Taa language
Tuu language of southwestern Botswana and eastern Namibia
Taa ( TAH), also known as ǃXóõ ( KOH; ǃXóõ pronunciation: [ǃ͡χɔ̃ː˦], of which this latter name may also be spelled ǃKhong or ǃXoon), and formerly called by the dialect name ǂHoan (also known as Western ǂHoan, to distinguish from Eastern ǂHoan), is a Tuu language notable for its large number of phonemes, perhaps the largest in the world. It is also notable for having perhaps the heaviest functional load of click consonants, with one count finding that 82% of basic vocabulary items started with a click. Most speakers live in Botswana, but a few hundred live in Namibia. The people call themselves ǃXoon (pl. ǃXooŋake) or ʼNǀohan (pl. Nǀumde), corresponding to the dialect they speak. In 2011, there were around 2,500 speakers of Taa.
Taa is the word for 'human being'; the local name of the language is Taa ǂaan (Tâa ǂâã), from ǂaan 'language'. ǃXoon (ǃXóõ) is an ethnonym used at opposite ends of the Taa-speaking area, but not by Taa speakers in between. Most living Taa speakers are ethnic ǃXoon or ʼNǀohan.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q13229. The Library of Congress control number is sh85148840. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2011.
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This entry incorporates text from “Taa language” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.