Sekele is the northern

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

of the ǃKung

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...

. It was widespread in southern

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

before the

Angolan Civil War The Angolan Civil War () was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war began immediately after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. It was a power struggle between two for ...

, 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 birth, place of origin. The word is used in reference to people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently resi ...

in northern

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

. There are also a number of

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

s 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 River The Cuando (or Kwando) is a river in south-central Africa flowing through Angola and Namibia's Caprivi Strip and into the Linyanti Swamp on the northern border of Botswana. Below the swamp, the river is called the Linyanti River and, farther east, ...

s; ::(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 The Okavango River (formerly spelt Okovango or Okovanggo), is a river in southwest Africa. It is known by this name in Botswana, and as Cubango in Angola, and Kavango in Namibia. It is the fourth-longest river system in southern Africa, runni ...

east of

Rundu Rundu is the capital and the largest city of the Kavango-East Region in northern Namibia. It lies on the border with Angola on the banks of the Kavango River, about above sea level. Rundu's population is growing rapidly. The 2001 census counted ...

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 vast hollow in the ground in which water may collect or in which a deposit of salt remains after water has evaporated. The 1 ...

; ::(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

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

s has been labeled Mangetti Dune ǃKung, and is spoken by a resettled diaspora community of 500–1000 in Namibia and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

in the settlements of Mangetti Dune and Omtaku, east of

Grootfontein Grootfontein (, named after the nearby hot springs) is a city with 26,839 inhabitants in the Otjozondjupa Region of central Namibia. It is one of the three towns in the Otavi Triangle, situated on the B8 road (Namibia), B8 national road that lead ...

, Namibia; and in Schmidtsdrif, west of

Kimberley, South Africa Kimberley is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is located approximately 110 km east of the confluence of the Vaal River, Vaal and Orange Rivers. The city has considerable historica ...

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 Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent conso ...

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 Database

ELAR archive of A Video and Text Documentation of Mangetti Dune ǃXung
{{Languages of Namibia Kx'a languages Languages of Angola Languages of Namibia