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Gǀui dialect
Gǀui or Gǀwi (pronounced /ˈɡwiː/ GWEE in English, and also spelled ǀGwi, ǀ᪶Ui, Dcui, Gcwi, or Cgui) is a Khoe dialect of Botswana with 2,500 speakers (2004 Cook). It is part of the Gǁana dialect cluster, and is closely related to Naro. It has a number of loan words from ǂʼAmkoe. Gǀui, ǂʼAmkoe, and Taa form the core of the Kalahari Basin sprachbund, and share a number of characteristic features, including extremely large consonant inventories.
Gǀui has 93 consonants (with 56 clicks) or 52 consonants (and 20 clicks), depending on analysis. There are ten vowels, and two to six tones, again depending on analysis.
Gǀui has 24 simple click consonants, plus complex clicks variously analyzed as consonant clusters or airstream contours. As with many of the Tshu–Khwe languages, clicks have lost some of their importance under the influence of neighboring Bantu languages. Many words which previously began with clicks (as shown by cognates in related languages) have lost them over the past few centuries in Gǀui. Nonetheless, Gǀui has the largest known inventory of clicks of any Khoe language.
Gǀui has been described with a contrast between velar and uvular clicks. However, all Gǀui clicks are uvular (or pharyngeal); the 'uvular' part of the latter is part of an airstream contour, a transition from a click to a non-click release: effectively, the click transitions into a non-click consonant. (See Nǁng language for a similar situation in another language.) Nakagawa proposes that the contour and glottalized clicks are not single sounds, but sequences of a click and a uvular or glottal consonant, though Miller (2011) notes that such an analysis creates problems when extended to other languages with clicks.
Altogether there are thirteen such series, or "accompaniments", and all 52 possible combinations are found. Except for the lack of bilabial clicks, the inventory is nearly identical to that of some speakers of ǂʼAmkoe, which is in intense contact with Gǀui and may have borrowed some of its clicks from Gǀui, and lost others not found in Gǀui.
Miller (2011), in a comparative study with other languages, interprets Nakagawa's description as follows. (Nakagawa's ⟨kǃʔ⟩ and ⟨ǃqxʼ⟩ are analyzed as [ᵑǃˀ] and [ǃ͡kxʼ], respectively.)
The voiced contour ('uvular') clicks tend to be prenasalized, [ɴǃɢ]. As in the majority of languages with clicks, the glottalized nasal series /ᵑǃˀ/ are pronounced with a glottal release [ǃˀ] in initial position, and prenasalized [ᵑˀǃ] after a vowel. The contrast between glottalized oral and glottalized nasal clicks is unusual, but has also been reported from ǂʼAmkoe and Yeyi since Nakagawa announced its discovery in Gǀui. The Khute dialect of Gǀui also has preglottalized nasal clicks allophonically. They developed from glottalized nasal clicks before pharyngealized vowels, perhaps under ǂʼAmkoe influence:
Most words are of the form CV, CVV, CVCV, CVN, where C stands for a consonant, V for a vowel, and N for a nasal consonant /m, n/. In CVCV words, only a limited set of consonants /b m ɾ n j w/ may occur in medial position (the second syllable). Of these, two /n, ɾ/ may not occur at the beginning of a word, and due to restrictions with nasal vowels may be argued to be allophonic. The /n, ɾ/ is pronounced [l] after a lateral click or a pharyngeal vowel. /ŋ/ only occurs in mimesis. /tʼ/ occurs in a single word, t'aa 'to carve', which is not widely known.
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Gǀui dialect
Gǀui or Gǀwi (pronounced /ˈɡwiː/ GWEE in English, and also spelled ǀGwi, ǀ᪶Ui, Dcui, Gcwi, or Cgui) is a Khoe dialect of Botswana with 2,500 speakers (2004 Cook). It is part of the Gǁana dialect cluster, and is closely related to Naro. It has a number of loan words from ǂʼAmkoe. Gǀui, ǂʼAmkoe, and Taa form the core of the Kalahari Basin sprachbund, and share a number of characteristic features, including extremely large consonant inventories.
Gǀui has 93 consonants (with 56 clicks) or 52 consonants (and 20 clicks), depending on analysis. There are ten vowels, and two to six tones, again depending on analysis.
Gǀui has 24 simple click consonants, plus complex clicks variously analyzed as consonant clusters or airstream contours. As with many of the Tshu–Khwe languages, clicks have lost some of their importance under the influence of neighboring Bantu languages. Many words which previously began with clicks (as shown by cognates in related languages) have lost them over the past few centuries in Gǀui. Nonetheless, Gǀui has the largest known inventory of clicks of any Khoe language.
Gǀui has been described with a contrast between velar and uvular clicks. However, all Gǀui clicks are uvular (or pharyngeal); the 'uvular' part of the latter is part of an airstream contour, a transition from a click to a non-click release: effectively, the click transitions into a non-click consonant. (See Nǁng language for a similar situation in another language.) Nakagawa proposes that the contour and glottalized clicks are not single sounds, but sequences of a click and a uvular or glottal consonant, though Miller (2011) notes that such an analysis creates problems when extended to other languages with clicks.
Altogether there are thirteen such series, or "accompaniments", and all 52 possible combinations are found. Except for the lack of bilabial clicks, the inventory is nearly identical to that of some speakers of ǂʼAmkoe, which is in intense contact with Gǀui and may have borrowed some of its clicks from Gǀui, and lost others not found in Gǀui.
Miller (2011), in a comparative study with other languages, interprets Nakagawa's description as follows. (Nakagawa's ⟨kǃʔ⟩ and ⟨ǃqxʼ⟩ are analyzed as [ᵑǃˀ] and [ǃ͡kxʼ], respectively.)
The voiced contour ('uvular') clicks tend to be prenasalized, [ɴǃɢ]. As in the majority of languages with clicks, the glottalized nasal series /ᵑǃˀ/ are pronounced with a glottal release [ǃˀ] in initial position, and prenasalized [ᵑˀǃ] after a vowel. The contrast between glottalized oral and glottalized nasal clicks is unusual, but has also been reported from ǂʼAmkoe and Yeyi since Nakagawa announced its discovery in Gǀui. The Khute dialect of Gǀui also has preglottalized nasal clicks allophonically. They developed from glottalized nasal clicks before pharyngealized vowels, perhaps under ǂʼAmkoe influence:
Most words are of the form CV, CVV, CVCV, CVN, where C stands for a consonant, V for a vowel, and N for a nasal consonant /m, n/. In CVCV words, only a limited set of consonants /b m ɾ n j w/ may occur in medial position (the second syllable). Of these, two /n, ɾ/ may not occur at the beginning of a word, and due to restrictions with nasal vowels may be argued to be allophonic. The /n, ɾ/ is pronounced [l] after a lateral click or a pharyngeal vowel. /ŋ/ only occurs in mimesis. /tʼ/ occurs in a single word, t'aa 'to carve', which is not widely known.