34.1074, Tales from Tanzania: Part 2 (The Hadza Language)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-34-1074. Thu Mar 30 2023. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 34.1074, Tales from Tanzania: Part 2 (The Hadza Language)

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Date: 
From: Maria Lucero Guillen Puon [luceroguillen at linguistlist.org]
Subject: 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



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