Khoekhoe Language - Dialects and Varieties

Dialects and Varieties

It is unwise to be too strict about distinctions between "dialect" and "separate language", especially as many of the varieties seem to have disappeared.

Writing in 1938, D. M. Beach in The Phonetics of the Hottentot Languages (see bibliography below) listed 8 subdivisions of the Nama proper, the !Gami-≠nũn or "Bondelswarts" (Warmbad to Kalkfontein, far south of Namibia), the !Xara-kai-kxoen or "Simon Kopper Hottentots" (Rietfontein and Kalahari), the Kxaro-!'oan (Keetmanshoop), the //Hapopen or "Veldskoendraers" (at Koes), the Kai-//xaun or "Rooi Nasie" (at Hoachanas), the //G'o-kain or "Groot Dode" (west of Gibeon and Berseba), the //Xau-/goãn or "Swartboois" (at Franzfontein, formerly Windhoek), and the "Topnaar", consisting of the ≠G'ao-nin (at Zesfontein) and the Mũ-//g'ĩn (east of Walvis Bay), to which he added the "Oorlams", from Cape Colony, regarded by some as not genuine Nama at all, namely the !Aman, the /Hai-/xauan, the Xopesin, the ??Aixa-//aen or "Afrikaaners" and Kai-/xauan.

Added to these were the Korana, reportedly (in the 1830s) as numerous as the Nama themselves, and with perhaps in 1938 a "few individuals, very old men and women" able to speak the distinct Korana language; the extinct Griqua of the mixed ancestry Griqua people was reportedly almost the same.

The language of the Bergdama peoples was sometimes listed as distinct, sometimes regarded as a variety of Nama: these included (1938) 11 traditional groups much scattered, the /Gopanin, the Tsoa-xau-taman or Swakop Dama, the Taũna-taman or Brandberg Dama, reported to have retained their language in 1938, the !'Oe-≠gãn or Erongo Dama, also retaining their language, the !'Omen, the Aope-//'aen, the Ao-kupun, in small groups in the Namib, and still speaking the language in 1938, the Animin, the /Gaio-taman, the Aro-taman, and the Aumin. In a fluid demographic and linguistic situation, local varieties of such languages are likely to be known as a name only.

Others suggest, however:

• ǂĀkhoe (itself a dialect cluster)
• Sesfontein Damara (said to be mutually unintelligible)
• Nama – Central Damara
• Haiǁom
• Eini (extinct)

all of which are sometimes counted as distinct languages.