Sekele language
Sekele is the northern language of the ǃKung dialect continuum. It was widespread in southern Angola before the civil war,[1] but those varieties are now spoken principally among a diaspora in northern Namibia. There are also a number of dialects spoken in Northernmost Namibia.
| Sekele | |
|---|---|
| Northern ǃKung | |
| Native to | Namibia, Angola |
| Region | Okavango and Ovamboland Territory |
Kxʼa
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | vaj – inclusive codeIndividual code: knw – Ekoka ǃKung |
| Glottolog | vase1234kung1261 |
Sekele goes by a number of names. "Sekele" itself derives from Vasekele, the Angolan Bantu name. It is also known as Northern ǃKung (or equivalently "Northern ǃXuun", "Northern Ju" and several other variants). Two of the Angolan varieties have gone by the outdated term ǃʼOǃKung (or ǃʼO ǃuŋ [ǃˀoːǃʰũ] "Forest ǃKung") and Maligo (short for "Sekele Maligo").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 and sometimes simply as Northern ǃKung, the more southern dialects of northernmost Namibian, known as Western ǃKung or North-Central ǃKung, and Kavango ǃKung to their east.
- Angolan (Northernmost) ǃKung, originally of Southern Angola, around the Cunene, Cubango, Cuito, and Cuando rivers
- (N1) Maligo (ǃxuun, kúándò ǃxuun "Kwando ǃXuun"; SE Angola)
- (N2) ǃʼOǃKung (ǃʼo ǃuŋ "Forest ǃXuun"; eastern C 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
- (W1) — (ǃxūún, ǃʼālè ǃxòān "Valley ǃXuun"; Eenhana district, N Namibia)
- (W2) ǀʼAkhwe (ǃxūún, ǀʼākhòè ǃxòān "Kwanyama ǃXuun"; Eenhana, N Namibia)
- (W3) Tsintsabis (ǃxūún; Tsintsabis, Tsumeb district, N Namibia)
- (K) Kavango ǃKung (ǃxūún, known as dom ǃxūún "River ǃXuun" in Ekoka; Western Rundu district, N 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 (Omatako?), east of Grootfontein, Namibia, halfway to the Botswana border; and in Schmidtsdrif, west of Kimberley, South Africa.
Phonology
- Angolan ǃKung
Mangetti Dune ǃKung has clicks with four places of articulation, /ǃ ǀ ǁ ǂ/. (A reported distinction between dental lateral and postalveolar lateral clicks has not been confirmed by further research.)
These come in the same eight series as in Grootfontein ǃKung, here represented with the palatal articulation:
- Lingual /ᵏǂ ᵏǂʰ ᶢǂ ᶢǂʱ ᵑǂ ᵑ̊ǂʰ/
- glottalized /ᵑ̊ǂˀ/
- linguo-pulmonic /ᵏǂχ/
- linguo-glottalic /ǂ͡kxʼ/
- Western (North-Central) ǃKung
Footnotes
References
- Snyman, Jan Winston (1980). "The Relationship Between Angolan ǃXu and Zuǀʼõasi". Bushman and Hottentot Linguistic Studies. Pretoria, South Africa: University of South Africa (UNISA): 1–58.
- Miller, A.L.; Holliday, J.; Howcroft, D.M.; Phillips, S.; Smith, B.; Tsz-Hum, T.; Scott, A. (2011). "The Phonetics of the Modern-Day Reflexes of the Proto-Palatal Click in Juu Languages". Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Khoisan Languages and Linguistics.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)