Khoisan (was: Basque & Katzner's Languages of the World)

--- You wrote:
Katzner doesn't use "Bushman" to refer to the whole family - he does in fact
call the family Khoisan. Within that family, he lists a few languages:
Bushman, Hottentot, Sandawe, Hatsa (Hadzapi).
--- end of quote ---

Incidentally, a colleague of mine at UCLA wrote her dissertation about the historical
reconstruction of the Khoisan family. On the basis of detailed lexical and
grammatical comparison, she makes the case that Hadza and Sandawe (which are
spoken in Tanzania) don't belong to the Khoisan family at all--that they're
completely unrelated to the Hottentot/Bushman languages of southern Africa.
Apparently the only reason people thought that Hadza and Sandawe were Khoisan
languages was the fact that they have click sounds, which are otherwise so
rare.

Matt.

Matthew Pearson
Department of Linguistics
Reed College
3203 SE Woodstock Blvd
Portland, OR 97202
503 771 1112 x 7618

Reply