Tshwa language

Tsoa
Kua
Hiechware
Native to	Botswana, Zimbabwe
Native speakers	4,100 Tshwa and Shua (2008)
Language family	Khoe Kalahari (Tshu–Khwe) East Tsoa
Dialects	Hiechware Cua Cire Cire
Official status
Official language in	Zimbabwe (as 'Khoisan')
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: hio – Tsoa tyu – Kua
Glottolog	tshw1239

Tsoa or Tshwa, also known as Kua and Hiechware, is an East Kalahari Khoe dialect cluster spoken by several thousand people in Botswana and Zimbabwe.

One of the dialects is Tshwao, the only Khoisan language in Zimbabwe, where "Koisan" is a language officially recognized in the constitution.

Dialects

Tsoa–Kua is a dialect cluster, which is still poorly studied but seems to include:

• Tsoa, also known as Hiechware and as various other combinations of Hio-, Hie-, Hai- + Chwa, Tshwa, Chuwau, Tshuwau + -re, -ri; also as Sarwa, Sesarwa (the Tswana name), Gǁabake-Ntshori, Tati, and Kwe-Etshori Kwee. Zimbabwean Tshwao apparently belongs here.

• Kua, also spelled Cua and Tyhua. That is, both Tsoa and Kua may be pronounced something like [tʃwa], and it's not clear that they are distinct dialects.

• Cire Cire [tʃire tʃire]

Phonology

The Cire-cire dialect has the following consonant inventory:

Consonant phonemes of Tsoa

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Lateral	Post- alveolar	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal click		ᵑǀ	(ᵑǃ)	ᵑǁ	(ᵑǂ)
Oral click		ǀ ᶢǀ ǀʰ	(ǃ ᶢǃ ǃʰ)	ǁ ᶢǁ ǁʰ	(ǂ ᶢǂ ǂʰ)
Glottalized click		ǀˀ		ǁˀ
Affricate click		(ǀqχ)		(ǁqχ)
Nasal stop	m		n
Oral stop	p   b		t   d			k   ɡ	q	ʔ
Affricate			dz		tʃ   dʒ
Fricative			s   z		ʃ		χ
Approximant				l

The clicks have a very uneven distribution: Only a dozen words begin with one of the palatal clicks (ǂ), and these are replaced by dental clicks (ǀ) among younger speakers. Only half a dozen words start with one of the alveolar clicks (ǃ), and half a dozen more with one of the affricated clicks. These rather marginal sounds are placed in parentheses in the chart.

Tsoa has the five vowels /a e i o u/. It is not clear if Tsoa has long vowels, or simply sequences of identical vowels /aa ee ii oo uu/.

There are two tones, high and low, plus a few cases of mid tone.

In the northern dialect of Kua, like all other East Kalahari Khoe languages, the palatal click series has become palatal stops. Southern Kua has retained the palatal clicks, but the dental stops have palatalized, as they have in Gǀui and ǂ’Amkoe. Thus northern Kua has /ɟua/ 'ash' and /d̪u/ 'eland', whereas southern Kua has ᶢǂua 'ash' and /d̪ʲu/ (or perhaps /ɟu/) 'eland'.

Bibliography

Vossen, Rainer (ed.). 2013a. The Khoesan Languages. London & New York: Routledge.

External links

• Kua/Tsua basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database