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The Khoisan languages are the smallest phylum of African languages. Historically, they were mainly spoken by the Khoi and Bushmen people. Today they are only spoken in the Kalahari Desert in south-western Africa, and a small area in Tanzania. The languages are becoming increasingly rare; several are known to have become extinct. Many of them have no written record. The Hadza and Sandawe languages in Tanzania are generally classified as Khoisan, but are extremely distant (linguistically and geographically) from the others. Many linguists regard the Khoisan phylum as a yet unproved hypothesis.
They are notable for the use of click consonants as phonemes, including the Kung-ekoka language, which has in excess of 50 click
consonants and over 140 separate phonemes, and the !Xóõ language with its giant phoneme inventory and strident and pharyngealized sounds.Many people were exposed to this group of languages through the
Bushman language used in the 1984 filmSee also 1983 in film 1984 1985 in film 1980s in film years in film film Events Tri-Star Pictures, a joint venture of Columbia Pictures, HBO, and CBS, releases its first film. November 26 Filming starts on Back to the Future''. Actress Sharon Stone marrie The Gods Must Be CrazyThe Gods Must Be Crazy was a movie released in 1980, written and directed by Jamie Uys. It told the story of Xixo, a Bushman of the Kalahari Desert (played by Namibian bush farmer N!xau) whose tribe has no contact or knowledge of the world beyond. One day.The most widely spoken languages in the group are Kwadi_languageKwadi is an extinct Khoisan language of Angola. Its SIL code is KWZ''. As of 1981, it was considered extinct. The last 3 speakers were fluent in Kwadi in 1971. Dialect Zorotua or Vasorontu See also language, Africa External link Extinct languages Khoisan and Sandawe_language.
The only other languages using clicks as phonemes are Nguni Bantu languagesBantu is a language family that belongs to the Niger-Congo group. Bantu languages are spoken in South Cameroon, in Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namib, such as XhosaXhosa is a language of South Africa. It is spoken by approximately 7. 9 million speakers (about 18% of South Africans). Click consonants feature prominently in the sounds of this language, and even the name, "Xhosa", begins with a click. In IPA, the name and Zulu in South Africa, Sesotho (also spoken in South Africa and Lesotho), the South Cushitic Dahalo language , and an artificial ceremonial language called ' Damin ', spoken by some Australian Aborigines. All of these languages except Damin are believed to have adopted the use of clicks from neighboring Khoisan populations.
Grammatically, the Khoisan languages are generally fairly isolating. Suffixes are often used, but word order is overall more widely used than inflection.