ǀXam language

Common card · No. 424498

ǀXam (pronounced [ǀ͡kxam] , ǀXam: ǀXam-ka ǃei, in English as KAHM) is an extinct language (or possibly cluster of languages) from South Africa formerly spoken by the ǀXam people. It is part of the ǃUi branch of the Tuu languages and closely related to the moribund Nǁng and Tumʔi languages, the latter of which might be at least partially composed of words from ǀXam. Apart from the possibility of it continuing as Tumʔi, the last known speakers died in the 1910s. Much of the scholarly work on ǀXam was performed by Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd. Wilhelm Bleek, a German linguist of the 19th century based in Cape Town, first studied a variety of ǀXam spoken at Achterveld. Later, he and Lloyd spent decades working with ǁkabbo, Diaǃkwāin, ǀaǃkúṅta, ǃkweiten-ta-ǁken, ǀhaṅǂkassʼō and other speakers to document the dialects spoken by the clans in the area of the Strandberg (Clan of the 'Plain people') and Katkop mountains (Clan of the 'Grass People'), and to capture their stories and mythology. The...

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