Seroa language explained

Seroa
Nativename:ǃUi
Region:Bloemfontein
Extinct:1870s (Traill 2002)
Ref:e25
Familycolor:Khoisan
Fam1:Tuu
Fam2:ǃKwi
Fam3:Eastern
Iso3:kqu
Linglist:kqu
Glotto:sero1239
Glottorefname:Seroa
States:South Africa
Ethnicity:ǃUi

Seroa, or ǃUi, is a ǃKwi language or dialect of South Africa that went extinct in the 19th century. It was spoken in the area of Bloemfontein. Seroa is the Sesotho name, literally "language of the Baroa (Bushmen)"; the people called themselves ǃUi (that is, ǃKwi), which just means 'people'. The language is labeled SIId in Dorothea Bleek's classification.

Doculects

Güldemann (2019) lists the following doculects.[1]

LabelResearcherDateOriginNotes
ǃUi Wuras > 1836 Bleek label SIId.
ǃUi Arbousset 1836 Mokhasi/Puchane Bleek label SIId.

Seroa was closely related to ǁŨǁʼe and Boshof ǃUi, but analysis of the recorded data has not been enough to determine the boundary between language and dialect.

References

Notes and References

  1. Tom Güldemann. 2019. Toward a subclassification of the ǃUi branch of Tuu. Paper presented at Afrikalinguistisches Forschungskolloquium at Humboldt Universiät zu Berlin, 8 January 2019. 10pp.