Mariental Culture - Nama Language

The informal settlement community is predominantly Nama, as is most of southern Namibia. The Nama speak a language that uses clicks. Can I have an aside just about the language for a minute? It’s just so fascinating. In Nama, there are four clicks. Two of them are relatively easy for English speakers. / is a sound made by sucking on your front teeth essentially. In English, the sound is written ‘tsk tsk,’ and is used to express disapproval. // is a sound made by sucking on your molars. It’s a sound used to call horses in English. The other two are harder to distinguish. ! is a loud popping sound made by putting the tip of your tongue behind your front teeth (not against your teeth, but behind, on that ridge there) and drawing your jaw down sharply. ≠ is a softer sound made by pressing the flat of your tongue against the roof of your mouth and making the same jaw motion. Now combining these sounds with other vowels and consonants is more difficult. I think some people have this conception that languages that use clicks only use clicks. Now that’s just stupid. The clicks are essentially other consonants. In English, we don’t just speak with k’s and d’s and g’s, do we? As an example (the only thing I can kind of say in Nama): “!Gai //Goas” means “Good Morning.” “!Gai Tses” is “Good Day” (I think). “Thank you” is “Toxoba,” with the x making a sound that’s sort of a combination of an h and the German ch. “How are you” is simple: “Matisa.” So you can see that not all Nama words use clicks. Wikipedia has a good article on these things if you’re interested and there are some good videos on YouTube. Search for Nama, Khoekhoegab, or Khoisan languages. But let me tell you, I never got tired of listening to the Nama talk. It’s just amazing to hear these popping and clicking sounds come out of their mouths with no effort whatsoever. Someone who speaks another language could never learn that unless they grew up with it. It’d just be impossible to distinguish between a !Gai and a !Dai for instance. It’s crazy! But I love it. Another interesting note: another ethnic group in Namibia, the Damaras, also speak the same language but they are a completely different people. Also note that there are a number of languages that use clicks in Africa. The language that the San use, for instance, is different from the language of the Namas and Damaras. Sort of in the same way that Spanish and Italian are different.

Ok, I'm done. Next I might actually post about my experiences in the informal settlements of Mariental.