| Kgalagadi | |
|---|---|
| Kalahari | |
| 'SheKgalagadi | |
| Native to | Botswana |
| Ethnicity | Kgalagadi |
| Native speakers | 65,400 (2015) |
| Language family | Niger-Congo |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xkv |
| Glottolog | kgal1244 |
| Guthrie code | S.311 (ex-S.31d) |
| ELP | Kgalagadi |
| Linguasphere | incl. varieties 99-AUT-eha to 99-AUT-ehc 99-AUT-eh incl. varieties 99-AUT-eha to 99-AUT-ehc |
Kgalagadi is a Bantu language spoken in Botswana, along the South African border. It is spoken by about 40,000 people. 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.
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 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.
- A voiceless trill may also occur phonemically among dialects, and may also be pronounced as breathy in intervocalic positions.
- /r/ may also be heard as a flap .
- /n/ may also be heard as in free variation, or when preceding dental stops.
- /qʰ/ may also be heard as in free variation.
- Lateral affricates may occur from loanwords.
- Sounds /z, ʒ/ can be pronounced in free variation as affricates in the Bolaongwe dialect.
- /h/ can be heard as voiced when in intervocalic positions.
Notes and references
- "Kgalagadi". Ethnologue. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
- ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
- Kgalagadi language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- 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. pp. 299–320.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - 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.
- Dickens, Patrick J. (1986). Qhalaxarzi phonology. University of the Witwatersrand.
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