The Central Kalahari area with a focus on ǂHoan (Ju-ǂHoan family): Language contact and population genetics

1 Population relationships amongst Khoisan of Botswana
2 Documentation of ǂHoan with a focus on contact influences

2 Documentation of ǂHoan with a focus on contact influences

2.1 Introduction

• The project focuses on the documentation of ǂHoan and on its contact with neighboring languages
• ǂHoan is a highly endangered language spoken in Botswana at the southern fringe of the Kalahari desert; it belongs to the Ju-ǂHoan lineage
• Most of the speakers live in the villages of Motokwe, Khekhenye, Tswaane, Dutlwe, Salajwe, Mathibatsela; some more speakers are most probably scattered over other places around the area

• ǂHoan speakers live in mixed settlements with speakers of different ‘Khoisan’ languages (Gǀui and Taa) and speakers of Bantu languages
• Most speakers are trilingual in ǂHoan, Gǀui (Kalahari West Khoe), and Kgalagadi (Bantu, local lingua franca); one speaker is trilingual in ǂHoan, Taa, and Kgalagadi
• Not more than 60 speakers of ǂHoan, the youngest being about 40 years old
• Language no longer learned as L1, mother tongue of the majority of children is Kgalagadi
• So far only poorly documented; only a few papers on specific topics and unpublished material (Gruber 1975; Collins 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003; Batibo 1998, 2005)

2.2 Language contact

• Present contact situation involves two unequally sized groups, with Gǀui outnumbering ǂHoan and only ǂHoan speakers being bilingual
• Traill & Nakagawa (2000) also mention a historical contact situation between Gǀui and ǂHoan; according to Nakagawa (p.c.) this contact situation was presumably already historically asymmetrical with more ǂHoan speaking Gǀui as a second language than vice versa
• Traill & Nakagawa (2000) also report on the existence of borrowings from Gǀui into ǂHoan; they mention 10% of common items
• Existence of borrowings can be supported by our own data; comparison of lexical Gǀui data and ǂHoan material is in preparation
• Contact induced structural changes will be pursued as soon as sufficient data on all languages in contact is available; Gǀui data will be provided by our collaborator Hirosi Nakagawa
• Possible contact influence from Taa on ǂHoan is still subject to investigation; data on Taa will be provided by Tom Güldemann and Christfried Naumann who have a EuroBABEL documentation project on Taa

2.3 Documentation of ǂHoan

• Project aims on a grammatical description of ǂHoan with a focus on morphosyntax

2.3.1 Introduction to language structure

• Mostly analytic constructions
• Basic word order SVO, NPs are head-initial, possessive constructions are head final
• Verbs are syntactically either intransitive or transitive
• The MPO marker kì (=multi-purpose-oblique, (Güldemann & Vossen 2000)) marks adjuncts (cf. (1))

(1)	àm	dyéé	yà	sùùn	ārīǁáqí	kì	zòò
	1SG	mother	PROG	give	woman	MPO	water
	‘My mother is giving water to the woman.’
	(elicited)

• Frequent use of verbal compounds/serial verb constructions

(2)	ts'āā	tyī	ǁùì	tsáá	ǃ'áú
	sun	DEM	pass	come	drop
	‘(…) until the sun sets’
	(narrative)

• Complex click inventory with five click sounds (ǀ ǁ ǃ ǂ ʘ) and about 13 different accompaniments
• tone language; analysis in progress, i.e. we are currently working on investigating tonal patterns as a means of determining the number of tonal distinctions
• The following presents a short overview over a more detailed analysis of possessive constructions

2.3.2 Possessive constructions

• The morphological marking of possessive constructions is organized along an alienable – inalienable distinction
• Alienable nouns are marked by the possessive marker sì (cf. 3a) between dependent and head, inalienable nouns occur either in juxtaposition (cf. 3b) or are marked by kí between dependent and head (cf. 3c)

(3)	a.	ārīǁáqí	sì	pūlwānē		b.	dyāqm̄sì	gǂóqàm
		woman	POSS	brick			child	navel
		‘the woman’s brick’					‘the child’s navel’
	c.	ǀ''óón	kí	dyòqbà
		tree	POSS	leaf
		‘the tree’s leaf’
		(elicited)

• Within the group of kí marked nouns the kí marker occurs in one subgroup of constructions with both, singular and plural marked head nouns, in the other subgroup the kí marker is only present with plural marked head nouns (cf. (4) and (5))

(4)	a.	ǀ''óón	kí	dyòqbà		b.	ǀ''óón	qa	kí	dyòqbà	(qà)
		tree	POSS	leaf			tree	PL	POSS	leaf	PL
		‘the leaf of the tree’					‘the leaves of the trees’
		(elicited)
(5)	a.	kátsè	ǃ''óón			b.	kátsè	qà	kí	ǃ''óón	qà
		cat	heart				cat	PL	POSS	heart	PL
		‘the cat’s heart’					‘the hearts of the cats’
		(elicited)

• The table shows the head nouns sorted by the type of marking and the semantic field, words in small caps indicate that these words appear in different groups of marking

References

Batibo, H. 1998. "The fate of the minority languages in Botswana." In Matthias Brenzinger (ed.), Endangered languages in Africa, 267–284. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.

Batibo, H. 2005. "ǂHua: a critically endangered Khoesan language in the Kweneng District of Botswana." In Nigel Crawhall & Nicholas Ostler (eds.), Creating outsiders: endangered languages, migration and marginalisation, 87-93. Stellenbosh: Fondation for Endangered Languages.

Collins, C. 1998. "Plurality in ǂHoan." Khoisan Forum, Working Papers 9.

Collins, C. 2001. "Aspects of Plurality in ǂHoan." Language 77, 3. 456–476.

Collins, C. 2002. "Multiple Verb Movement in ǂHoan." Linguistic Inquiry 33, 1. 1–29.

Collins, C. 2003. "The internal structure of vP in Ju|'hoansi and Hoan." Studia Linguistica 57, 1. 1–25.

Gruber, J. S. 1975. "Plural predicates in ǂHòã." Bushmen and Hottentot Linguistics Studies. 1-50.

Güldemann, T. & Vossen R. 2000. "Khoisan." In Bernd Heine & Derek Nurse (eds.), African languages: An introduction, 99–122.

Traill, A. & H. Nakagawa. 2000. "A historical !Xóõ-ǀGui contact zone: Linguistic and other relations." In Herman M. Batibo and Joseph Tsonope (eds.), The state of Khoesan languages in Botswana, pp. 1-17. Mogoditshane and Gaborone: Tasalls Publishing.