Khoi language
| Khoekhoe | |
|---|---|
| Khoekhoegowab | |
| Native to | Namibia, Botswana and South Africa |
| Region | Orange River, Great Namaland, Damaraland, Kalahari |
| Ethnicity | Khoekhoe, Nama, Damara, Haiǁom, Khoena |
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Native speakers
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±300,000 270 000 in Namibia, 30 000 South Africa and Botswana (2016) |
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Khoe
|
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| Dialects | |
| Official status | |
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Official language in
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National language in Namibia |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either: hgm – Haiǁom naq – Nama |
| Glottolog | nort3245 |
The distribution of the Khoekhoegowab in Namibia.
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| The Khoe language | |
|---|---|
| Person | Khoe-i |
| People | Khoekhoen |
| Language | Khoekhoegowab |
The Khoekhoe language /ˈkɔɪkɔɪ/, Khoekhoegowab, also known by the ethnic term Nama /ˈnɑːmə/ and formerly as Hottentot, is the most widespread of those non-Bantu languages of southern Africa that contain "click" sounds and have therefore been loosely classified as Khoisan. It belongs to the Khoe language family, and is spoken in Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa by three ethnic groups, the Nama, Damara, and Haiǁom. A smaller fraction of mostly Nama and Damara who fled the 1904-1908 Namibian War of National Resistance also speak the language in Botswana, while Khoena (previously Colored) are working hard to revive the language in South Africa.
It was thought that the Damara picked up the language along with the Nama in Botswana, and that they migrated to Namibia separately from the Nama, but later research showed that the Damara were already speaking a Khoekhoe language before their migration from Northern Botswana being the site of Proto-Khoe. Research also showed that the Damara dialects, more especially the Sesfontein dialect, is more closely linked to Kalahari Khoe languages and thus the Damrara could not have picked up the language from the Nama people. The Haiǁom, who had spoken a Juu language, later shifted to Khoekhoe. The name for Khoekhoegowab speakers, Khoekhoen, in English khoe is a "person", with reduplication and the suffix -n to indicate the plural. Georg Friedrich Wreede was the first European to study the language, after arriving in Cape Town in 1659.
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Wikipedia