남부 아프리카 코이산어 연구: 분포, 언어 상황, 언어계통 분류와 언어 구조적 특징

Abstract

Among four African language families Khoisan has been most poorly studied not only in Western circle but also in Korea. To understand the prehistory of African people like for example hunter-gatherer in Kalahari it has been suggested that linguistic description of given language and its comparison to other is mostly significant. In this article I tried to deliver how many languages are still alive in South-Western area, with their speakers. Concerning the situation of these Khoisan people we must first identify what kinds of languages are there and their genetic relation. It is still unclear to follow the Greenberg's three way classification of Khoisan as north, central and south. There are only 3 or 4 dialects in northern group and in southern there is only one. So following Güldemann & Vossen(2000) I represent Khoisan Khoe and non-Khoe. Concerning the grammatical structure it is well known there are two types of structure, that of isolating and of inflectional. As a sample of former type I gave ǂHõã, a isolating group, and as an example of inflectional I provided !Korana. Phonetically clicks are most salient and its phonotactic structure C(C)VCV, whereby clicks are positioned in first consonant place. Various structures of language like word order, noun phrase structure, adpositional type, and complex sentence structure like relative clause. Some problems about prehistory of these people are presented. The fundamental theoretical issues like the relationship between race, cultural types, and linguistic structure. The Khoisan people are composed of hunter-gathering Bushmen and herding Hottentots. These characteristics are often related to the people of minority, Dahalo, Okiek in Eastern Africa in Kenya. There remain still some questions of possibility of the relationship between Southern Cushitic and Khoisan people of Sandawe in Tanzania. All these issues should be studied further.