A South African Language with 45 Clicks

With an astonishing 45 click sounds in its repertoire, the San language N|uu stands as one of the most remarkable examples of cultural diversity.

On the outskirts of Upington in the Northern Cape of South Africa lives a queen. She is old – and when she dies, perhaps not only will she vanish, but a whole linguistic heritage as well.

Katrina Esau is 88 years old. Her community crowned her as the queen of the western Nǁnǂe (ǂKhomani) San in 2015. A year earlier, the then-president Jacob Zuma awarded her the National Baobab Order in Silver.

For decades, Esau remained largely unnoticed. Her people, the San, to which the western Nǁnǂe (ǂKhomani) belong, have learned to survive inconspicuously. Initially hunters and gatherers in southern Africa, they later lived in the shadow of those who harmed them.

Esau was born on a farm where her parents worked. The African owner called her “Geelmeid” – “meid” means maid, and “geel” (yellow) was used derogatorily to refer to her skin tone. Some still call her Ouma Geelmeid today. For many, she is Queen Katrina.

The farm owner forbade her from speaking her mother tongue N|uu – a language with roots in the origins of humanity. Instead, she spoke Afrikaans, which became a disguise for almost her entire life.

N|uu is one of the last linguistic connections to the earliest humans – the hunters and gatherers in southern and eastern Africa.

Cut off on the farm, Esau began to speak Afrikaans and “buried” her own language. This burial was just one of many.

In 1931, the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park was opened, now part of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. The ǂKhomani were displaced, their community scattered – and with it, the last closed linguistic area of N|uu broke apart.

Children were henceforth born into a world of Afrikaans.

Alongside !Xun (Namibia), ǂAmkoe, and Taa (Botswana), N|uu is one of the last click languages directly linked to the early humans of Africa. All face extinction: ǂAmkoe has about 1,000 speakers, Taa around 3,000, and !Xun between 14,000 and 18,000.

In contrast, N|uu has only two speakers left: Esau and her brother Simon Sauls.

We do not know exactly when the N|uu language developed. It is too old to be dated explicitly. However, if it disappears – like many of the world's 600 to 800 endangered languages – we lose more than just a historical relic.

English has about 44 phonemes. N|uu, however, has 114.

Particularly remarkable are the click sounds. The symbol “|” in N|uu represents a dental click produced by quickly releasing the tongue from the upper teeth.

One hundred years ago, it is estimated that over 100 indigenous click languages were spoken in southern and eastern Africa. N|uu distinguishes an incredible 45 different clicks – a linguistic fireworks display.

A highlight is the extremely rare bilabial “kiss-click,” which sounds like a blown kiss. It exists in only two languages worldwide, including Taa.

As Esau aged, her desire to pass on N|uu grew. In the early 2000s, she began teaching in a small classroom in her front yard in Rosedale near Upington – with song, dance, and play.

Her students, aged between three and 19 years, are the only N|uu learners worldwide.

Linguists developed orthography and teaching materials together with her. Her granddaughter Claudia Snyman now teaches the written form. Esau herself cannot read.

The children's book “Turtle and Ostrich” was published in N|uu, Afrikaans, and English.

However, the beauty of the language should not be romanticized. The history of the San is marked by dispossession and exclusion.

The !Khwa ttu Heritage Centre near Cape Town sees itself as a “messenger” of the San. It aims to break stereotypes of the “last bushman” and tell the real story.

“Our land was taken from us. We have a hard history,” representatives of the centre explain.

The term bushman originates from the Dutch “Boesman.” “San” itself is also a foreign term, originally coined by the Khoikhoi.

Today, between 120,000 and 140,000 San live in southern Africa: about 60,000 in Botswana, 40,000 in Namibia, and smaller groups in South Africa, Angola, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Many no longer own land. Traditional knowledge is now conveyed, among other things, in eco-tourism – such as knowledge about medicinal plants and ethnobotany.

Visitors encounter San as tour guides, staff, or cultural ambassadors. Hearing their stories firsthand is a privilege.

However, many San hesitate to openly acknowledge their identity. The history of marginalization runs deep.

South Africa has eleven official languages – none of which belong to the first inhabitants of the country. Land rights remain rare, and resources are scarce.

A glimmer of hope is the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act, which allows representatives of the San political input and could strengthen land claims in the long run.

One woman states clearly: “I am a San.”

Katrina Esau – queen of a language she hopes will not die with her.