Shua , or ''Shwakhwe'', is a
Khoe language (Central Khoisan) of
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...
. It is spoken in central Botswana (in
Nata and its surroundings), and in parts of the Chobe District in the extreme north of Botswana. There are approximately 6,000 speakers (Cook 2004) and approximately 2,000 out of those 6,000 speakers are native speakers. The linguistic variety spoken in the township of
Nata in
northeast Botswana is highly endangered and spoken fluently only by adults over about thirty years of age. The term ''Shwakhwe'' means people (''khwe'') from the salty area (''shwa'').
Phonology
Consonants
* // is only phonemic in the Tsʼixa and Danisi dialects.
Vowels
Shua has the five vowels , and three nasal vowels .
Syntax
Unlike most Khoisan languages, but like
Nama, the most neutral word order is SOV, though word order is relatively free. As with most Khoisan languages, there are postpositions. There is a tense-aspect marker ''ke'' which often appears in second position in affirmative sentences in the present tense, giving X Aux S O V order (e.g. S Aux O V).
This marker appears first in certain subordinate clauses in a manner reminiscent of V2 languages such as German, where a clause-initial complementizer is in complementary distribution with a second position phenomenon (in German, it would be the finite verb which appears in second position).
Numerals
Shua has indigenous terms for numeral terms, it is a restrictive and limited system of numerals.
* '', uˉiˉ'' ‘one’
* '', am'' ‘two’
* ''ngona: ~ ‖obeˉ:ˉ'' ‘three’
* ''hatsa:'' ‘four’
* '', ’oˉra:'' ‘a few’
* ''‖hara:'' ‘many’
Using this example, the numeral comes before the head noun. More specifically, it appears in the second "opening" of a noun phrase "following a demonstrative or determiner (if there is one), and preceding a qualifying nominal or adjective."
Dialects
Shua is a
dialect cluster
A dialect is a variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standardized varieties as well as vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardized varieties, such as those used in developing countries or iso ...
.
*Deti (10 or fewer speakers)
*Ganádi
*Shwa-khwe
*Nǀoo-khwe
*Kǀoree-khoe ''or'' ǀOree-khwe
*ǁʼAiye ''or'' ǀAaye
*ǀXaise ''or'' ǀTaise
*Tshidi-khwe ''or'' Tcaiti ''or'' Sili ''or'' Shete Tsere
*Danisi ''or'' Demisa ''or'' Madenasse ''or'' Madinnisane
*Cara
*ǁGoro (ǁ᪶Oro) ''or'' ǀXaio
The term Hietshware (Hietʃware, Hietʃo) is used for varieties of both Shua and its sister-language
Tshwa
Tsoa, Tshwa or Tshuwau, also known as Kua and Hiechware, is an East Kalahari Khoe dialect cluster spoken by several thousand people in Botswana and Zimbabwe.
One of the dialects is Tjwao (formerly spelled 'Tshwao'), the only Khoisan langua ...
.
Tsʼixa (200 speakers) is evidently a distinct language.
References
External links
Shua basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
{{Languages of Botswana
Khoe languages
Languages of Botswana
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