by davoomac on April 26th, 2006

davoomac

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Is it true there is a language that involves only making noises with your tongue?

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  • by Alatea on April 27th, 2006

    Alatea

    A Click language is a tribal tongue of Africa which is using Click consonants in its phonetic functions. Today only 30 Click languages survive and are spoken by indigenous tribes in the southern and eastern part of Africa. The only Click language which is known to have existed outside the African continent is Damin in Australia. The African Click languages belong to various linguistic groups that are most likely unrelated to each other. As the usage of Clicks doesn't imply a common linguistic origin, it is assumed that it was adapted via tribal contacts that took place at prehistoric times.

    These groups include all Southern African languages of:
    Khwe (Hottentots)
    San (Bushmen)

    Two other Click languages that are spoken by a small number of people in central Tanzania are:
    Hadza
    Sandawe

    Finally the Nguni-branch of the Bantu branch includes the following Click languages:

    Xhosa
    Zulu
    Ndebele
    Swazi
    Sotho
    pidgin Fanagalo
    It is most likely that the Bantu adopted Clicks from the San people who dwelled in their region during their arrival.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_language

    Xhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa. It is spoken by approximately 7.9 million people, about 18% of the South African population. Click consonants feature prominently in the sounds of this language. Even the name, "Xhosa", begins with a click.

    Xhosa has a simple set of vowels, but it is rich in uncommon consonants. Besides normal pulmonic egressive sounds, as in English, it has twelve clicks, plus ejectives and an implosive. The four dental clicks are made with the tongue on the back of the teeth, and are similar to the sound represented in English by "tut-tut" or "tsk-tsk" to reprimand someone. The second four are lateral, made by the tongue at the sides of the mouth, and are similar to the sound used to call horses. The remaining four are alveolar, made with the tip of the tongue at the roof of the mouth, and sound something like a cork pulled from a bottle. Xhosa is also a tone language with two inherent tones, low and high, and has both long and short vowels. Vowels are murmured after some consonants.

    Xhosa is written using the Latin alphabet. Clicks are written using c for the dental clicks, x for the lateral clicks, and q for the alveolar clicks.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xhosa_language

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