N|uu

Where it’s spoken

N|uu (also written ǂKhomani) is spoken by the ǂKhomani San people of the southern Kalahari in South Africa. After centuries of dispossession, by 2000 only around two dozen fluent speakers remained — all elderly. Several have passed since; revitalisation now relies on documenting the language through the few remaining first-language speakers.

What it sounds like

N|uu has perhaps the most complex phonology of any known language: 45 click consonants distinguished by place (dental, alveolar, palatal, lateral) and accompaniment (voiced, voiceless, aspirated, nasal, glottalised, ejective), plus a rich system of pulmonic consonants and tone.

How it’s written

Linguists use a modified Latin alphabet supplemented with click symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet: | (dental), ! (alveolar), ǂ (palatal), || (lateral).