ǂKxʼaoǁʼae (pronounced , also rendered ''ǂKxʼauǁʼein''), or Gobabi ǃKung (Gobabis-ǃXû), is a southeastern dialect of the ǃKung language, spoken in

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 Kal ...

(the settlements of

Groote Laagte Grootlaagte is a village in Ghanzi District of Botswana. It is located close to the Namibian border, north-west of the district capital Ghanzi Ghanzi is a town in the middle of the Kalahari Desert the western part of the Republic of Botsw ...

East Hanahai East Hanahai is a village in Ghanzi District of Botswana. It is located in the central part of the district, close to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, roughly 50 km south-east of Ghanzi. East Hanahai has a primary school and a health c ...

, Kanagas and

Ghanzi Ghanzi is a town in the middle of the Kalahari Desert the western part of the Republic of Botswana in southern Africa. The region is the country's pride in contributing a large portion towards the beef industry. In fact, Ghanzi farmers provide ...

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 ...

and on the commercial farms) and in

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 e ...

(the city of

Gobabis , nickname = , settlement_type = City , motto = Ex Oriente Lux , image_skyline = Gobabis Namibia aerial.jpg , imagesize = 300px , imag ...

and settlements along the C22 road to Otjinene as far as Eiseb,

Omaheke Region Omaheke ( hz, Sandveld) is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, the least populous region. Its capital is Gobabis. It lies in eastern Namibia on the border with Botswana and is the western extension of the Kalahari desert. The self-governed v ...

) by about 7,000 people. In Botswana, most speakers are bilingual in Naro or Tswana. There are numerous spellings of the name, including ''ǁAuǁei, ǁXʼauǁʼe,'' and ''Auen''. Endonyms are ''Juǀʼhoan(si), ǃXun'' in Namibia and ''ǂXʼaoǁʼaen'' (predominantly in Botswana), meaning "northern people" in Naro. It also goes by the names ''Gobabis ǃKung'' and ''Kaukau'' (which can take the noun class prefixes in Tswana to give ''Mokaukau ''for one person, ''Bakaukau'' for the group and ''Sekaukau'' for the language). In Namibia, ǂKxʼaoǁʼae'' ''tends to refer literally to the ǃXuun speakers to the north in the Caprivi area. With the exception of a few cultural traits, speakers of ǂKxʼaoǁʼae'' '' and those of Juǀʼhoan both in Botswana and Namibia argue that they are one and the same people, speaking one language, with some dialectal attributes. The non-Latin characters used by the language predominantly refer to

click consonants Click consonants, or clicks, are speech sounds that occur as consonants in many languages of Southern Africa and in three languages of East Africa. Examples familiar to English-speakers are the ''tut-tut'' (British spelling) or '' tsk! tsk!'' ( ...

and follow the orthography by Patrick Dickens for Juǀʼhoan. The limited data on these dialects is poorly transcribed, but as of 2015 fieldwork is in progress.

Notes

External links

ǂKxʼao-ǁʼae basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kxʼao-lʼae language Languages of Botswana Kx'a languages stub

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External links