Sekele language
 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (April 2015) |
| Sekele | |
|---|---|
| Northern ǃXuun | |
| Vasekela | |
| Native to | Namibia, Angola |
| Region | Okavango and Ovamboland Territory |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | vaj |
| Glottolog | oung1238 |
Sekele (Vasekele, the Angolan Bantu name), or Northern ǃXuun (Northern Ju); also known by the outdated term ǃʼOǃKung (ǃʼO ǃuŋ, [ǃˀoːǃʰũ]) "Forest ǃKung" and in one source as Maligo (Sekele Maligo), is the northern variety of the !Kung (ǃXuun) dialect continuum. It was widespread in southern Angola before the civil war, but now is principally spoken among a diaspora in northern Namibia.
A variety currently being investigated is Mangetti Dune !Kung, spoken by a resettled diaspora community of 500–1000 in Namibia and South Africa in the settlements of Mangetti Dune and Omtaku (Omatako?), east of Grootfontein, Namibia, halfway to the Botswana border; and in Schmidtsdrif, west of Kimberley, South Africa.
Phonology
Mangetti Dune has clicks with four places of articulation, /ǃ ǀ ǁ ǂ/. (A reported distinction between dental lateral and postalveolar lateral clicks has not been confirmed by further research.)
These come in the same eight series as in Grootfontein !Kung, here represented with the palatal articulation:
- Lingual /ǂ ǂʰ ᶢǂ ᵑǂ ᵑ̊ǂʰ/
- glottalized /ᵑ̊ǂˀ/
- linguo-pulmonic /ǂχ/
- linguo-glottalic /ǂ͡kxʼ/
References
- Snyman, Jan Winston. 1980. The Relationship Between Angolan ǃXu and Zuǀʼõasi. In Bushman and Hottentot Linguistic Studies 1979, pp. 1–58. Ed. Snyman, J. W.. University of South Africa (UNISA), Pretoria.
- Miller, Amanda et al.. 2011. "The Phonetics of the Modernday Reflexes of the Proto‐palatal Click in Juu Languages" (Ekoka and Mangetti Dune)