Sekele is the northern
language of the
ǃKung dialect continuum. It was widespread in southern
Angola before the
Angolan Civil War,
but those varieties are now spoken principally among a
diaspora
A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...
in northern
Namibia. There are also a number of
dialects spoken in far northern Namibia.
Sekele is known by a number of names. "Sekele" itself derives from ''Vasekele'', the Angolan
Bantu
Bantu may refer to:
*Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages
*Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language
* Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle
*Black Association for National ...
name. It is also known as Northern ǃKung, Northern ǃXuun, and Northern Ju. Two of the Angolan varieties have gone by the outdated term ǃʼOǃKung (or ''ǃʼO ǃuŋ'' , "Forest ǃKung") and Maligo (short for "Sekele Maligo"). There are several Namibian dialects, of which the best-known is
Ekoka.
Dialects
There is a division between the northernmost dialects, formerly known as Angolan ǃKung or Northern ǃKung, and the more southern dialects of northernmost Namibia, which are known as Western ǃKung or North-Central ǃKung, as well as between them and the eastern dialect of Kavango ǃKung. These northern dialects include:
*Angolan (Northern) ǃKung, originally of Southern Angola, which is situated around the
Cunene,
Cubango,
Cuito, and
Cuando Rivers;
::(N1) Maligo (''ǃxuun, kúándò ǃxuun'' "Kwando ǃXuun", southeast Angola);
::(N2) ǃʼOǃKung (''ǃʼo ǃuŋ'' "Forest ǃXuun"; east central Angola);
*
Western (North-Central) ǃKung (ǃKung-Ekoka), of northern Namibia, between the Ovambo River and the Angolan border, around the tributaries of the
Okavango River east of
Rundu to the
Etosha Pan
The Etosha Pan is a large endorheic salt pan, forming part of the Cuvelai-Etosha Basin in the north of Namibia. It is a hollow in the ground in which water may collect or in which a deposit of salt remains after water has evaporated. The 120-kilo ...
;
::(W1) — (''ǃxūún, ǃʼālè ǃxòān'' "Valley ǃXuun";
Eenhana district, northern Namibia);
::(W2) ǀʼAkhwe (''ǃxūún, ǀʼākhòè ǃxòān'' "Kwanyama ǃXuun"; Eenhana, northern Namibia);
::(W3) Tsintsabis (''ǃxūún''; Tsintsabis, Tsumeb district, northern Namibia);
*(K) Kavango ǃKung (''ǃxūún'', known as ''dom ǃxūún'' "River ǃXuun" in Ekoka; Western Rundu district, northern Namibia, & Angola adjacent)
The Okongo, Ovambo, and Mpunguvlei dialects may duplicate (W1) and (K) or be additional forms.
A dialect of Angolan Sekele currently being investigated by
linguists has been labeled Mangetti Dune ǃKung, and is spoken by a resettled diaspora community of 500–1000 in Namibia and
South Africa in the settlements of Mangetti Dune and Omtaku, east of
Grootfontein, Namibia; and in Schmidtsdrif, west of
Kimberley, South Africa.
Phonology
;Angolan ǃKung
Mangetti Dune ǃKung has
clicks with four places of
articulation, . A reported distinction between
dental lateral and
postalveolar lateral clicks has not been confirmed by further research. These clicks come in the same eight series as in Grootfontein ǃKung, represented with the palatal articulation:
:Lingual
:
glottalized
:
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 ...
;Western (North-Central) ǃKung
Footnotes
References
*
*
External links
Comparative ǃKung basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical DatabaseELAR archive of A Video and Text Documentation of Mangetti Dune ǃXung
{{Languages of Namibia
Kx'a languages
Languages of Angola
Languages of Namibia