Khoisan

Also known as Khoisan languages

group of African language families with click consonants

AI overview

The Khoisan languages are a group of African languages known for their distinctive click consonant sounds, which are produced by making clicking noises with the tongue and lips. These languages are historically significant because they represent some of the oldest human language families and offer unique insights into linguistic diversity and the early settlement patterns of southern Africa.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

In the Vinony graph

Within Vinony's link graph, Khoisan is referenced by 233 other articles, and connects out to language family, Khoekhoe and click consonant.

It is catalogued under topics including Families rejected by Glottolog, Khoisan languages and Proposed language families.

Its subject is documented across 69 Wikipedia language editions.

Wikidata facts

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Commons category: Khoisan languages
number of speakers, writers, or signers: 370000
exact match: data.linguistik.de/bll/bll-ontology#bll-133101452

Sources (2)

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Encyclopedic overview

The Khoisan languages (/ˈkɔɪsɑːn/ KOY-sahn; also Khoesan or Khoesaan) are a number of African languages once classified together, originally by Joseph Greenberg. Khoisan is defined as those languages that have click consonants and do not belong to other African language families. For much of the 20th century, they were thought to be genealogically related to each other, but this is no longer accepted. They are now held to comprise three distinct language families and two language isolates.

All but two Khoisan languages are indigenous to southern Africa; these are classified into three language families. The Khoe family appears to have migrated to southern Africa not long before the Bantu expansion. Ethnically, their speakers are the Khoekhoe and the San (Bushmen). Two languages of eastern Africa, those of the Sandawe and Hadza, were originally also classified as Khoisan, although their speakers are ethnically neither Khoekhoe nor San.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Khoisan” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.