Khoemana - WikiHQ

ǃOrakobab, or Khoemana, also known as Korana, ǃOra, Xri

Documentation

Robust ǃOrakobab (before more recent language attrition) is principally recorded in an 1879 notebook by Lucy Lloyd, which contains five short stories; some additional work was done in Ponelis (1975). As of 2009, the EuroBABEL project is searching for remaining speakers.

History

The people and their language first began to attract scholarly attention in the 1660s, coinciding with Dutch colonial efforts in the Cape of Good Hope and the resulting armed conflicts.

Population

Reports as to the number of ǃOrakobab speakers are contradictory, but it is clear that it is nearly extinct. It was thought to be extinct until the discovery of four elderly speakers around Bloemfontein and Kimberley. A 2009 report by Don Killian of the University of Helsinki estimated that there were less than 30 speakers at the time. The discrepancies could be because the language has multiple dialects and goes by several names, with scholars not always referring to the same population. The loss of this endangered language would have a significant impact on the heritage and culture of ǃOrakobab speakers.

Phonology

ǃOrakobab (Khoemana) is closely related to Khoekhoe, and the sound systems are broadly similar.

Vowels

{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center

|+ ǃOrakobab vowels

! rowspan="2" |

! colspan="2" | Front

! Central

! colspan="2" | Back

! oral || nasal

! oral

! oral || nasal

! Close

| ||

! Mid

| ||

! Open

| ||

In Korana, [oe] and [oa] can be pronounced as [we] and [wa].

Consonants

The strongly aspirated Khoekhoe affricates are simply aspirated plosives in ǃOrakobab. However, ǃOrakobab has an ejective velar affricate, , which is not found in Khoekhoe, and a corresponding series of clicks, . Beach (1938) reported that the Khoekhoe of the time had a velar lateral ejective affricate, , a common realisation or allophone of in languages with clicks, and it might be expected that this is true for ǃOrakobab as well. In addition, about half of all lexical words in ǃOrakobab began with a click, compared to a quarter in Khoekhoe.

{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center

|+ ǃOrakobab non-click consonants

! colspan="2" |

! Labial

!Dental

! Alveolar

! Velar

! Glottal

! colspan="2" | Nasal

! rowspan="3" | Plosive

! voiceless

! aspirated

! voiced

! colspan="2" | Affricate ejective

! colspan="2" | Fricative

! colspan="2" | Trill

The phoneme [k] can be realized as /c/ before [e] or [i].
An intervocalic [p] and [b] are sometimes realized as /β/.
[s] is stated to be alveolar-postalveolar when not followed by a close front vowel [i], [ĩ], or [e].
The aspirated phoneme [tʰ] is realized as an affricate sound /ts/ when followed by a close front vowel [i], [ĩ], or [e].
The aspirated sound [kʰ] can sometimes be realized as [kx]. Some Griqua speakers may pronounce [kʰ] as [kʼ].
The [tsʼ] sound only seldom occurs.
[m] and [n] can occur syllabically as [m̩] and [n̩].
The trilled [r] can also be realized as a flapped [ɾ] in some speech.
Voicing can be very weak in Khoemana in casual speech, so voiced plosives can be hard to distinguish from voiceless plosives.