Central ǃKung (Central ǃXun), or Central Ju, is a language of the ǃKung dialect cluster, spoken in a small area of northern Namibia: Neitsas, in

Grootfontein Grootfontein (, named after the nearby hot springs) is a city with 26,839 inhabitants in the Otjozondjupa Region of central Namibia. It is one of the three towns in the Otavi Triangle, situated on the B8 road (Namibia), B8 national road that lead ...

district, and Gaub, in

Tsumeb Tsumeb (; ) is a city of around 35,000 inhabitants and the largest town in the Oshikoto Region, Oshikoto region in northern Namibia. Tsumeb, since its founding in 1905, has been primarily a mining town. The town is the site of a deep mine (the ...

district. It is frequently identified as Grootfontein ǃXuun, as most research has been done in Grootfontein. An identifying feature of Central ǃKung is a fifth series of clicks that are often

retroflex A retroflex () or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consona ...

. While Northern (Northwestern) and Southern (Southeastern) ǃKung are not mutually intelligible, it is not yet clear to what extent Central ǃKung is intermediate between them or intelligible with either.

Dialects

Two dialects are identified as being Central ǃKung based on grammatical features: * Central ǃKung ** (C1) Gaub (Tsumeb district, N Namibia) ** (C2) Neitsas (Grootfontein district, N Namibia) In addition, the ǃKung dialects of Tsintsabis, Leeunes and Mangetti (different from Mangetti Dune) have retroflex clicks and so may belong here, though no grammatical information is available to classify them. In Grootfontein ǃKung words which Doke (1926) and others have described as having

retroflex clicks A retroflex () or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants ...

, Vedder (1910/1911) described a second series of lateral clicks in Gaub ǃKung. The retroflex clicks have also been reported as having a lateral release.

Phonology

Grootfontein ǃKung is unusual in having true

retroflex click A retroflex () or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consona ...

s, which are

subapical A subapical consonant is a consonant made by contact with the underside of the tip of the tongue. The only common subapical articulations are in the postalveolar to palatal region, which are called "retroflex". Most so-called retroflex consonants ...

for some speakers and have lateral release, as in the word for 'water', (provisionally written ''g‼ú''). There are thus five places of articulation in Grootfontein clicks, . These come in eight series, here represented with the retroflex articulation: :Lingual ,

glottalized Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent conso ...

linguo-pulmonic Pulmonic-contour clicks, also called sequential linguo-pulmonic consonants, are consonants that transition from a click to an ordinary pulmonic sound, or more precisely, have an audible delay between the front and rear release of the click. Al ...

linguo-glottalic Ejective-contour clicks, also called sequential linguo-glottalic consonants, are consonants that transition from a click to an ejective sound, or more precisely, have an audible delay between the front and rear release of the click. All click t ...

Otherwise, the Grootfontein inventory is similar to that of

Ekoka ǃKung Ekoka ǃKung (Ekoka ǃXuun, Ekoka-ǃXû, ǃKung-Ekoka) or Western ǃXuun (North-Central Ju) is a variety of the ǃKung dialect cluster, spoken originally in the area of the central Namibian–Angolan border, west of the Okavango River, but sinc ...

, except that it lacks the (pre)voiced affricates . The Grootfontein ǃKung language has a relatively large phonological inventory:

Consonants

Vowels

Five vowel sounds in the ǃKung languages are realized as . The sounds may be articulated with nasalisation , breathy voice , or pharyngealisation . Some nasal vowels with diacritics may have combinations such as breathy + nasal , and pharyngeal + nasal .

Sample texts

Following are sample sentences in Central ǃKung.

References

External links

Grootfontein ǃKung basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
{{Khoisan Kx'a languages