]	[m̩]	[ŋ̍]	[m̰]	[m̤]	[j]	[w]
1975	dx	tx	tx’	dzx	tsx	dx	tx	z	s	ž	š	x	h	r	m	n	m	ng	m̭	mh	y	w
1994			tk			djx	tcx			j	c								mq
1987	dg	tg	tg’	-	tsg	djg	tjg			zj	sj	g							m̹

	Dental clicks												Alveolar clicks
IPA	[ᶢǀ]	[ǀ]	[ᶢǀʱ]	[ǀʰ]	[ǀˀ]	[ᵑ̊ǀʰ]	[ᵑǀ]	[ᵑǀʱ]	[ᶢǀʶ]	[ǀᵡ]	[ᶢǀʢ]	[ǀʜ]	[ᶢǃ]	[ǃ]	[ᶢǃʱ]	[ǃʰ]	[ǃˀ]	[ᵑ̊ǃʰ]	[ᵑǃ]	[ᵑǃʱ]	[ᶢǃʶ]	[ǃᵡ]	[ᶢǃʢ]	[ǃʜ]
1975	gǀ	ǀ	gǀh	ǀh	ǀ’	ǀ’h	nǀ	nǀ’h	gǀx	ǀx	gǀx’	ǀx’	gǃ	ǃ	gǃh	ǃh	ǃ’	ǃ’h	nǃ	nǃ’h	gǃx	ǃx	gǃx’	ǃx’
1994								nǀh			gǀk	ǀk								nǃh			gǃk	ǃk
1987	gc	c	dch	ch	c’	c’h	nc	nch	dcg	cg	dcg’	cg’	gq	q	dqh	qh	q’	q’h	nq	nqh	dqg	cq	dqg’	cq’

	Palatal clicks												Lateral clicks
IPA	[ᶢǂ]	[ǂ]	[ᶢǂʱ]	[ǂʰ]	[ǂˀ]	[ᵑ̊ǂʰ]	[ᵑǂ]	[ᵑǂʱ]	[ᶢǂʶ]	[ǂᵡ]	[ᶢǂʢ]	[ǂʜ]	[ᶢǁ]	[ǁ]	[ᶢǁʱ]	[ǁʰ]	[ǁˀ]	[ᵑ̊ǁʰ]	[ᵑǁ]	[ᵑǁʱ]	[ᶢǁʶ]	[ǁᵡ]	[ᶢǁʢ]	[ǁʜ]
1975	gǂ	ǂ	gǂh	ǂh	ǂ’	ǂ’h	nǂ	nǂ’h	gǂx	ǂx	gǂx’	ǂx’	gǁ	ǁ	gǁh	ǁh	ǁ’	ǁ’h	nǁ	nǁ’h	gǁx	ǁx	gǁx’	ǁx’
1994								nǂh			gǂk	ǂk								nǁh			gǁk	ǁk
1987	gç	ç	dçh	çh	ç’	ç’h	nç	nçh	dçg	çg	dçg’	çg’	gx	x	—*	xh	x’	x’h	nx	nxh	dxg	cx	dxg’	cx’

	Plain vowels					Pressed vowels		Nasal vowels				Pressed Nasal vowels
IPA	[i]	[e]	[a, ə]	[o]	[u]	[aˤ]	[oˤ]	[ĩ]	[ã]	[õ]	[ũ]	[ãˤ]	[õˤ]
1975	i	e	a	o	u	a̭	o̭	ĩ	ã	õ	ũ	ã̭	õ̭
1994						aq	oq	in	an	on	un	aqn	oqn
1987			a, e			a̹	o̹	î	â	ô	û	â̹	ô̹

The 1994 orthography also has ih, eh, ah, oh, uh for breathy (murmured) vowels, and ihn, ahn, ohn, uhn for breathy nasal vowels. However, Snyman maintains that these are positional variants of low-tone vowels, and not needed in an orthography.

One of the clicks (*) is not attested.

Bibliography

• Dickens, Patrick J. (2005) A Concise Grammar of Ju|’hoan With a Ju|’hoan-English Glossary and a Subject Index, ISBN 978-3-89645-145-3, Rüdiger Köppe Verlag: Köln.
• Miller-Ockhuizen, Amanda (2003) The phonetics and phonology of gutturals: case study from Ju/'hoansi. Psychology Press.
• Snyman, Jan W. (1975) Zuǀʼhõasi Fonologie en Woordeboek. Cape Town: AA Balkema.
• Snyman, Jan W. (1983) 'Zuǀʼhõasi, a Khoisan Dialect of South West Africa/Namibia', in Dihoff, Ivan R. (ed.) Current Approaches to African Linguistics Vol 1, 115–125.
• Snyman, Jan W. (1997) 'A preliminary classification of the ǃXũũ and Zuǀʼhõasi Dialects', in Haacke, W.H.G. & Elderkin, E.D. (eds.) Namibian Languages: Reports and Papers. (Namibian African Studies, 4). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe, 21–106.
• Snyman, Jan W. (n.d.) An Official Orthography for Žu|'hõasi Kokx'oi. Pretoria.

Films

• 1980 - The Gods Must Be Crazy
• 2003 - Journey of Man

External links

• Map of Juhoan language from the LL-Map Project
• Juǀʼhoan sound files at Cornell
• Ethnologue Report for Juǀʼhoan