Naro , also Nharo, is a
Khoe language
Khwe (also rendered ''Kxoe, Khoe'' ) is a dialect continuum of the Khoe languages, Khoe family of Namibia, Angola, Botswana, South Africa, and parts of Zambia, with some 8,000 speakers.
Classification
Khwe is a member of the Khoe languages, ...
spoken in
Ghanzi District
Ghanzi (sometimes Gantsi) is a district in western Botswana, bordering Namibia in the west and extending east into much of the interior of the country. The district's administrative centre is the town of Ghanzi. Most of the eastern half of Ghanzi m ...
of
Botswana
Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...
and in eastern
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
. It is probably the most-spoken of the Tshu–Khwe languages. Naro is a trade language among speakers of different Khoe languages in
Ghanzi District
Ghanzi (sometimes Gantsi) is a district in western Botswana, bordering Namibia in the west and extending east into much of the interior of the country. The district's administrative centre is the town of Ghanzi. Most of the eastern half of Ghanzi m ...
. There exists a
dictionary
A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies ...
.
Phonology
Naro has the following consonant inventory (in the
IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA may also refer to:
Organizations International
* Insolvency Practitioners ...
) as described by Miller (2011), whereas the orthographic symbols were proposed by Visser (2001):
[Visser originally wrote the palatal clicks with a base of , but switched to to make the language more accessible from English-language typewriters and keyboards.]
The phonemes /kχ/ and /kχʼ/ (spelt ⟨kg⟩ and ⟨kgʼ⟩) only contrast for some speakers: ''kgʼám'' ‘mouth’ vs. ''kgʼáù'' ‘male’. The flap /ɾ/ only occurs word-medially except in loan words. The lateral /l/ is only found in loans, and is generally substituted by medially, and by initially. Medial and may be and ; they occur initially only in ''wèé'' ‘all, both’ and in ''yèè'' (an interjection).
Vowels
Naro has five vowel qualities, /a e i o u/'','' which may occur long (/aː eː iː oː uː/ spelt ⟨aa ee ii oo uu⟩)'','' nasalized ''(/''ã ẽ ĩ õ ũ/''),''
pharyngealized
Pharyngealization is a secondary articulation of consonants or vowels by which the pharynx or epiglottis is constricted during the articulation of the sound.
IPA symbols
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, pharyngealization can be indicated ...
''(''/aˤ eˤ iˤ oˤ uˤ/ , spelt ⟨
a e i o u⟩, and combinations of these (/ãˤ ẽː/ ⟨
ã ẽe⟩ etc.). There are three
tones: high, mid, and low
Syllable structure
Syllables
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
are in general simple in Naro, with the maximal shape CV(V)C'','' where VV is a long vowel or diphthong. The only consonant that occurs in coda position is /m/, as in /ᵏǁám̀/ ''xám̀'' ‘to smell’. However, long nasal vowels such as /ãː/ may occur with an
excrescent as in
ŋ Syllabic
Syllabic may refer to:
*Syllable, a unit of speech sound, considered the building block of words
**Syllabic consonant, a consonant that forms the nucleus of a syllable
*Syllabary, writing system using symbols for syllables
*Abugida, writing system ...
/m n/ also occur, as in /n̩.nā/ ''nna.'' Nasals such as /m/ can also form syllable nuclei, as in /hḿḿ/''.''
Orthography
Naro orthography uses the
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...
, and is partially based on the systems for
Zulu and
Xhosa
Xhosa may refer to:
* Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa
* Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people
See als ...
, especially as far as clicks are represented.
Digraphs are used for clicks, and to represent affricates. Vowel length is represented by doubling of the vowel, whereas the orthography utilizes the tilde to represent nasality (⟨ã ẽ ĩ õ ũ⟩), and underline to represent pharyngealization. Tones are written with diacritics both on vowels and nasal consonants, with the exception of the mid tone, which is not represented (e.g. ⟨á a à ḿ m̀ ń ǹ⟩)''.''
Below is an overview of Naro clicks in both orthography and IPA (Visser 2001). The
dental click
Dental (or more precisely denti-alveolar) clicks are a family of click consonants found, as constituents of words, only in Africa and in the Damin ritual jargon of Australia.
In English, the ''tut-tut!'' (British spelling, "tutting") or ''ts ...
is represented by ''c''.
alveolar click
The alveolar or postalveolar clicks are a family of click consonants found only in Africa and in the Damin ritual jargon of Australia. The tongue is more or less concave (depending on the language), and is pulled down rather than back as in t ...
by ''q'',
palatal click
The palatal or palato-alveolar clicks are a family of click consonants found, as components of words, only in southern Africa. The tongue is nearly flat, and is pulled back rather than down as in the postalveolar clicks, making a sharper sound ...
by ''tc'', and
lateral click
The lateral clicks are a family of click consonants found only in African languages. The clicking sound used by equestrians to urge on their horses is a lateral click, although it is not a speech sound in that context. Lateral clicks are found t ...
by ''x''. All examples are from Visser (2001).
Dialects
Naro is a
dialect cluster
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...
.
*ǀAmkwe
*ǀAnekwe
*Gǃinkwe
*ǃGingkwe
*Gǃokwe
*Qabekhoe ''or'' Qabekho ''or'' ǃKabbakwe
*Tsʼaokhoe ''or'' Tsaukwe ''or'' Tsaokhwe
*Tserekwe
*Tsorokwe
*Nǀhai-ntseʼe ''or'' Nǁhai ''or'' Tsʼao
and possibly
ǂHaba.
Naro Language Project
The Naro Language Project is a project currently being undertaken by the Reformed Church in
D'kar that aims to describe and develop an understanding of the Naro language, increase literacy by teaching Naro speakers to read and write their language and translate the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
into Naro. The project was started in the 1980s. The Naro language project has, as of 2007, translated 70% of the Bible into the Naro language.
Numerals
Below are Naro numerals, from Visser (2001). Only 'one', 'two', and 'three' are native Naro numerals, while the rest have been borrowed from
Nama. Orthography is given first, followed by IPA in brackets.
*1 ''cúí'' /, úí/
*2 ''cám̀'' /, ám̀/
*3 ''nqoanà'' /ᵑǃōa̯nà/
*4. ''hàka'' /hàkā/
*5. ''koro'' /kōɾō/
*6. ''nqáné'' /ǃnáné/
*7. ''hõò'' /hṍò/
*8. ''kaisà'' /kāi̯sà/
*9. ''khòesí'' [kʰo᷅e̯sí/
*10. ''dìsí'' /dìsí/
Bibliography
*Visser, Hessel (2001) ''Naro Dictionary: Naro–English, English–Naro''. Gansi, Botswana: Naro Language Project.
References
The Kuru Naro Language ProjectNaro basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
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Khoe languages
Languages of Botswana