Khoisan Languages and Linguistics QUELLEN ZUR KHOISAN -FORSCHUNG RESEARCH IN KHOISAN STUDIES Herausgegeben von Rainer Voßen Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main ISSN 0176 - 3369 Band 36 Khoisan Languages and Linguistics Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium July 11-13, 2011, Riezlern/Kleinwalsertal Anne-Maria Fehn (ed.) With the assistance of Falko Berthold RÜDIGER KÖPPE VERLAG KÖLN 2017 This series is primarily concerned with the publication of source material on the language, history and culture of the Khoisan speaking population of Africa. It furthermore provides a forum for the presentation and discussion of analytical linguistic studies. The series will appear at irregular intervals and comprises both monographs and collections of papers. Contributions should be addressed to: Rainer Voßen, Institut für Afrikanistik Bockenheimer Landstrasse 133 Sozialzentrum Neue Mensa (5. OG) Campus Bockenheim Hauspostfach 144 60325 Frankfurt am Main Germany The contributions to this volume have been double peer reviewed. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Natio- nalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. ISBN 978-3-89645-880-3 © 2017 The Editor RÜDIGER KÖPPE VERLAG P.O. Box 45 06 43 50881 Cologne Germany www.koeppe.de All rights reserved. Printed with support from the Vereinigung von Freunden und Förderern der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Production: Heimdall DTP & Verlagsservice, Rheine / Germany â Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability. Table of Contents Preface 7 Edward D. ELDERKIN The flora and fauna of proto Khoe 9 Christoph WIRSCHING Indefiniteness in Khoekhoegowab 49 Christian J. RAPOLD Tone in Tsumeb and Grootfontein Khoekhoe 71 Andy CHEBANNE & Chris COLLINS Tense and aspect in Kua: A preliminary assessment 91 Hirosi NAKAGAWA ǂHaba lexical tonology 109 Anne-Maria FEHN Marking direct objects in Ts’ixa (Kalahari Khoe) 121 Falko BERTHOLD & Linda GERLACH Serial verb constructions in N!aqriaxe 157 Bonny SANDS, Andy CHEBANNE & Sheena SHAH Hunting terminology in ǂHoan 185 Gertrud BODEN Variation and change in Taa kinship terminologies 213 Wilhelm J. G. MÖHLIG Traces of Central Khoisan in a Bantu text of the Middle Kavango: The Tjaube Chronicle 245 Bernhard KÖHLER Typological peculiarities in Khoisan and Omotic languages: A comparison 267 Preface Anne-Maria Fehn This volume presents a collection of papers which arose from talks given at the 4th International Symposium of Khoisan Languages and Linguistics, July 11-13, 2011, in Riezlern/Kleinwalsertal. Individual articles cover data from both well-described and lesser known varieties of the Khoe- Kwadi, Kx’a and Tuu language families, ranging from Cultural Anthropol- ogy to Historical Linguistics and Comparative Typology. The first part is devoted to the Khoe-Kwadi language family, starting with ELDERKIN’s exploration of the flora and fauna known to speakers of Proto-Khoe as deductible from reconstructions based on available data. The papers by WIRSCHING and RAPOLD both deal with the family’s Khoe- khoe branch: WIRSCHING discusses indefiniteness as illustrated by a piece of modern Khoekhoe literature, while RAPOLD analyses tone in the vari- eties spoken at Tsumeb and Grootfontein. The volume further features data from three under-documented Kalahari Khoe languages: First, CHEBANNE AND COLLINS provide an overview of tense and aspect marking in “Kua”, a language probably forming part of the Gǀui-Gǁana cluster; NAKAGAWA presents evidence from ǂHaba tonology which suggests a closer link with Naro; finally, FEHN discusses the pragmatic implications of direct object marking in Ts’ixa, a little known language of the Okavango Delta with affinities to both the Khwe and Shua dialect clusters. The second part focuses on the Non-Khoe languages and includes two papers on the Kx’a family’s ǂ’Amkoe subgroup: BERTHOLD AND GERLACH dis- cuss Serial Verb Constructions in the N!aqriaxe dialect, and SANDS, CHEBANNE AND SHAH deal with hunting terminology, including gesture use, in ǂHoan. The Tuu family’s Taa branch is the subject of BODEN’s paper, who discusses variation in kinship terminology. In the concluding section, two papers treat contact phenomena and ty- pological characteristics linking the southern African “Khoisan” languages to the broader spectrum of African linguistic diversity: MÖHLIG investi- gates traces of Khoe influence on a Bantu text from the Kavango area, 8 Preface while KÖHLER compares typological peculiarities of “Khoisan” and Omotic languages. On a final note, the editors would like to extend their thanks to the organizers of the symposium, Rainer Voßen and Bernd Heine, to the refer- ees generously providing comments on preliminary versions of the papers assembled in this volume, and to all the authors contributing their re- search. Hunting terminology in ǂHoan1 Bonny Sands (Northern Arizona University)2 Andy Chebanne (University of Botswana) Sheena Shah (SOAS University of London) 1. Introduction Given the importance of Khoisan3 language-speaking groups to hunter- gatherer studies, we might want to ask ourselves as linguists how we can improve our documentation of the hunter-gatherer legacy of Khoisan- speaking peoples. Although linguistic data is central to the study of kin- ship systems, for instance (e.g., Barnard 1992; Boden, this volume), it has played less of a role in hunter-gatherer studies generally. There are numerous ways in which hunting and gathering may be ad- dressed through linguistic data, and there is no clear way to delimit the topic given that food and work are major concerns of daily life. For in- stance, orienteering is an important skill for foragers which could be the focus of a linguistic study (e.g., Brenzinger 2008). Or, one might try to record texts showing how children acquire foraging techniques; how dig- ging sticks are fashioned; or how meat from kills is butchered, carried and distributed (e.g., Bleek & Lloyd 1911: 275ff.), etc. Linguists can document texts directly related to hunting and gathering (e.g., Köhler 1991). One may record procedural texts (“how does one go about finding truffles?”) as well as personal narratives (“Can you tell me about the time you killed an elephant?”) and discussions of traditional practices and beliefs. Different genres (songs, riddles, proverbs, etc.) may touch on attitudes regarding foraging. Even folk tales with animal protag- 1 The same lect called ǂHoan here is referred to as ǂʼAmkoe in Sands & Honken (2014). 2 ([email protected]) 3 The term Khoisan is used here as shorthand for “non-Bantu, non-Cushitic African click languages” and is not meant to imply any genealogical unity between the languages. 186 Bonny Sands, Andy Chebanne & Sheena Shah onists (e.g., Bala 1998) may include descriptions of hunting and gather- ing. The lexicon is, of course, a crucial repository for cultural information (cf. Evans 2010; Nettle & Romaine 2000, etc.). For instance, lexical avoid- ance or taboo terms for animals in !Xóõ often describe behavioural char- acteristics or other prominent features (Traill 1998), things that hunters would need to know. Terms for “taste” verbs in G|ui (Tanaka & Sugawara 2010: 69) indicate which foods are preferred and which are dispreferred. In this paper, we will describe ǂHoan linguistic forms used while hunt- ing, and for talking about hunting. Spoken language is avoided during hunting, but a set of conventionalised gestures is used. Thus, both oral and manual lexical forms are presented here. In addition to providing new data on ǂHoan, we hope to show how the use of a Kalahari-specific lexical elicitation guide can be an important aid in short-term fieldwork. Due to constraints of space and time, we will not discuss vocabulary related to plants and the gathering of plant and animal foods; the distinction be- tween hunting and gathering implied here is an artificial one. 2. Data The data in this paper comes from fieldwork on ǂHoan conducted in Bo- tswana in September 26 October 8, 2010 by the authors, with funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation.4 Transcriptions of ǂHoan in this paper are preliminary, impressionistic phonetic transcriptions rather than phonemic transcriptions. We largely follow the contrasts described in Bell and Collins (2001). ǂHoan is a very endangered language (Gerlach & Berthold 2011) which to date has had relatively sparse lexical documen- tation (but, cf. Gruber 1973, 1975; Collins & Gruber 2014, forthcoming). 4 This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant #BCS-0726200 and BCS-0726198: “Collaborative Research: Phonetic and Phonological Structures of Post-velar Constrictions in Clicks and Laterals”. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Hunting terminology in ǂHoan 187 The ǂHoan speakers consulted for this study live in Dutlwe and Tshwaane (Kweneng District, Botswana), and range in age from middle-aged to elderly. The two older male consultants have primarily been hunter- gatherers, but both also worked in the South African gold mines in the 1960s. The younger male consultants have primarily worked as herders when younger, but now primarily do temporary (agricultural) work. All consultants, however, seemed equally familiar with the gestures and vo- cabulary related to hunting documented here. This is unsurprising since subsistence hunting is still commonly practiced in the area (cf. Cassidy et al. 2001: A-66). 3. Direct lexical elicitation We used direct lexical elicitation in order to record a database of repeti- tions of numerous lexical items produced by several speakers as part of a larger phonetic study to document the sounds of ǂHoan (cf. Bell & Collins 2001). Often for phonetic studies, words are elicited in sets that reflect different targeted sounds (cf. Ladefoged 2003). We chose to elicit words in semantic sets in part because this tends to help the translations be more precise.