Nǁng language

Common card · No. 269546

Nǁng ([ᵑǁŋ]) or Nǁŋǃke is an almost extinct Tuu language spoken in South Africa. It is commonly known by the ambiguous name of its only spoken dialect Nǀuu (Nǀhuki); the ǀʼAuni name for the Nǀuu, ǂKhomani, is used by the South African government. Nǁng had been thought extinct and was no longer spoken on a daily basis when rediscovered in the 1990s, as the two dozen elderly speakers lived in different villages and the younger generations had shifted to the Khoekhoe language. As of October 2025, all but one of the remaining fluent speakers of the Nǀuu dialect had died, their descendants having shifted to Khoekhoe and Afrikaans. The last living native speaker of N|uu, Katrina Esau, has been teaching it since 2002, albeit with limited means.

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