Juǀʼhoan language

Juǀʼhoan (English: /ˈdʒuːtwæn/ JOO-twan, Juǀʼhoan: [ʒuᵑ̊ǀʰwã]), also known as Southern or Southeastern ǃKung or ǃXun, is the southern variety of the ǃKung dialect continuum, spoken in northeastern Namibia and the Northwest District of Botswana by San Bushmen who largely identify themselves as Juǀʼhoansi. Several regional dialects are distinguished: Epukiro, Tsumǃkwe, Rundu, Omatako and ǂKxʼauǁʼein, with Tsumǃkwe being the best described and often taken as representative.

Juǀʼhoan
South(eastern) ǃXun / Ju
A Juǀʼhoan speaker, recorded in Namibia.
Native to	Namibia, Botswana
Region	near border with Angola
Ethnicity	Juǀʼhoansi
Native speakers	4,000 (2003)
Language family	Kxʼa ǃKung Juǀʼhoan
Dialects	ǂKxʼauǁʼein
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ktz
Glottolog	juho1239
ELP	Ju|'hoan

Name

The name Juǀʼhoan (in the plural: Juǀʼhoansi) is also rendered Žuǀʼhõa – or occasionally Zhuǀʼhõa or Dzuǀʼhõa, depending on orthography. Depending on the classification, it is considered the Southern or Southeastern variety of the ǃKung (also rendered ǃXun) language cluster. It may thus be referred to as Southern ǃKung, Southeastern ǃXun, etc. Juǀʼhoan is based on the word ju 'people', which is also applied to the language cluster. (see ǃKung languages for variants of those names).

Phonology

Vowels

	Oral vowels		Nasal vowels
	Front	Back	Front	Back
Close	i	u	ĩ	ũ
Close-mid	e	o	ẽ	õ
Open	a		ã

• When a front vowel /e/ or /i/ follows a consonant with a back vowel constraint (e.g. clicks with uvular articulation), an [ə] is inserted before the front vowel, written 'a' in the orthography. For example, mi |'ae (myself) reads /mi |'əe/.
• The diphthong /oa/ may be realized as [wa].

Juǀʼhoan has five vowel qualities, which may be nasalized, glottalized, murmured, or combinations of these, and most of these possibilities occur both long and short. The qualities /a/ and /o/ may also be pharyngealized and strident (epiglottalized). Besides, it is a tonal language with four tones: very high, high, low and very low tones. Thus, there are a good 30 vowel phonemes, perhaps more, depending on one's analysis. There are, in addition, many vowel sequences and diphthongs.

Consonants

Juǀʼhoan has an unusually large number of consonants, as typical for ǃKung. The following occur at the beginnings of roots. For brevity, only the alveolar clicks are listed with the other consonants; the complete set of clicks is found below.

		Labial	Alveolar		Postalveolar /Palatal	Velar	Corresponding Click	Glottal
Nasal	voiced	m	n			ŋ	ᵑǃ
	murmured	(mʱ)					ᵑǃʱ
	aspirated						ᵑ̊ǃʰ
Plosive	voiced	b	d	dz	dʒ	ɡ	ᶢǃ
	tenuis	p	t	ts	tʃ	k	ᵏǃ	(ʔ)
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	tsʰ	tʃʰ	kʰ	ᵏǃʰ
	prevoiced aspirated	b͡pʰ	d͡tʰ	d͡tsʰ	d͡tʃʰ	ɡ͡kʰ	ᶢᵏǃʰ
	ejective / glottalized		tsʼ		tʃʼ	kxʼ	ᵑǃˀ
	prevoiced ejective		d͡tsʼ		d͡tʃʼ
	uvularized		tᵡ				ᵏǃᵡ
	prevoiced uvularized		d͡tᵡ	d͡tsᵡ	d͡tʃᵡ		ᶢᵏǃᵡ
	uvular-ejected		tᵡʼ			kᵡʼ	ᵏǃᵡʼ
	prevoiced uvular-ejected					ɡ͡kᵡʼ	ᶢᵏǃᵡʼ
Fricative	voiced		z		ʒ			ɦ
	voiceless	(f)	s		ʃ	χ

Tenuis and modally voiced consonants (blue) may occur with any vowel quality. However, other consonants (grey, transcribed with a superscript diacritic to their right) do not occur in the same root as murmured, glottalized, or epiglottalized vowels.

The prevoiced aspirated and ejective consonants, both pulmonic and clicks, contain a voiceless interval, which Miller (2003) attributes to a larger glottal opening than is found in Hindustani breathy-voiced consonants. Phonetically, however, they are voice contours, starting out voiced but becoming voiceless for the aspiration or ejection.

The phonemic status of [ʔ], [dz] and [dʒ] is uncertain. [ʔ] may be epenthetic before vowel-initial words; alternatively, it may be that no word may begin with a vowel. /mʱ/ occurs only in a single morpheme, the plural diminutive enclitic /mʱi/. /f/ and /l/ (not shown) only occur in loan words, and some accounts posit a /j/ and /w/. Labials (/p, pʰ, b, b͡pʰ, m/) are very rare initially, though β̞ is common between vowels. Velar stops (oral and nasal) are rare initially and very rare medially.

The uvulo-ejective consonants are analyzed as epiglottalized in Miller-Ockhuizen (2003). They have uvular frication and glottalization, and are similar to consonants in Nǀu described as uvular ejective by Miller et al. (2009). Their epiglottal character may be a phonetic consequence of the raised larynx involved in making them ejective.

Only a small set of consonants occur between vowels within roots. These are:

Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
β̞	ɾ	ɣ
m	n	ŋ
		k, ᵑk	q͡χʼ
			χ	ɦ

Medial [β̞, ɾ, m, n] (green) are very common; [ɣ, ŋ] are rare, and the other medial consonants occur in only a very few roots, many of them loans. [β̞, ɾ, ɣ] are generally analyzed as allophones of /b, d, ɡ/. However, [ɾ] especially may correspond to multiple root-initial consonants.

Juǀʼhoan has 48 click consonants. There are four click "types": dental, lateral, alveolar, and palatal, each of which found in twelve series or "accompaniments" (combinations of manner, phonation, and contour). These are perfectly normal consonants in Juǀʼhoan, and indeed are preferred over non-clicks in word-initial position.

'noisy' clicks		'sharp' clicks		series
dental	lateral	alveolar	palatal
ᵏǀ	ᵏǁ	ᵏǃ	ᵏǂ	Tenuis
ᶢǀ	ᶢǁ	ᶢǃ	ᶢǂ	Voiced
ᵑǀ	ᵑǁ	ᵑǃ	ᵑǂ	Nasal
ᵏǀʰ	ᵏǁʰ	ᵏǃʰ	ᵏǂʰ	Aspirated
ᶢᵏǀʰ	ᶢᵏǁʰ	ᶢᵏǃʰ	ᶢᵏǂʰ	Pre-voiced aspirated
ᵑ̊ǀʰ	ᵑ̊ǁʰ	ᵑ̊ǃʰ	ᵑ̊ǂʰ	Aspirated nasal
ᵑǀʱ	ᵑǁʱ	ᵑǃʱ	ᵑǂʱ	Murmured nasal
ᵑǀˀ	ᵑǁˀ	ᵑǃˀ	ᵑǂˀ	Glottalized nasal
ᵏǀᵡ	ᵏǁᵡ	ᵏǃᵡ	ᵏǂᵡ	Linguo-pulmonic contour
ᶢᵏǀᵡ	ᶢᵏǁᵡ	ᶢᵏǃᵡ	ᶢᵏǂᵡ	Voiced linguo-pulmonic
ᵏǀᵡʼ	ᵏǁᵡʼ	ᵏǃᵡʼ	ᵏǂᵡʼ	Epiglottalized (heterorganic contour)
ᶢǀᵡʼ	ᶢǁᵡʼ	ᶢǃᵡʼ	ᶢǂᵡʼ	Voiced epiglottalized

As above, tenuis and modally voiced consonants (blue) may occur with any vowel quality. However, other consonants (grey, transcribed with a superscript diacritic to their right) do not occur in the same root as murmured, glottalized, or epiglottalized vowels.

Glottalized clicks occur almost exclusively before nasal vowels. This suggests they are nasalized, as in most if not all other languages with glottalized clicks. The nasalization would not be audible during the click itself due to the glottalization, which would prevent any nasal airflow, but the velum would be lowered, potentially nasalizing adjacent vowels.

The 'uvularized' clicks are actually linguo-pulmonic contours, [ǃ͡qχ], etc. The 'uvulo-ejective' clicks are heterorganic affricates, and equivalent to linguo-glottalic consonants transcribed [ǃ͡kxʼ], etc., in other languages (Miller 2011).

See Ekoka ǃXung for a related variety with a somewhat larger click inventory.

Orthographic history

Juǀʼhoan is the only variety of ǃKung to be written. Three orthographies have been used over the past half century, two based on pipe letters for clicks and one using only the basic Latin alphabet.

In the 1960s, the South African Department of Education set about establishing official orthographies for the languages of Southwest Africa (Namibia). Jan Snyman was selected to develop an orthography for the then-unwritten Juǀʼhoasi, which was accepted in 1969. In this orthography, the name of the language is spelled Žuǀʼhõasi. A slightly modified form (Snyman 1975) is shown below.

In the 1980s, the Bible Society of South Africa requested a new orthography, one that used only letters of the Latin alphabet, avoided diacritics as much as possible, and conformed as much as possible to the conventions of Afrikaans. This second orthography was accepted in 1987, in which the language is spelled Zjuc'hôa.

A third orthography was developed by the Juǀwa Bushman Development Foundation in 1994. This is the orthography that is currently in use in Namibia; there does not seem to be any publication in Botswana.

The three orthographies, along with the IPA, are compared below. Tone is evidently unmarked.

Comparison of Juǀʼhoan orthographies

	Labial plosives				Alveolar plosives				Velar plosives				Alveolar affricates					Postalveolar affricates
IPA	[b]	[p]	[b͡pʰ]	[pʰ]	[d]	[t]	[d͡tʰ]	[tʰ]	[ɡ]	[k]	[ɡ͡kʰ]	[kʰ]	[ts]	[d͡tsʰ]	[tsʰ]	[d͡tsʼ]	[tsʼ]	[tʃ]	[d͡tʃʰ]	[tʃʰ]	[d͡tʃʼ]	[tʃʼ]	[kxʼ]
1994–present	b	p	bh	ph	d	t	dh	th	g	k	gh	kh	ts	dsh	tsh	ds	tz	tc	dch	tch	dc	tj	kx
1975–1987																dsʼ	tsʼ	tš	dšh	tšh	dšʼ	tšʼ	kxʼ
1987–1994									gh		ʼgh							tj	djh	tjh	djʼ	tjʼ	kg

	Hetero-organic affricates							Fricates							Nasals		Syllabic Nasals				Approximants
IPA	[d͡tᵡ]	[tᵡ]	[tᵡʼ]	[d͡tsᵡ]	[tsᵡ]	[d͡tʃᵡ]	[tʃᵡ]	[z]	[s]	[ʒ]	[ʃ]	[χ]	[h]	[ɽ]	[m]	[n]	[m̩]	[ŋ̍]	[m̰]	[m̤]	[j]	[w]
1994–present	dx	tx	tk	dzx	tsx	djx	tcx	z	s	j	c	x	h	r	m	n	m	ang	mq	mh	y	w
1975–1987			txʼ			dx	tx			ž	š								m̭
1987–1994	dg	tg	tgʼ	-	tsg	djg	tjg			zj	sj	g							m̹

	Dental clicks												Alveolar clicks
IPA	[ᶢǀ]	[ᵏǀ]	[ᶢᵏǀʰ]	[ᵏǀʰ]	[ᵑǀˀ]	[ᵑ̊ǀʰ]	[ᵑǀ]	[ᵑǀʱ]	[ᶢᵏǀᵡ]	[ᵏǀᵡ]	[ᶢᵏǀᵡʼ]	[ᵏǀᵡʼ]	[ᶢǃ]	[ᵏǃ]	[ᶢᵏǃʰ]	[ᵏǃʰ]	[ᵑǃˀ]	[ᵑ̊ǃʰ]	[ᵑǃ]	[ᵑǃʱ]	[ᶢᵏǃᵡ]	[ᵏǃᵡ]	[ᶢᵏǃᵡʼ]	[ᵏǃᵡʼ]
1994–present	gǀ	ǀ	gǀh	ǀh	ǀʼ	ǀʼh	nǀ	nǀh	gǀx	ǀx	gǀk	ǀk	gǃ	ǃ	gǃh	ǃh	ǃʼ	ǃʼh	nǃ	nǃh	gǃx	ǃx	gǃk	ǃk
1975–1987								nǀʼh			gǀxʼ	ǀxʼ								nǃʼh			gǃxʼ	ǃxʼ
1987–1994	gc	c	dch	ch	cʼ	cʼh	nc	nch	dcg	cg	dcgʼ	cgʼ	gq	q	dqh	qh	qʼ	qʼh	nq	nqh	dqg	qg	dqgʼ	qgʼ

	Palatal clicks												Lateral clicks
IPA	[ᶢǂ]	[ᵏǂ]	[ᶢᵏǂʰ]	[ᵏǂʰ]	[ᵑǂˀ]	[ᵑ̊ǂʰ]	[ᵑǂ]	[ᵑǂʱ]	[ᶢᵏǂᵡ]	[ᵏǂᵡ]	[ᶢᵏǂᵡʼ]	[ᵏǂᵡʼ]	[ᶢǁ]	[ᵏǁ]	[ᶢᵏǁʰ]	[ᵏǁʰ]	[ᵑǁˀ]	[ᵑ̊ǁʰ]	[ᵑǁ]	[ᵑǁʱ]	[ᶢᵏǁᵡ]	[ᵏǁᵡ]	[ᶢᵏǁᵡʼ]	[ᵏǁᵡʼ]
1994–present	gǂ	ǂ	gǂh	ǂh	ǂʼ	ǂʼh	nǂ	nǂh	gǂx	ǂx	gǂk	ǂk	gǁ	ǁ	gǁh	ǁh	ǁʼ	ǁʼh	nǁ	nǁh	gǁx	ǁx	gǁk	ǁk
1975–1987								nǂʼh			gǂxʼ	ǂxʼ								nǁʼh			gǁxʼ	ǁxʼ
1987–1994	gç	ç	dçh	çh	çʼ	çʼh	nç	nçh	dçg	çg	dçgʼ	çgʼ	gx	x	dxh	xh	xʼ	xʼh	nx	nxh	dxg	xg	dxgʼ	xgʼ

	Plain vowels					Pressed vowels		Nasal vowels				Pressed Nasal vowels
IPA	[i]	[e]	[a, ə]	[o]	[u]	[aˤ]	[oˤ]	[ĩ]	[ã]	[õ]	[ũ]	[ãˤ]	[õˤ]
1994–present	i	e	a	o	u	aq	oq	in	an	on	un	aqn	oqn
1975–1987						a̭	o̭	ĩ	ã	õ	ũ	ã̭	õ̭
1987–1994			a, e			a̦	o̦	î	â	ô	û	â̦	ô̦

The modern (1994) orthography also has ih, eh, ah, oh, uh for breathy (murmured) vowels, and ihn, ahn, ohn, uhn for breathy nasal vowels. However, Snyman maintains that these are positional variants of low-tone vowels, and not needed in an orthography (at least, not if tone were marked). Glottalized vowels are written with an apostrophe in all three orthographies.

Grammar

Source: Dickens (2009).

Juǀ'hoan is basically isolating, being a zero-marking language in both clauses and noun phrases. The word order is SVO.

Nouns and pronouns

Nouns are grouped into noun classes based on animacy and species, with each class having a pronoun-set. The plural is formed by the suffixing of -si or -sín or by no change, -Ø. Many nouns have irregular plurals, such as jù (person, plural jú).

For example, the noun gǂhòà, "dog", belongs to class 2, and may be referred to with the pronoun ha, whereas gǀúí, "forest", belongs to class 5, which has ká as its corresponding pronoun.

The noun classes and their pronoun-sets are as follows:

Class	General	Possessed	Deictic	Example
1	ha (sg); sá (dual); hì, sì (pl)	mà (sg); hìsì (pl)	ǁʼàhaà (sg); ǁʼàsà (dual); ǁʼàsìsà, ǁʼàhìsà (pl)	jù "person"
2	ha (sg); hì (pl)	mà (sg); hìsì (pl)	ǁʼàhaà (sg); ǁʼàhìsà (pl)	gǂhòà "dog"
3	ha (sg & pl)	mà (sg); màsì (pl)	ǁʼàhaà (sg & pl)	ǁxòè "meteor"
4	hì (sg & pl)	hì (sg); hìsì (pl)	ǁʼàhìà (sg); ǁʼàhìsà (pl)	gǁùú, "meteor"
5	ká (sg & pl)	gá (sg); gásì (pl)	ǁʼàkáà (sg); ǁʼàkásà (pl)	gǀúí "forest"

Pronouns

Personal and demonstrative pronouns are:

		Singular	Dual	Plural
1st person	exclusive	mí	ètsá	è, èǃá
	inclusive		mtsá	m, mǃá
2nd person		à; há (hort.)	ìtsá	ì, ìǃá
3rd person		ha (n1-3), hì (n4), ká (n5)	sá (n1)	hì (n1-2), sì (n1)

Common words and phrases

• ján ǀàm – Good day
• ǂxáí – Good morning
• ǁáú tzà – Good evening
• gǁàán - Good afternoon
• à ján – How are you?
• ǁáú gè – Goodbye
• jù – person
• jú – people
• gǃú, dohmsoan – water
• nǃaisi u – Bon voyage

Sample texts

Following are some sample texts in the Juǀʼhoan language.

ex:

E

we

nǁurì

try

tè

and

kxóní

fix

ǀʼùrì

bicycle

ǃóm

wheel

E nǁurì tè kxóní ǀʼùrì ǃóm

we try and fix bicycle wheel

'We tried to fix the bicycle wheel.'

ex:

Uto

car

dchuun-a

hit-TRANS

ǀKaece

ǀKaece

ko

LK

nǃama

road

nǃang

in

Uto dchuun-a ǀKaece ko nǃama nǃang

car hit-TRANS ǀKaece LK road in

'A car hit ǀKaece in the road'

ex:

Besa

Besa

komm

EMPH

ǁʼama-ǀʼan

buy-give

Oba

Oba

ko

LK

tcisi

things

Besa komm ǁʼama-ǀʼan Oba ko tcisi

Besa EMPH buy-give Oba LK things

'Besa bought Oba some things'

ex:

dshau

woman

nǂai

cause

ʻm-a

eat-TRANS

ha

her

daʼabi

child

ko

LK

mari

mielie-meal

dshau nǂai ʻm-a ha daʼabi ko mari

woman cause eat-TRANS her child LK mielie-meal

'The woman fed her child mealie meal.' (Dickens 2005:84)

ex:

mi

my

ba

father

ǁohm-a

chop-TRANS

ǃaihn

tree

ko

LK

ǀʼai

axe

mi ba ǁohm-a ǃaihn ko ǀʼai

my father chop-TRANS tree LK axe

'My father chopped the tree with an axe.'

Films

• 1980 – The Gods Must Be Crazy
• 1980 – Nǃai, the Story of a ǃKung Woman
• 2003 – The Journey of Man

Bibliography

• Dickens, Patrick J. (2005). A Concise Grammar of Juǀʼhoan With a Juǀʼhoan–English Glossary and a Subject Index. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. ISBN 978-3-89645-145-3.
• Miller-Ockhuizen, Amanda (2003). The phonetics and phonology of gutturals: case study from Juǀʼhoansi (PDF). Routledge. ISBN 0-203-50640-5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 January 2024.
• Snyman, Jan W. (1983). "Zuǀʼhõasi, a Khoisan Dialect of South West Africa/Namibia". In Dihoff, Ivan R. (ed.). Current Approaches to African Linguistics. Vol. 1. pp. 115–125. doi:10.1515/9783112420065-007. ISBN 9783112420058.
• Snyman, Jan W. (1997). "A preliminary classification of the ǃXũũ and Zuǀʼhõasi Dialects". In Haacke, W. H. G.; Elderkin, E. D. (eds.). Namibian Languages: Reports and Papers. Namibian African Studies. Vol. 4. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe. pp. 21–106. ISBN 978-3-89645-080-7.
• Snyman, Jan W. An Official Orthography for Žuǀʼhõasi Kokxʼoi. Pretoria.

External links

• Juǀʼhoan basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database