| ǀXam | |
|---|---|
| ǀKham, ǀKhuai | |
 First line of "ǂKá̦gára" inǀXam language in W.H.I. Bleek and L. Lloyd, Specimens of Bushman folklore, 1911 | |
| Pronunciation | [ǀ͡xam]ⓘ |
| Native to | South Africa,Lesotho |
| Ethnicity | ǀXam-ka ǃʼē |
| Extinct | 1910s[citation needed] |
Tuu
| |
| transcribed inLatin script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xam |
xam.html | |
| Glottolog | xamm1241 |
ǀXam (pronounced[ǀ͡xam]ⓘ, in English as/ˈkɑːm/KAHM) is anextinct language (or possibly cluster of languages) from South Africa formerly spoken by the ǀXam-ka ǃʼē people. It is part of theǃUi branch of the Tuu languages and closely related to themoribundNǁng language. Much of the scholarly work on ǀXam was performed byWilhelm Bleek, a Germanlinguist of the 19th century, who studied a variety of ǀXam spoken at Achterveld, and (withLucy Lloyd) another spoken at Strandberg andKatkop while working withǁKabbo, Diaǃkwāin, ǀAǃkúṅta,ǃKweiten-ta-ǁKen, ǀHaṅǂkassʼō and other speakers.[1] The surviving corpus of ǀXam comes from the stories told by and vocabulary recorded from these individuals in the Bleek and Lloyd Collection.
The pipe at the beginning of the name "ǀXam" represents adental click, like the Englishinterjectiontsk, tsk! used to express pity or shame. The⟨x⟩ denotes avoiceless velar fricative click accompaniment.
Compared to other Khoisan languages, there is little variation in rendering the name, though it is sometimes seen with the simple orthographic variantǀKham, as well as a different grammatical form,ǀKhuai.
Güldemann (2019) lists the followingdoculects as being well-enough attested to identify as ǀXam.[2]
| Label | Researcher | Date | Origin | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nǀuusaa | Krönlein | 1850s | Lower Orange River | = D. Bleek label SVIa. |
| Nǀusa | Lloyd | 1880 | Middle Orange River | |
| ǀXam | W. Bleek | 1866 | Achterveld | = Bleek label SI. |
| ǀXam | W. Bleek/Lloyd | 1870s | Karoo (Strandberg-Katkop) | = Bleek label SI. |
| ǃUi | W. Bleek | 1857 | Colesberg | |
| ǃUi | W. Bleek | 1857 | Burghersdorp | |
| ǃUi | Lloyd | 1880 | Aliwal North |
Nǀusa is clearly ǀXam, but Güldemann includes the three eastern ǃUi doculects (extending to Lesotho) under the term "Wider ǀXam".[2]
Compared to other Tuu languages likeTaa, ǀXam has a more restricted inventory of consonants particularly the clicks, where there are only 8 series of click accompaniments, far fewer than East ǃXoon Taa's 18.[3] A preliminary consonant inventory of ǀXam, including egressive stops, fricatives, and affricates as well as ingressive clicks, is listed below.
The five vowel sounds are noted as[ieaou] and are found with nasalization[ĩẽãõũ], pharyngealization[ḭḛa̰o̰ṵ], and glottalization[iˀeˀaˀoˀuˀ].[4]
Bleek notes that particular animal figures in ǀXam mythology have distinctive speech patterns. For example, Tortoise substitutes clicks with labial non-clicks,Mongoose replaces clicks withts, tsy, ty, dy etc., and Jackal makes use of a "strange" labial click, "which bears to the ordinary labial click ʘ, a relation in sound similar to that which the palatal click ǂ bears to the cerebral click ǃ". The Moon, and perhaps Hare and Anteater, even use "a most unpronounceable" click in place of all clicks save the bilabial. Other changes noted include the Blue Crane's speech, who ends the first syllable of almost every word with a /t/.[5]
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ǀXam is used for theSouth African motto on thecoat of arms adopted on 27 April 2000:
The intended meaning isDiverse people unite or, on a collective scale,Unity in Diversity. The word-for-word translation ispeople who are different meet.[7] However, it is not known if that phrase would have beenidiomatic in ǀXam.[8] Because it is extinct, ǀXam is not one of thetwelve official languages of South Africa. Its last speakers died in the 1910s.[9]
