| Tuu | |
|---|---|
| ǃUi–Taa Southern Khoisan (obsolete) | |
| Geographic distribution | South Africa andBotswana |
| Linguistic classification | One of the world's primarylanguage families (Khoisan is a term of convenience) |
| Subdivisions |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | tuuu1241 |
 Historic range of Tuu languages in pink | |
TheTuu languages, orTaa–ǃKwi (Taa–ǃUi,ǃUi–Taa,Kwi)languages, are alanguage family consisting of twolanguage clusters spoken inBotswana andSouth Africa. The relationship between the two clusters is not doubted, but is distant. The nameTuu comes from a word common to both branches of the family for "person".
The ancestor of Tuu languages, Proto-Tuu, was presumably also spoken in or around theKalahari desert, as a word for thegemsbok (*!hai) is reconstructable to Proto-Tuu.[1]
There is evidence of substantial borrowing of words between Tuu languages and other Khoisan languages, including basic vocabulary.Khoekhoe in particular is thought to have a Tuu (ǃKwi-branch) substrate.[2]
Examples of borrowings fromKhoe into Tuu include 'chest' (ǃXóõgǁúu from Khoe*gǁuu) and 'chin' (Nǁnggǃann from Khoe*ǃann).[3] A root for 'louse' shared by some Khoe and Tuu languages (ǁxóni~kx'uni~kx'uri) has been suggested as deriving from a 'pre-Tuu/pre-Khoe substrate'.[4]
The Tuu languages are not demonstrably related to any other language family, though they do share many similarities to the languages of theKxʼa family. This is generally thought to be due to thousands of years ofcontact and mutual influence (asprachbund), but some scholars believe that the two families may eventually prove to be related.
The Tuu languages were once accepted as a branch of the now-obsoleteKhoisan language family, and in that conception were calledSouthern Khoisan.
The languages and their relationships are thought to be as follows. In several places there is not enough data to distinguish language from dialect:[5]
TheǃKwi (ǃUi) branch of South Africa is moribund, with only one language extant,Nǁng, and that with only one elderly speaker. ǃKwi languages were once widespread across South Africa; the most famous,ǀXam, was the source of the modernnational motto of that nation,ǃkeeːǀxarraǁke.
TheTaa branch of Botswana is more robust, though it also has only one surviving language,ǃXóõ, with 2,500 speakers.
Because many of the Tuu languages became extinct with little record, there is considerable confusion as to which of their many names represented separate languages or even dialects. The term "Vaal–Orange" was once used for ǂUngkue (formerly spoken at the confluence of theVaal andOrange Rivers) combined with several of the Eastern lects, which have since been separated.
There were presumably additional Tuu languages.Westphal studied a Taa variety variously renderedǀŋamani, ǀnamani, Ngǀamani, ǀŋamasa. It is apparently now extinct.Bleek recorded another now-extinct variety, which she labeled 'S5', in the town of Khakhea; it is known in the literature asKakia. Another in the Nossop area (labeled 'S4a') is known asXaitia, Khatia, Katia, Kattea.Vaalpens,ǀKusi, andǀEikusi evidently refer to the same variety as Xatia. Westphal (1971) lists them both as Nǀamani dialects, though Köhler lists only Khatia and classifies it as ǃKwi.
The Tuu languages, along with neighboringǂʼAmkoe, are known for being the only languages in the world to havebilabial clicks as distinctive speech sounds (apart from the extinct ritualjargonDamin of northernAustralia, which was not anyone'smother tongue). Taa, ǂʼAmkoe and neighboringGǀui (of theKhoe family) form asprachbund with the most complex inventories ofconsonants in the world, and among the more complex inventories ofvowels. All languages in these three families also havetone.