Home > Kung-ekoka language

Linguistically, Kung-ekoka is generally termed isolating; what this means is that words' meanings are changed by the addition of other, separate words, rather than by the addition of affixes or the changing of word structure. A few suffixes exist - for example, distributive plurals are formed with the noun suffix -si or -mhi, but in the main meaning is given only by series of words rather than by grouping of affixes.

Kung-ekoka distinguishes no formal plural, and the suffixes -si and -mhi are optional in usage. The language's word order is Adverb-Subject-Verb-Object, and in this it is similar to English: "the snake bites the man" is represented by ‡'aama n!ei zhu (‡'aama - snake, n!ei - to bite, zhu - man). Kung-ekoka uses word and sentence tone contours, and has a very finely differentiated vocabulary for the animals, plants and conditions native to the Kalahari Desert, where the language is spoken. For example, the plant genus Grewia is referred to by five different words, representing five different species in this genus.

Phonemic contrasts in Kung-ekoka include the following:

• Pulmonic - click - twa to finish vs ‡wa to imitate
  • Pulmonic consonants
    • Voiced - voiceless unaspirated - voiceless aspirated stop: da skin, ta wild orange, t^ha bee sting
    • Voiced - voiceless unaspirated - voiceless aspirated - ejective affricate: djau expression of surprise, tca to fetch, ts^he week, tc'a to pour
    • Voiced - voiceless fricative: za to sexually insult, se to see
  • Click consonants
    • Voiced unaspirated - voiced aspirated: g!ai~ puff adder, g!^hei~ tree
    • Voiceless unaspirated - voiceless aspirated: !e~ noise, !^ha~ to know
    • Unaffricated - affricated release: !o behind, !xo elephant
    • Plain - glottalised release: !ábí to roll up a blanket, !?àbú rifle
    • Plain - nasalised: |i rhinoceros, n|i to sit
• Vowels
  • Plain - nasalised: g!a rain, g!a~ red
  • Plain - pharyngealised: n|om springhare, n|om big talker
  • Short - long: |u to throw, |u: to put in

Kung-ekoka is slowly dying out, along with most other Khoisan languages, because of encroaching Bantu and Khoi cultures. The Herero, Nama and Tswana languageTswana also known as Setswana is a Bantu language. Tswana is the national and majority language of Botswana, whose people are the Batswana (singular Motswana). The majority of Tswana speakers are in South Africa (where it is an official language), but thes are beginning to be more commonly spoken among the Kung-ekoka, and the hunter-gatherer way of life that is typical of the Khoisan-speaking peoples is being eroded by Bantu and Khoi farming settlements.

See also: languageAs with any complex, emergent concept, language is somewhat resistant to definition; however, most would agree that language is a system of communication or reasoning using representation along with metaphor and some manner of logical grammar. Many langua, AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest continent in both area and population, after Asia. 30,244,050 km2 (11,677,240 mi2) including the islands, it covers 20. 3% of the total land area on Earth, and with over 800 million human inhabitants it accounts for ar, !Xu mythologyThe !Xu people were both animistic and animatistic; they believed in both personifications and impersonal forces. They believed in a god named Prishiboro, whose wife was an elephant. His older brother tricked him into killing her and, later, into eating h, !Xu (god)Xu is a creator god of the Bushmen of Southern Africa.