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Article published In:
Diachronica
Vol. 40:5 (2023) ► pp.609–665

Lost in translation

A historical-comparative reconstruction of Proto-Khoe-Kwadi based on archival data

ORCID logo | CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos | BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning
ORCID logo | CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos | BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning | Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto
Here, we provide new perspectives on the relationship between the extinct Angolan language Kwadi and the Khoe languages of southern Africa. Using an innovative approach which combines newly collected data from two Kwadi rememberers with a reanalysis of historical recordings and fieldnotes, we were able to reconstitute the Kwadi phoneme inventory and relate Kwadi to Proto-Khoe and its daughter branches Khoekhoe and Kalahari Khoe through regular sound correspondences. Our reconstruction of 127 lexical roots in form and meaning provides further evidence for a Khoe-Kwadi language family and shows that the lexical and phonological proximity between Proto-Khoe-Kwadi and Proto-Khoe is closer than would be expected from the significant differences that Khoe and Kwadi display in the domains of morphology and syntax. Taken together, our study contributes to a better understanding of diachronic sound change in languages with phonemic click sounds and introduces novel ways to incorporate different historical data sources.
Keywords: Southern African Khoisan, Khoe-Kwadi, historical-comparative method, language contact, click consonants, Southern African prehistory
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The Kwadi phoneme inventory and phonotactic structure
    • 2.1The Kwadi phoneme inventory
      • 2.1.1The consonant inventory
        • 2.1.1.1Non-click consonants
        • 2.1.1.2Click consonants
      • 2.1.2The vowel inventory
    • 2.2The Kwadi root template
  • 3.Correspondences between Khoe and Kwadi
    • 3.1Correspondences involving stops
      • 3.1.1Correspondences involving bilabial stops
      • 3.1.2Correspondences involving alveolar stops
      • 3.1.3Correspondences involving velar stops
      • 3.1.4Correspondences involving the glottal stop
      • 3.1.5An additional stop series?
    • 3.2Correspondences involving affricates
    • 3.4Correspondences involving nasal consonants
    • 3.5Correspondences involving fricatives
    • 3.6Correspondences involving clicks
      • 3.6.1Correspondences involving the dental ǀ click series
      • 3.6.2Correspondences involving the palatal ǂ click series
      • 3.6.3Correspondences involving the alveolar ! click series
      • 3.6.4Correspondences involving the lateral ǁ click series
      • 3.6.5Correspondences involving an additional click series?
      • 3.7Correspondences involving oral vowels
        • 3.7.1CV(V) roots with a (bimoraic) monophthong
        • 3.7.2CV(V) roots with a vowel sequence
      • 3.8Correspondences involving nasal vowels
        • 3.8.1CV(V) roots with a (bimoraic) nasal monophthong
        • 3.8.2CV(V) roots with a nasal vowel sequence
  • 4.The reconstructed phoneme inventory of pKhoe-Kwadi
    • 4.1The consonants of pKhoe-Kwadi
    • 4.2The vowels of pKhoe-Kwadi
  • 5.Discussion
  • Supplemental material
  • Author contributions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 9 January 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.23022.feh
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