Khoisan languages

Khoisan is a conventional grouping of southern African languages, especially Khoe, Tuu, and Kx’a. Their shared use of click consonants does not establish that they descend from a common ancestor.

Khoe languages: A family of southern African languages that includes Khoekhoe and several languages of Botswana and Namibia. Khoe is the largest family commonly included in the Khoisan grouping.
Khoisan: A term used for peoples and languages of southern Africa, with meanings that vary by context. The language grouping takes its name from this broader, contested label.
Bantu languages: A major branch of the Niger-Congo language family, spoken across much of sub-Saharan Africa. Unlike Khoisan, Bantu is a recognized branch within a larger family supported by comparative evidence.
Historical linguistics: The study of language change and relationships among languages over time. Comparative methods in historical linguistics test whether the proposed families share an ancestor.
Tuu languages: A family of southern African languages that includes ǃXóõ and the now-extinct ǀXam. Tuu is a distinct family within the conventional grouping.
Joseph Greenberg: An American linguist known for proposing broad classifications of the world’s languages. Greenberg popularized a broad Khoisan language grouping in his classification of African languages.
Niger-Congo languages: A large proposed language family covering many languages of sub-Saharan Africa. Its family classification contrasts with the uncertain unity of the Khoisan grouping.
Comparative method: A method for reconstructing ancestral languages by comparing systematic correspondences among related languages. It offers evidence for family relationships beyond shared features such as clicks.
Kx’a languages: A family of southern African languages that includes Juǀʼhoan and ǂ’Amkoe. Kx’a is another distinct family often grouped under Khoisan.
African language classification: The study of how Africa’s languages are classified into families and larger groupings. Khoisan’s status is part of wider debates about how African language families are established.

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