33.3393, All: Tales from Tanzania: Part 2 (The Hadza Language)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-33-3393. Wed Nov 02 2022. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 33.3393, All: Tales from Tanzania: Part 2 (The Hadza Language)

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Editor for this issue: Billy Dickson <billyd at linguistlist.org>
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Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2022 21:00:54
From: Billy Dickson [billyd at linguistlist.org]
Subject: Tales from Tanzania: Part 2 (The Hadza Language)

 
Tales from Tanzania: Part 2
The Hadza language

My interest in the Hadza language began as a linguistics undergraduate and has
only continued to grow since. Hadza is a language isolate spoken by an
autochthonous ethnic group who largely reside in and around two valleys around
Lake Eyasi in northern Tanzania. The current speaker population is estimated
at around 1,500 Hadza speakers, based primarily on best guesses. The Hadza
people, often referred to as Hadzabe, traditionally live a semi-nomadic
hunter-gatherer lifestyle with much of their diet consisting of wild game,
tubers, berries, baobab fruit, and honey. Today, however, the Hadzabe also
obtain food such as maize and beans (among others) from community leadership,
purchased with funds secured via cultural tourism, partnerships with
non-governmental organizations and companies, and researchers.

The Hadza language is notable for several reasons: Hadza is a “click
language”—meaning it makes linguistic use of click consonants—one of only
three languages to do so outside of southern Africa. Although classically
classified among Greenberg’s “Khoisan” languages, Hadza shows very few
convincing links to any other language, including the geographically-near
Sandawe language. In addition to clicks, Hadza’s consonant inventory also
contains ejective and prenasalized consonants.

One aspect of Hadza that has largely eluded linguistic description is the
prosodic system. The literature has tentatively marked both tone and stress in
the language, though descriptions vary substantially and admit to being
tentative. It is, in fact, the tonal system of Hadza that is a large focus of
my dissertation research, attempting to nail down precisely what is going on
in Hadza prosody. Working on tone is not for everyone, neither every linguist
nor every language speaker, but I have been fortunate to work with excellent
Hadza speakers who have patiently entertained my endless questioning. We have
made great progress on understanding how tone works in Hadza.

In terms of vitality, the Hadza language has been classified as “vulnerable”
by the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, or “endangered” by
Ethnologue. Although the speaker population is small, intergenerational
transmission was robust in most Hadza communities, until recently. During my
research, I have identified a nascent shift in language use among Hadza
children below the age of eight; in all but two camps in which I visited,
children ≤8 years old are primarily communicating in Swahili—the national
language of Tanzania—amongst agemates as well as in response to older
speakers. The Hadza community is aware of this language shift and many are
concerned with its implications for the future. Community members have already
begun efforts to combat language loss within the community.

Now that you know a bit about the Hadza language and its speakers, next week
in “Tales from Tanzania” I will share the always-enjoyable fieldwork stories.
Every field linguist has their stories that make our lives a little
interesting—new friends, new foods, and new experiences.

Jeremy Coburn
Ph.D. candidate
Indiana University
 


Linguistic Field(s): Not Applicable



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