ǂAakhoe dialect should not be confused with ǂʼAmkoe language.
| ǂAakhoe | |
| Also Known As: | Haiǁom–ǂĀkhoe |
| Region: | Etosha pan, Kavango, Mangetti Dune, Omataku, Grootfontein, Baghani, Tsintsabis and Maroelaboom |
| Speakers: | 52,000 |
| Date: | 2003–2016 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Khoisan |
| Fam1: | Khoe–Kwadi |
| Fam2: | Khoe |
| Fam3: | Khoekhoe |
| Fam4: | Khoekhoegowab |
| Iso3: | hgm |
| Iso3comment: | (Haiǁom) |
| Notice: | IPA |
| State: | Namibia, South Africa, Angola and Botswana |
| Glotto: | haio1238 |
| Glottorefname: | Hai//om-Akhoe |
ǂAakhoe (ǂĀkhoe) and Haiǁom are part of the Khoekhoe dialect continuum and are spoken mainly in Namibia.[1] In the sparsely available material on the subject, ǂAkhoe and Haiǁom have been considered a variant of the Khoekhoe language, as separate dialects (Haacke et al. 1997), as virtual synonyms of a single variant (Heikinnen, n.d.), or as "a way in which some Haiǁom speak their language in the northern part of Namibia" (Widlock, n.d.). ǂAkhoe especially is intermediate between the Khoekhoe and Kalahari branches of the Khoe language family.
The Haiǁom are traditionally hunter-gatherers, and many aspects of this traditional culture have been preserved in spite of the political, economic, and linguistic marginalisation of the group. Characteristical features of their culture include healing trance dances, hunting magic, intensive usage of wild plant and insect food, a unique kinship and naming system, frequent storytelling, and the use of a landscape-term system for spatial orientation.[1]
The Haiǁom live in the savannah of northern Namibia, in an area stretching from the edges of Etosha salt pan and the northern white farming areas as far as the Angola border – and perhaps beyond – in the north and Kavango in the east. According to Ethnologue there were 52,000 Haiǁom speakers in 2016.
In theory ǂAkhoe possesses free word order, with the subject–object–verb order (SOV) being the dominant preference. In keeping with the typological profile of SOV languages, adjectives, demonstratives and numerals generally precede nouns. Nouns are marked by person–gender–number (PGN) markers. Adjectives, demonstratives and numerals all agree with their head noun.