| Also Known As: Hadza Language,Hadzabi,Wakindiga,Tindiga,Hatsa,Kangeju,Kindiga,Hadzapi
Description:
Hadza is a language isolate spoken by fewer than a thousand people along the shores of Lake Eyasi in Tanzania. Despite the small number of speakers, language use is vigorous, with most children learning it.
The Hadza people are still partially hunter-gatherers, though there have been repeated efforts to settle them. However, the recent eradication of the tsetse fly from Hadza lands has cleared the way for cattle herders, charcoal burners, game hunters, and farmers, and the Hadza are losing their water, forest, food, and land to overexploitation. Today the Hadza are in partial control of around 30% of their original homeland.
Hadza has traditionally been classified as a Khoisan language, along with its neighbor Sandawe, primarily because they both have clicks. However, Hadza has very few proposed cognates with either Sandawe or the other Khoisan languages, and many of the ones that have been proposed appear doubtful. The links with Sandawe, for example, appear to be Cushitic loan words, while the links with southern Africa are so few and short (usually single CV syllables) that they could easily be coincidence. There are also a few apparent cognates with the possibly spurious Oropom..... full article at Wikipedia |
