Shua language
language
Shua SHOO-ə, or Shwakhwe, is a Khoe language (Ost-Kxoe) of Botswana. It is spoken in central Botswana (in Nata and its surroundings), and in parts of the Chobe District in the extreme north of Botswana. There are approximately 6,000 speakers (Cook 2004) and approximately 2,000 out of those 6,000 speakers are native speakers. The linguistic variety spoken in the township of Nata in northeast Botswana is highly endangered and spoken fluently only by adults over about thirty years of age. The term Shwakhwe means people (khwe) from the salty area (shwa).
Dialects
Shua is a dialect cluster.
Deti (10 or fewer speakers)
Ganádi
Shwa-khwe
Nǀoo-khwe
Kǀoree-khoe or ǀOree-khwe
ǁʼAiye or ǀAaye
ǀXaise or ǀTaise
Tshidi-khwe or Tcaiti or Sili or Shete Tsere
Danisi or Demisa or Madenasse or Madinnisane
Cara
ǁGoro (ǁ᪶Oro) or ǀXaio
The term Hietshware (Hietʃware, Hietʃo) is used for varieties of both Shua and its sister-language Tshwa.
Tsʼixa (200 speakers) is evidently a distinct language.
Phonology
Consonants
/kxʼ/ is only phonemic in the Tsʼixa and Danisi dialects.
Vowels
Shua has the five vowels /a e i o u/, and three nasal vowels /ĩ ã ũ/.
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