Origin of the names

In the mythology of the ǀXam people of the Kalahari desert in South Africa, ǂKá̦gára and his brother in law ǃHãunu fought an epic battle in the east using thunder and lightning, producing mountainous clouds and rain. The conflict was over ǂKá̦gára returning his younger sister, ǃHãunu's wife, to their parents. The ǀXam language is no longer spoken, but the language and culture were documented by Wilhelm and Dorothea Bleek and Lucy Lloyd working with a series of ǀXam informants between 1870 and 1884. The story of ǂKá̦gára and ǃHãunu was told to them by ǀHanǂkass'o. The ǀXam language motto on South Africa's national coat of arms is “ǃke e: ǀxarra ǁke”, meaning “diverse people unite.”

Audio recordings

Audio recordings © 2018 B. Sands provided under CC-BY-SA 4.0 license.

Phonetic notes on ǀXam orthography

More information on ǀXam language and pronunciation can be found on Wikipedia.