Shua language should not be confused with Shuar language.
| Shua | |
| States: | Botswana |
| Speakers: | 2,000 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| Ref: | [1] |
| Familycolor: | Khoisan |
| Fam1: | Khoe–Kwadi |
| Fam2: | Khoe |
| Fam3: | Kalahari (Tshu–Khwe) |
| Fam4: | East |
| Iso3: | shg |
| Glotto: | shua1254 |
| Glottorefname: | Shua |
Shua, or Shwakhwe, is a Khoe language (Central Khoisan) of Botswana. It is spoken in central Botswana (in Nata and its surroundings), and in parts of the Chobe District in the extreme north of Botswana. There are approximately 6,000 speakers (Cook 2004) and approximately 2,000 out of those 6,000 speakers are native speakers.[2] The linguistic variety spoken in the township of Nata in northeast Botswana is highly endangered and spoken fluently only by adults over about thirty years of age.[3] The term Shwakhwe means people (khwe) from the salty area (shwa).
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Lateral | Post- alveolar | Velar | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Click | nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
| aspirated | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
| ejective | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| uvular | pronounced as /ǀq/ | pronounced as /ǁq/ | pronounced as /ǂq/ | ||||||||
| prenasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| aspirated | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
| ejective | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | |||||||
| prenasal | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||||
| Cluster | |||||||||||
| +Velar fricative | pronounced as /ǀˣ/ | pronounced as /ǃˣ/ | pronounced as /ǁˣ/ | ||||||||
| +Vd +Velar fricative | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||||
| +Nasal +Velar fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||||
| +Velar ejective | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||||
Shua has the five vowels pronounced as //a e i o u//, and three nasal vowels pronounced as //ĩ ã ũ//.[4]
Unlike most Khoisan languages, but like Nama, the most neutral word order is SOV, though word order is relatively free. As with most Khoisan languages, there are postpositions. There is a tense-aspect marker ke which often appears in second position in affirmative sentences in the present tense, giving X Aux S O V order (e.g. S Aux O V).