Tumʔi (also spelled Tumʼi) is a Tuu language, or possibly a collection of words remembered from various languages. , it is only partially spoken by two people living in the town of Prieska in western South Africa.

Name Tumʔi was formerly referred to by its speakers as in Afrikaans, but the name hottentot is generally considered derogatory. The replacement name means 'to speak' in Tumʔi.

Speakers , only two partial speakers of the Tumʔi language remain, Francina George (age 74 in 2023) and Robert George (age 68). The pair are siblings and were raised in a household speaking Tumʔi, although their exposure to the language varies. A more fluent speaker and older sibling, Elsie George, died around 2023; she was more knowledgeable than Francina and Robert in the language. A fourth sibling, whose name is not given, was also exposed to the language, but denied any knowledge due to "her own linguistic insecurities" and did not provide any data on the language. No complete sentences or texts wholly in Tumʔi were collected; the data consists almost entirely of individual words.

Classification Tumʔi appears to show the most similarities with the Tuu languages, hence its classification there. Its words also correspond directly to the equivalents in ǀXam, an extinct member of the Tuu family and the best documented language of the ǃUi branch of the family. Indeed, the online language database Glottolog subsumes studies on Tumʔi under ǀXam. The phonology is also substantially more similar to Tuu than to the Khoekhoe languages. The possibility exists that Tumʔi is not a distinct language, but rather an assortment of words remembered from ǀXam and Kora, a Khoe–Kwadi language; both were formerly spoken in Prieska.

Geographical distribution The Georges live in the town of Prieska in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. According to Kilian (2020), the Nama, Griekwa, ǀXam, Nǀuu, and possibly ǀʼAuni languages "might also be found in the smaller more rural sedentary towns of the northern cape". The speakers of Tumʔi also mentioned speakers of an unidentified Khoisan language living in the town of De Aar, located south of Prieska. Their mother, who was a herbalist, was born in the Kareeberg Local Municipality, geographically proximate to the two towns, and so might also host speakers of Tumʔi or other Khoisan languages.

Phonology Consonants

Non-click +Non-click consonantsBilabialLabiodentalLabiovelarAlveolarVelarGlottalPlosivetenuisvoicedaspiratedpalatalized()Ejective()Fricativevoicelessvoiced()Affricate()NasalApproximantLateral approximantTrill , the most common plosive, occurring in both word-initial position and between vowels, is produced with varying degrees of aspiration, although certain words (e.g. 'God') are pronounced always with aspiration, and others (e.g. 'crazy') always without. , the second most common, also occurs word-initially and medially. Finally, occurs word-initially and finally. All three are much more common than their voiced counterparts, which are attested in no more than three words each.

Out of the fricatives, , and are restricted to word-initial and medial positions, as is , which can only occur before the vowel . The velar fricative has no restrictions on its occurrence. is exclusive to the word 'handiwork', also alternating with and . The nasal can only occur as a click accompaniment in the word-initial position, but can occur both as an accompaniment and as a standalone consonant in syllable-onset and coda positions.

The phonemes , and occur particularly infrequently. is only found in the loanword , derived from Afrikaans , and used in reference to certain medicinal plants. and alternate with each other in the word ~ 'go out', and occur nowhere else.

Clicks Tumʔi has four click types, at different places of articulation, and three accompaniments, making for a total of 14 click consonants. Clicks have a high functional load, meaning most words contain clicks.

+Click consonantsDentalLateralPalatalAlveolarPlainUvular stopNasalVelar fricative Plain clicks are the least common in the dataset, with clicks typically being pronounced with some type of accompaniment; the most common are the uvular stop and nasal accompaniments. The velar fricative accompaniment is also infrequent, but is clearly audible in words like 'give birth' and 'type of female genitals'.

Vowels There are six vowel phonemes in Tumʔi. FrontCentralBackCloseMidOpen The mid vowel is realized as close-mid, and the mid vowel is realized as open-mid.

Diphthongs Tumʔi also has five diphthongs, being , and . All of them end in a high vowel, with the preceding vowel being low, mid, or back.

Syntax The closest data with any syntactic information are one or two incomplete phrases; no texts in the language could be collected.

Sample phrases Below are some sample phrases collected in the Tumʔi language.

'here comes the man'

'careful, here comes the white man'

'look the police'

, , 'here comes the police'

'white man coming'

'dressed up (male)'

'dressed up (female)'

'that woman is pregnant'

'ask for something to drink'

'ask for something to eat'

References