Structural Isoglosses between Khoekhoe and Tuu: The Cape as a Linguistic Area

Abstract

In historical times, the wider Cape region, including the Orange River area, hosted languages of two very different Khoisan language families, namely of Tuu (specifically its !Ui branch) and Khoe (specifically its Khoekhoe branch). Khoekhoe displays a number of linguistic features that do not exist in the languages of its genealogical sister, the Kalahari branch of Khoe. A comparison beyond the limits of this family shows that the innovative structures in Khoekhoe often have a great similarity to properties of the Tuu family, particularly its !Ui branch. This observation leads to the hypothesis that the genuine linguistic character of Khoekhoe vis-à-vis Kalahari Khoe is to a considerable extent the result of contact with Tuu languages, which have been in the relevant area for a longer time. This chapter will (a) outline briefly the historical context of the contact situation; (b) identify commonalities of the two groups, with a particular focus on the assumed Tuu substrate interference in the morphosyntax of Khoekhoe; and (c) discuss a few implications of the data for the population history in southern Africa and for historical and contact linguistics in general.

This chapter was presented as a paper on the following occasions: 14. Deutscher Afri kanistentag in Hamburg (11 October 2000); 23. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft in Leipzig (1 March 2001); Substrate Workshop at the Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie Leipzig (20 October 2001); Annual Conference of the North West Centre for Linguistics (NWCL): Linguistic Areas, Convergence and Language Change in Manchester (2 November 2002); and International Symposium on Khoisan Languages and Linguistics in Memory of Jan W. Snyman in Riezlern (6 January 2003). Thanks to W. Haacke for his comments on a draft version. Examples are cited in the original orthography, except for !Ui languages, for which I use a modified transliteration. The abbreviations in glosses are: ad addressee, appl applicative, c common, comp complementizer, conn clause connector, cop copula, d dual, decl declarative, del deictic, dim diminutive, dsbj deposed subject, e exclusive, f feminine, fut future, ipfv imperfective, M masculine, mpo multipurpose oblique, neg negative, obj object, obl obligation, P plural, pass passive, pq polar question, pro pronoun, prop proper name, pst past, q question, quqt quotative, rel relative, relv relevance, s singular, sbj subject, sp speaker, subj subjunctive, stat stative, tr transitive.