Khoisan language

Khoisan
Khoesaan
(obsolete)
Geographic distribution	Kalahari Desert, central Tanzania
Linguistic classification	(term of convenience)
Subdivisions	Kwadi–Khoe Kx'a Tuu Sandawe
ISO 639-2 / 5
Glottolog	None
Map showing the distribution of the Khoisan languages (yellow)

The Khoisan languages (/ˈkɔɪsɑːn/; also Khoesan or Khoesaan) are a group of African languages originally classified together by Joseph Greenberg. Khoisan languages share click consonants and do not belong to other African language families. For much of the 20th century, they were thought to be genealogically related to each other, but this is no longer accepted. They now include languages from three distinct language families and two language isolates.

All Khoisan languages but two are indigenous to southern Africa and belong to three language families. The Khoi family appears to have migrated to southern Africa not long before the Bantu expansion. Ethnically, their speakers are the Khoikhoi and the San (Bushmen). Two languages of east Africa, those of the Sandawe and Hadza, originally were also classified as Khoisan, although their speakers are ethnically neither Khoikhoi nor San.

Before the Bantu expansion, Khoisan languages, or languages like them, were likely spread throughout southern and eastern Africa. They are currently restricted to the Kalahari Desert, primarily in Namibia and Botswana, and to the Rift Valley in central Tanzania.