Overview
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Severely Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

<40

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Community Members

    No members

Revitalization Programs

No programs

Discussion Forum

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Language Information By Source

The twelve modern Khoisan languages
Arrow pointing down
Severely Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

<40

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

All children

More about speakers

"The number of speakers melted from 400 in 2000 (Batibo 2000) to 120-140 (Hasselbring 2000:14) and to about 50 in 2009 (Batibo, p.c.). This decline is not the result of a rapid loss of speakers, but rather of lack of first-hand census figures."

Year of info

2011

Location and Context

Countries

Botswana

Coordinates

-23.735069, 23.631592

Location description

Tshwane, in the central part of Botswana

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers’s attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

Tshwane, in the central part of Botswana

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

Sekgalagadi, Setswana

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

~400

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

2007

Location and Context

Countries

Khudumelapye; Salajwe; Tsia; Bodungwe; Botswana;

Coordinates

No data

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers’s attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

140

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

2010

Location and Context

Countries

No data

Coordinates

-24.1668, 24.4885

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers’s attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

200

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

Speaker number data from R. Cook(2004). "Decreasing."

Year of info

2009

Location and Context

Countries

Botswana;

Coordinates

No data

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers’s attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

<200

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

2007

Location and Context

Countries

No data

Coordinates

No data

Location description

"Northwestern part of Botswana, near Khutse."

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers’s attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

"Northwestern part of Botswana, near Khutse."

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

SheKgalaghari; Setswana

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

<200

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

2008

Location and Context

Countries

No data

Coordinates

No data

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers’s attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

No data

Native Speakers Worldwide

No data

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

2012

Location and Context

Countries

No data

Coordinates

-23.977469, 23.910370

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers’s attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Critically Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

<50

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

<50

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

All

More about speakers

"The number of speakers does not amount to more than 50 who are mainly between 60 and 70 years old."

Year of info

2011

Location and Context

Countries

Botswana

Coordinates

-24.060023, 23.301560; -23.982802, 23.899675; -23.733498, 24.590441; -23.878146, 23.669774;

Location description

"Today ǂHoan speakers are mainly found in the Kweneng District, in particular in the area adjacent to Kang, the regional centre. The villages and settlements are located along a quite recently reconstructed and now tarred road connecting the Trans Kalahari Highway and Letlhakeng. Speakers were found in the following villages along this road: Motokwe, Khekenye, Tswaane, and Dutlwe (cf. Map 2). Three more speakers were found in the villages of Mathibatsela and Salajwe. In the latter village there are supposedly some more speakers that were absent when we visited in September 2010. Furthermore, we met some non-fluent speakers in Khudumelapye. In other villages around this area it is still known that this language existed but no more speakers can be found. We can, however, not exclude that there are some more speakers in other, even more remote areas that we were not able to visit or do not know of."

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers’s attitudes

Mixed/positive

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

"Today ǂHoan speakers are mainly found in the Kweneng District, in particular in the area adjacent to Kang, the regional centre. The villages and settlements are located along a quite recently reconstructed and now tarred road connecting the Trans Kalahari Highway and Letlhakeng. Speakers were found in the following villages along this road: Motokwe, Khekenye, Tswaane, and Dutlwe (cf. Map 2). Three more speakers were found in the villages of Mathibatsela and Salajwe. In the latter village there are supposedly some more speakers that were absent when we visited in September 2010. Furthermore, we met some non-fluent speakers in Khudumelapye. In other villages around this area it is still known that this language existed but no more speakers can be found. We can, however, not exclude that there are some more speakers in other, even more remote areas that we were not able to visit or do not know of."

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

Gǀui; Kgalagadi;

Domains of other languages

Shops, officials, doctors, church

More on context

"Most of the ǂHoan consultants are trilingual, i.e. they speak Gǀui (Khoe-Kwadi) and Kgalagadi (Bantu) fluently besides ǂHoan... all of them are able to understand Tswana to some extent, but almost none of the consultants are actively able to speak it.... We often observed that people try to hide their own or their children's 'Khoisan' origin, which indicates that they consider the 'Khoisan' languages of the area (i.e. ǂHoan, Gǀui and Taa) as not prestigious.... speakers of ǂHoan generally have a very positive attitude towards their mother tongue. However, since it is not rated positively in Botswana society to speak a Khoisan language, ǂHoan speakers decide not to speak their mother tongue to the younger generations, opting instead for the language of higher prestige, Kgalagadi."

No data

Native Speakers Worldwide

No data

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

2005

Location and Context

Countries

No data

Coordinates

-25.5, 25.0

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers’s attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Severely Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

No data

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

120-160

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

"Researchers had great difficulty locating speakers of Deti and ǂHuã who were under 50 years of age."

Year of info

2000

Location and Context

Countries

Botswana

Coordinates

-24.006326,23.990965

Location description

Kweneng

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers’s attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

Kweneng

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

With and among children; to clinic workers

More on context

No data

Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

200

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

Location and Context

Countries

No data

Coordinates

No data

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers’s attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Severely Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

120-200

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

Most

More about speakers

"Spoken by only between 120 and 200 people, mostly adults and old people... all the child-bearing age members of the community (21-45 years) speak only Shekgalagari."

Year of info

2005

Location and Context

Countries

Botswana

Coordinates

No data

Location description

"Most of the ǂHua people are found in Tshwane and Dutlwe villages in the Kweneng District of Botswana, about 150 kilometers west of Molepolole."

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers’s attitudes

Mixed

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

"Most of the ǂHua people are found in Tshwane and Dutlwe villages in the Kweneng District of Botswana, about 150 kilometers west of Molepolole."

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

Shekgalagari, Setswana, ǂGana, Afrikaans

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

"Given the social status and economic privileges associated with Shekgalagari, the areally dominant language, and Setswana, the national language, most ǂHua communities became bilingual, and even trilingual in the three languages, namely ǂHua, Shekgalagari and Setswana. Some individuals also became acquainted with other languages such as ǂGana (Khutle), which extends into the area, and some picked up Afrikaans from South Africa or the Afrikaner farms in the Ghanzi district."

Media Resources

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  1. Personal Communication
    Christfriend Neumann. 2012. "Personal Communication."
  2. Hoan
    "Hoan." Online: http://celaeno.phonetics.cornell.edu/khoisan/hoan/hoansyntax.htm.
    http://celaeno.phonetics.cornell.edu/khoisan/hoan/hoansyntax.htm
  3. Khoisan: Syntax, Phonetics, Phonology, and Contact
    2001. "Khoisan: Syntax, Phonetics, Phonology, and Contact." edited by Arthur Bell and Paul Washburn. 18: Ithaca: CLC Publications.
  4. Where are the Khoesan of Botswana?
    Sue Hasselbring. 2000. "Where Are the Khoesan of Botswana?" In Botswana: the Future of the Minority Languages, edited by Herman M. Batibo and Birgit Smieja. 40: 13-31. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
  5. The Kalahari Basin as an object of areal typology: a first approach
    Tom Güldemann. 1998. "The Kalahari Basin As An Object of Areal Typology: a First Approach." In Language, identity and conceptualization among the Khoisan, edited by Mathias Schladt. 15: 137-169. Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
  6. A sociolinguistic survey of the languages of Botswana
    Sue Hasselbring, Thabiso Segatlhe and Julie Munch. 2001. "A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Languages of Botswana." v. 2: 1-196. Basarwa Languages Project, Collaborative Basarwa Research Programme of the Univ. of Botswana & Univ. of Tromsø.
  7. A sociolinguistic survey of the languages of Botswana
    Sue Hasselbring. 2000. "A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Languages of Botswana." v. 1: 1-142. Basarwa Languages Project, Collaborative Basarwa Research Programme of the Univ. of Botswana & Univ. of Tromsø.
  8. ǂHua: a critically endangered Khoesan language in the Kweneng District of Botswana
    Herman M. Batibo. 2005. "ǂHua: a Critically Endangered Khoesan Language in the Kweneng District of Botswana." In Creating Outsiders: Endangered Languages, Migration and Marginalisation: Proceedings of the Ninth FEL Conference, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 18-20 November 2005, edited by Nigel Crawhall and Nicholas Ostler. 87-93. Foundation for Endangered Languages.
  9. The sociolinguistic situation of ǂHoan, a moribund 'Khoisan' language of Botswana
    Linda Gerlach and Falko Berthold. 2011. "The Sociolinguistic Situation of ǂHoan, a Moribund 'Khoisan' Language of Botswana." In Afrikanistik Online, 2011: Online: http://www.afrikanistik-online.de/archiv/2011/3164.
    http://www.afrikanistik-online.de/archiv/2011/3164
  10. Endangered Languages Catalogue Project. Compiled by research teams at University of Hawai'i Mānoa and Institute for Language Information and Technology (LINGUIST List) at Eastern Michigan University
    2012. "Endangered Languages Catalogue Project. Compiled By Research Teams At University of Hawai'i Mānoa and Institute For Language Information and Technology (LINGUIST List) At Eastern Michigan University."
  11. The twelve modern Khoisan languages
    Matthias Brenzinger. 2011. "The Twelve Modern Khoisan Languages." In Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Khoisan Languages and Linguistics,
  12. The World Atlas of Language Structures
    2005. "The World Atlas of Language Structures." edited by Bernard Comrie et al. Oxford University Press.
  13. Africa
    Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. and F. K. Erhard Voeltz. 2007. "Africa." In Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages, edited by Christopher Moseley. Routledge.
  14. One Thousand Languages: Living, Endangered, and Lost
    Austin, Peter. 2008. "One Thousand Languages: Living, Endangered, and Lost." University of California.
  15. Language Endangerment in Southern and Eastern Africa
    Brenzinger, Matthias. 2007. "Language Endangerment in Southern and Eastern Africa." In Language Diversity Endangered, edited by Matthias Brenzinger. 179-204. Mouton de Gruyter.
  16. World Oral Literature Project
    "World Oral Literature Project." Online: http://www.oralliterature.org.
    http://www.oralliterature.org
  17. Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger
    Moseley, Christopher (ed.). 2010. Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, 3rd edn. http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas. (03 June, 2011.)
    http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas
  18. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th Edition (2009)
    Lewis, M. Paul (ed.). 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16 edn. http://www.ethnologue.com/home.asp. (15 February, 2011.)
    http://www.ethnologue.com/