Tsoa language

Tsoa
Hiechware, Kua, Cire-Cire
Spoken in	Botswana
Native speakers	7,300  (2000–2006)[1]
Language family	Khoe Kalahari (Tshu–Khwe) East Tsoa
Dialects	Hiechware Cua Cire Cire
Language codes
ISO 639-3	either: hio – Tsoa tyu – Kua
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Tsoa or Tshwa, also known as Kua and Hiechware, is a Khoe language spoken by about 9300 speakers in Botswana and Zimbabwe (Cook 2004).

Dialects

Tsoa–Kua is a dialect cluster.

• Tsoa, also known as Hiechware and as various other combinations of Hio-, Hie-, Hai- + Chwa, Tshwa, Chuwau, Tshuwau + -re, -ri; also as Sarwa, Sesarwa (the Tswana name), Gǁabake-Ntshori, Tati, and Kwe-Etshori Kwee

• Kua, also spelled Cua and Tyhua

• Cire Cire [tʃire tʃire]

Phonology

The Cire-cire dialect has the following consonant inventory:

Consonant phonemes of Tsoa

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Lateral	Post- alveolar	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal click		ᵑǀ	(ᵑǃ)	ᵑǁ	(ᵑǂ)
Oral click		ǀ ᶢǀ ǀʰ	(ǃ, ᶢǃ, ǃʰ)	ǁ ᶢǁ ǁʰ	(ǂ, ᶢǂ, ǂʰ)
Glottalized click		ǀˀ		ǁˀ
Affricate click		(ǀqχ)		(ǁqχ)
Nasal stop	m		n
Oral stop	p   b		t   d			k   ɡ	q	ʔ
Affricate			dz		tʃ   dʒ
Fricative			s   z		ʃ		χ
Approximant				l

The clicks have a very uneven distribution: Only a dozen words begin with one of the palatal clicks (ǂ), and these are replaced by dental clicks (ǀ) among younger speakers. Only half a dozen words start with one of the alveolar clicks (ǃ), and half a dozen more with one of the affricated clicks. These rather marginal sounds are placed in parentheses in the chart.

Tsoa has the five vowels /a e i o u/. It is not clear if Tsoa has long vowels, or simply sequences of identical vowels /aa ee ii oo uu/.

There are two tones, high and low, plus a few cases of mid tone.

External links

• Map of Tsoa language from the LL-Map Project
• Information on Tsoa language from the MultiTree Project
• The Ethnologue Report for Tsoa
• The Ethnologue Report for Kua

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