http://celaeno.phonetics.cornell.edu/khoisan/xam.htm

This is a lightly-edited edition of a cached copy of the dead link above.

|Xam

|Xam is a southern Khoisan language which was spoken in parts of the southwest region of South Africa until its extinction some time in the early part of the 20th century. This language was studied by the German philologist Wilhelm H.I. Bleek from 1870 until his death in 1875. Working with Dr. Bleek and continuing this work after his death were his sister-in-law Lucy C. Lloyd and daughter Dorothea Bleek. This grammatical sketch has thus been compiled from the following sources:

• (BD) Bleek, D.F. (1956) A Bushman Dictionary. New Haven, AOS.
• (BL) Bleek, W.H.I. and L.C. Lloyd (1911) Specimens of Bushman Folklore. London: Geroge Allen & Co.
• (B) Bleek, D.F. (1929) "Bushman Grammar" in Zeitschrift fur Eingeborenen-Sprachen Band XIX.
• (CV) Bleek, D.F. (1929) Comparative Vocabularies of Bushman Languages. Cambridge University Press.

The Lloyd-Bleek collection, an archive of |Xam documents and drawings, has recently been made available online at www.lloydbleekcollection.uct.ac.za

The orthography presented here does not do justice to the level of detail in the transcriptions of the above-mentioned researchers. Specifically, I have omitted all tone-markings (high, mid, low, rising, falling) and other diacritical marks. A further simplification is in the identification of vowels: D.F. Bleek uses a modified version of the IPA of her time, which I am forced to simplify to a,e,i,o,u due to font limitations. I have also simplified the engma symbol to "n".

1. Word Order: S--V--IO--DO--Adjunct
   1. Transitive clauses are SVO (B171)

      hin	–ne	hi	toi	en-en
      they	part	eat	ostrich	meat

      `They eat the ostrich meat.' (BL137)

   2. IO precedes DO (B171)

      kukumi	he:	„kabogu:	sin	=kaka	hu	hi
      stories	which	the Jantjes	have	tell	you	them

      `stories which the Jantjes have told you' (B162)

   3. Locatives and other adjuncts follow objects. (B171)

      han	–ne	–kammin-ti-„a	toi	au	„nain
      he	IND	carry-?-away	ostrich	PREP	house

      `he carries away the ostrich to the house' (BL136)

2. NP Word Order: (apparently) possessor–Noun number/adjective

1. Adjectives follow the noun, often as a relative clause. (B95)

   –xabba	e	tta-/i	„go„go	!keri
   soup	which	hot(lit. feel-fire)	whirlwind	great

   `hot soup' (BL122) `great whirlwind' (B95)

   Note: It appears that there are few or no examples of attributive adjectives. The apparent examples given by D. Bleek functions either diminutives/augmentatives (little/great) or are themselves actually nouns (men/women=male/female).

2. Possessor precedes possessee. (B88)

   =xoa-ka	!kauken
   elephant-POSS	children

   `elephant's children' (B163)

3. Numbers (one, two, three only) follow noun, with optional relative marker. (B96)

   !kui	(a:)	!kwai
   man	who	one

   `one man' (B96)

4. Demonstrative adjectives ‘this/these’(ha/hi) precede noun. The same words are used for the personal pronouns ‘he/they’. (B94)

   ha	!khwa
   he/she/it	child

   `this child' (B167)

   Note: perhaps this is an appositive, rather than adjectival construction.

5. Demonstrative adjectives `that/those' are expressed by a relative pronoun plus the verb `to be' (a). (B94)

   !kwi	a:	a
   man	who	is

   `that man' (B94)

• Noun Classes, Agreement and Case

1. Two noun "classes" (distinguished by different pronouns, roughly equivalent to English `he/she/it' and `they'). No clear semantic correlates. (B87)

• D. Bleek identifies four "cases": simple, emphatic, possessive, vocative. (B88)

• Verbs do not agree with arguments (B161). Adjectives generally do not agree with nouns, though there are a few exceptional adjectives of size which show number agreement (B95).

• Tense, Aspect and Negation

1. Example: `sin' (past/perfect/pluperfect/subjunctive perfect) (B162)

   !k?wa:gen	sin	ka	n	–kum	u	!hau	au	ha	ts'axau
   hartebeest	did	want	I	take	away	thong	PREP	his	eye

   `The hartebeest wanted me to take the thong away from his eye.'

2. Example: `kan' (continuous action) (B166)

   !khwa	kan	k''wa:
   child	CONT	cry

   `child is crying'

3. Example: -i is a verbal ending expressing duration of action. (B168)

   –kaggen	–ne	„kabo-i	!khwa
   Mantis	CONT	dreaming-(pres. participle)	child

   `the Mantis was dreaming about the child.'

4. Negation: 'not' is expressed by )au or )auki before the main verb.

   n	)auki	@puoin
   I	not	sleep

   `I do not sleep.' (BL250)

u	sse	)auki	a	„kha	sse	hha	n-ka	@khwa
you	SUBJ	not	let	lion	SUBJ	eat	I-POSS	child

Note: the symbol ) represents "a strong croaking sound in the throat"(BL)...probably pharyngealization.

• Compound Verbs

"Two or three verbs can be strung together in a sentence, sometimes joined by one of the particles ki, ko, kau, ti, to, tau, si or by –ki `to take', sometimes without any connection." (B161)

`the husband brings the springbok.' (B161)

`He will go to sit preparing it.' (B161)

• Valence adjustments

1. Benefactive use of -ka

   „koin	se	!kara-ka	hi	!k'au
   sun	should	warm-ka	them	earth

   `The sun should warm for them the earth.' (B169)

2. Passive use of -ka

   !k'au	–ne	=ka=ka-ka
   ground	CONT	light-light-PASS

   `The ground is made light (lit up).' (B170)

3. Causatives

   This last example also shows a typical causative use of verbal reduplication.

• Relative Clauses: introduced by relative pronouns a: (1st noun class) or e: (2nd class)

1. Relativized subjects do not require (permit?) a resumptive pronoun.

   !kui	a:	–kha	wai
   man	who	kills	springbok

   `man who kills springbok' (B94)

2. Other relativized arguments do require a resumptive pronoun.

   „goro	e:	!kwa:gen	!hi	so	hi
   breastbone	which	bones	upon	sit	it

   `the breastbone on which the bones are.' (B94)

• Interrogatives

1. "The interrogative pronouns who? What? are expressed by the words for person and thing with the interrogative ending -de, followed by one of the interrogative verbal particles xa, ba, –nu" (B95)

`What is it?' (B95)

• Yes/no questions contain the particle `ba' (B167)

`Hast thou forgotten this child?'