Taa

The documentation project aims at producing a comprehensive description of West !Xoon and ‘N/ohan language and culture.

The linguistic research focuses on the morphosyntactic features of the language. These are still underanalyzed and virtually unknown to the linguistic public. This applies to the Tuu family in general. Only the great phonological complexity of the closest linguistic relative, namely East !Xoon in Botswana, has been worked on by Anthony Traill.

A grammar sketch, a collection of texts with interlinearization and annotation as well as an extensive vocabulary (to be extended to a dictionary in the future) is planned to be edited. In providing the necessary linguistic information for a practical use of the language (orthography etc.), another aim of the project is to support the efforts made by San communities to have their languages given official recognition in society and to be used in appropriate communication contexts like, for example, in schools.

The anthropological research focuses on oral and archival history, cultural mapping and social organisation. Taa-speakers have remained neglected and unconsidered to the greatest possible extent in official Namibian historiography as is the case with many other San groups in Southern Africa. Since their land was given to other people by the colonial powers, namely to Herero and white farmers in the first place, their relation to the land is likewise absent from official maps. Aspects of social organisation are of special interest because of the multilingual and multicultual context and can be compared to the extensive ethnography of Hans-Joachim Heinz on Taa-speakers in Botswana.

The objective is to provide an oral history textbook, a map of culturally relevant sites, and a small digital exhibition on some aspects of !Xoon and ‘N/ohan culture, a hardware version of which is planned to be set up on the spot.

Presenting the DoBeS project to the community at San Plaas.

Photo by Roland Kießling. June 2004.