Nǁng

Nǁng or Nǁŋǃke, which is also known as Nǀu, is the only surviving member of the !Ui branch of the Tuu language family. It was declared extinct in 1973, but in the 1990s the South African San Institute managed to find 25 people who could speak or understand the language. In 2013 there were just five elderly Nǁng speakers left in Northern Cape Province of South Africa: three speakers of the Nǀuu dialect and two of ǁ’Au dialect.

Under apartheid people who spoke Nǁng had to hide their language and identity from others, including their children. They adopted other languages, such as Afrikaans, and their children did not acquire even a passive knowledge of Nǁng.

Nǁng was first documented in the 1920s. Further documentation of the language was made in the 1990s by groups funded by the National Science Foundation of the USA, the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme, and the University of Cologne. A number of spelling systems for the language were developed.

Nǁng pronunciation

Nǁng pronunciation

Download an alphabet chart for Nǁng (Excel)

Sample video about the Nǁng language

Links

Information about the Nǁng/Nǀu language
http://www.kalaharipeoples.org/academic/nuu/Segments.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N|u_language
https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Nǁlanguage
https://tinyurl.com/y9w24ru7

Tuu languages

Nǁng (Nǁŋǃke), Taa

Languages written with the Latin alphabet

Page last modified: 23.04.21

[top]


Green Web Hosting - Kualo

You can support this site by Buying Me A Coffee, and if you like what you see on this page, you can use the buttons below to share it with people you know.

 

iVisa.com

If you like this site and find it useful, you can support it by making a donation via PayPal or Patreon, or by contributing in other ways. Omniglot is how I make my living.

 

Note: all links on this site to Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.fr are affiliate links. This means I earn a commission if you click on any of them and buy something. So by clicking on these links you can help to support this site.

[top]

iVisa.com