View source for Social:Kx'a languages

{{Infobox language family
|name=Kx'a
|altname=Ju–ǂHoan
|region=Angola, Namibia, and Botswana
|familycolor=Khoisan
|family=One of the world's primary [[Social:Language family|language families]]<br>(traditionally considered [[Social:Khoisan languages|Khoisan]])
|child1=ǃKung (Juu)
|child2=ǂ’Amkoe (ǂHoan)
|glotto=kxaa1236
|glottorefname=Kxa
}}

The '''Kx'a languages''', also called '''Ju–ǂHoan''', are a [[Social:Language family|family]] established in 2010 linking the ǂ’Amkoe (ǂHoan) language with the ǃKung (Juu) dialect cluster, a relationship that had been suspected for a decade.<ref>Honken, H. and Heine, B. 2010. [http://repository.tufs.ac.jp/bitstream/10108/57434/1/jaas079001_ful.pdf "The Kx'a Family: A New Khoisan Genealogy"]. ''Journal of Asian and African Studies'' (Tokyo), 79, p. 5–36.</ref> Along with the [[Social:Tuu languages|Tuu languages]] and Khoe languages, they are one of three language families indigenous to southern Africa, which are typologically similar due to areal effects.

==Languages==
*ǂ’Amkoe (moribund)
*ǃKung (also ''ǃXun'' or ''Ju,'' formerly ''Northern Khoisan''; a dialect cluster) 

ǂ’Amkoe had previously been lumped in with the Tuu languages, perhaps over confusion with the dialect name ǂHȍȁn, but the only thing they have in common are typological features such as their bilabial clicks. 

Honken & Heine (2010) coined the term ''Kx'a'' for the family as a replacement for the rather inaccessible compound ''Ju–ǂHoan'' (easily confused with the Juǀʼhoan language), after the word {{IPA-xx|kxʼà|}} 'earth, ground', which is shared by the two branches of the family, though also by neighboring languages such as [[Social:Kwadi language|Kwadi]].

==Features==
Honken & Heine (2010) reconstruct six click families for Kx'a: the five that occur in the most conservative dialects of ǃKung, plus the bilabial clicks of ǂHoan. Bilabial clicks became dental in ǃXun; retroflex clicks became lateral in ǂHoan and northern ǃXun, alveolar in southern ǃXun, and remained retroflex only in central ǃXun. However, Starostin (2003)<ref>Starostin G. (2003) [http://starling.rinet.ru/Texts/khoilex.pdf A lexicostatistical approach towards reconstructing Proto-Khoisan], page 22. ''Mother Tongue'', vol. VIII.</ref> argues that the bilabial clicks are a secondary development in {{IPA|ǂHoan}}. He cites the {{IPA|ǂHoan}} words for 'one' and 'two', {{IPA|/ŋ͡ʘũ/}} and {{IPA|/ʘoa/}}, where no other Khoisan language has a labial consonant of any kind in its words for these numerals.

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Language families}}

[[Category:Language families]]

{{Sourceattribution|Kx'a languages|1}}