| Altname | Kalahari |
|---|---|
| Nativename | SheKgalagadi |
| States | Botswana |
| Speakers | 65,400 |
| Date | 2015 |
| Ref | [1] |
| Familycolor | Niger-Congo |
| Fam 2 | Atlantic–Congo |
| Fam 3 | Volta-Congo |
| Fam 4 | Benue–Congo |
| Fam 5 | Bantoid |
| Fam 6 | Southern Bantoid |
| Iso 3 | xkv |
| Glotto | kgal1244 |
| Glottorefname | Kgalagadi |
| Lingua | 99-AUT-eh incl. varieties 99-AUT-eha to 99-AUT-ehc |
| Guthrie | S.311 (ex-S.31d) |
| Ethnicity | Kgalagadi |
| Fam 7 | Bantu |
| Fam 1 | Niger-Congo |
| Fam 8 | Southern Bantu |
| Fam 9 | Sotho–Tswana |
Kgalagadi is a Bantu language spoken in Botswana, along the South African border. It is spoken by about 40,000 people.[2] In the language, it is known as Shekgalagari.
Classification
Kgalagadi (also rendered Kgalagari, Kgalagarhi, Kgalagari, Khalagari, Khalakadi, Kxhalaxadi, Qhalaxarzi, Shekgalagadi, Shekgalagari, Kqalaqadi) is most closely related to Tswana, and until recently was classified as a dialect of Tswana.[3]
Dialects include Shengologa, Sheshaga, Shebolaongwe, Shelala, Shekhena, Sheritjhauba and Shekgwatheng.
Phonology
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e ~ ɪ | o ~ ʊ | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a |
- Close-mid vowels /e, o/ are frequently heard as near-close sounds [ɪ, ʊ] among speakers in free variation.
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | plain | lab. | plain | lab. | |||||||
| Stop | voiceless | p | t̪ | c | cʷ | k | q | |||||
| aspirated | pʰ | t̪ʰ | cʰ | cʰʷ | kʰ | qʰ | ||||||
| voiced | b | d̪ | ɟ | g | ||||||||
| Affricate | voiceless | t͡s | t͡sʷ | t͡ʃ | t͡ʃʷ | |||||||
| aspirated | t͡sʰ | t͡sʰʷ | t͡ʃʰ | t͡ʃʰʷ | ||||||||
| voiced | (d͡z) | d͡ʒ | ||||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | s | ʃ | ʃʷ | χ | h | ||||||
| voiced | z | ʒ | ʒʷ | (ɦ) | ||||||||
| Nasal | m | (n̪) | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||||||||
- Click sounds /ʘ, ǀ, ǀŋ, ǃŋ/ are also said to occur, but mostly in rare cases.[4]
- A voiceless trill [r̥] may also occur phonemically among dialects, and may also be pronounced as breathy [r̤] in intervocalic positions.
- /r/ may also be heard as a flap [ɾ].
- /n/ may also be heard as [n̪] in free variation, or when preceding dental stops.
- /qʰ/ may also be heard as [q͡χʰ] in free variation.
- Lateral affricates [t͡ɬ, t͡ɬʰ] may occur from loanwords.[5]
- Sounds /z, ʒ/ can be pronounced in free variation as affricates [d͡z, d͡ʒ] in the Bolaongwe dialect.
- /h/ can be heard as voiced [ɦ] when in intervocalic positions.[6]
Notes and references
- ^ "Kgalagadi". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
- ^
- ^ Guthrie
- ^ Solé, Maria-Josep; Hyman, Larry M.; Monaka, Kemmonye C. (2009). "More on Post-nasal Devoicing: The Case of Shekgalagari". UC Berkeley PhonLab Annual Report. 5: 299–320. doi:10.5070/P70gk0g18d
- ^ Lukusa, Stephen T. M. & Kemmonye, C. Monaka (2008). Shekgalagari grammar: A descriptive analysis of the language and its vocabulary. Cape Town: Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society. OCLC 391963723
- ^ Dickens, Patrick J. (1986). Qhalaxarzi phonology (MA). University of the Witwatersrand.