Language Information

Bushman is spoken principally in the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa. Its speakers, the Bushmen, number about 100,000—divided between three countries: Botswana (50,000), Namibia (40,000), and South Africa (10,000). Like Hottentot, also spoken in South West Africa, Bushman is a member of the Khoisan family of languages.

The most notable feature of Bushman, and in fact of all the Khoisan languages, is the use of the so-called "click" consonants, produced by drawing air into the mouth and clicking the tongue. Since conventional spellings are obviously inadequate to represent these sounds, an assortment of lines, dots, and other marks are used.

Botswana, Namibia, South Africa.

Family: Khoisan

Writing Sample

Translation

The jackal watches the leopard when the leopard has killed a springbok. The jackal whines (with uplifted tongue), he begs the leopard for springbok flesh. He howls, he begs, for he is a jackal. Thus he howls, he indeed begs, because he is a jackal. Therefore he howls when he begs, he indeed wants the leopard to give him flesh, that he may eat, that he also may eat.
Then the leopard is angry, the leopard kills him, the leopard bites him dead, he lifts him up, he goes to put him into the bushes; thus he hides him.