Journal article

Orthography Challenges in Khoisan Literacy: The Case of Gǀui and Gǁana Communities


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Publication Details

Author list: Gabanamotse-Mogara B

Publication year: 2023

Volume number: Volume 52 Supple

Issue number: 2154428X 003935

URL: http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85183914721&partnerID=MN8TOARS



The Gǀui and Gǁana speech communities are found in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, which is part of the Ghanzi District of Botswana. They belong to the Khoe-Kwadi family of Khoisan languages. As Khoisan languages they have not experienced developments in literacy that other languages in Southern Africa have enjoyed for many years. When Government decided to implement Languages in Education Policy, there was a need to establish the vitality of Botswana local languages. This policy targeted the inclusion of local languages that hitherto were not used as medium of instruction in primary schools. While non-Khoisan languages, (most of them Bantu) had experienced exclusion like Khoisan languages, their speakers had language and cultural associations that developed orthographies and literacy resources. However, except for few Khoisan languages (Naro, Nama, and Khwedam), most of them were in a situation of illiteracy and linguistic underdevelopment. This paper aims at discussing the challenges of efforts to develop orthographies for languages such as Gǀui and Gǁana speech communities. The other challenge is that the development of orthographies such as that of Naro which uses the Nguni convention creates a dilemma as other languages such as Nama and Khwedan use the Khoisan convention. The argument that the paper makes is that Gǀui and Gǁana should adopt a common orthography convention and that there is need to harmonize their orthography.


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Last updated on 2025-31-03 at 14:30