Hanscom - Language of the !Kung

I took an anthropology class in high school where we had to read an ethnography about the African tribe called the !Kung. The native speakers of the !Kung could be found in Namibia, Angola, South Africa, and Botswana. I found their language to be very interesting because they use 'clicks' in their speech, which is designated as '!' when it's written. There language also has the most complex combinations of both consonant and vowels. The !Kung language contains at least eleven and fifteen dialects, but there are four main distinct dialects of the language studied by researchers today.

I watched a short documentary recently on the !Kung produced by National Geographic. In the video, they explain how researchers believe that all of our languages once contained click sounds, and that the !Kung's language is the last one remaining that is the most original. I thought this was a really interesting thought, and it made me think of the Tower of Babel story from the Bible. I believe humans all spoke the same language between the time of Adam and the Tower of Babel when God scattered mankind in different directions with different languages. I'm not sure if I believe that the !Kung tribe are mankind's most distant relatives, but they do live a very primal life far removed from the technologically elaborate society. Their language is reflective of their primal lifestyle of hunting and gathering, reflecting the type of landscape they live in.

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