Ekoka ǃKung

Ekoka ǃKung (Ekoka ǃXuun, Ekoka-ǃXû, ǃKung-Ekoka) or Western ǃXuun (North-Central Ju) is a variety of the ǃKung dialect cluster, spoken originally in the area of the central Namibian–Angolan border, west of the Okavango River, but since the Angolan Civil War also in South Africa.

Dialects

Heine & Honken (2010) place Ekoka in the Northern–Western branch of ǃXuun (ǃKung), where Ekoka is equivalent to the Western branch. They distinguish three varieties:

Western ǃXuun (Kung-Ekoka)

Tsintsabis (natively ǃxūún; spoken in Tsintsabis, Tsumeb district, N Namibia)

ǀAkhwe (natively ǃxūún, ǀʼākhòè ǃxòān "Kwanyama ǃXuun"; spoken in Eenhana, N Namibia)

[no name] (natively ǃxūún, ǃʼālè ǃxòān "Valley ǃXuun"; spoken in Eenhana district, N Namibia)

Sands et al. place it in its own branch, which they call North-Central Ju:

North-Central Ju (Namibia, between the Ovambo River and the Angolan border, around the tributaries of the Okavango River east of Rundu to the Etosha Pan)

Tsintsabis

ǀʼAkhwe

Okongo

Ovambo

Mpunguvlei

Tsintsabis might actually be Central ǃKung.

Phonology

Consonants

Ekoka ǃKung has an indistinguishable sound system to Juǀʼhoansi. However, the series of palatal clicks have a fricated lateral release (see fricated palatal clicks). These are provisionally transcribed ⟨𝼋⟩ or ⟨ǃ͡s⟩ etc. and behave similarly to palatal clicks ([ǂ] etc) in terms of not following the back-vowel constraint.

In addition to the twelve 'accompaniments' of clicks in Juǀʼhoansi, Ekoka has preglottalized nasal clicks, such as /ʔᵑǃ/. These are not common cross-linguistically, but are also found in Taa and ǂHoan.