The world’s most endangered language could soon become an extinct language, as there is only one person left who is considered a fluent speaker.

N|uu might be on the cusp of disappearing forever, but linguists are working with the last remaining fluent speaker to pass it to the next generation.

It is a flick language that is traditionally spoken by the Khomani people, which live in the southern Kalahari. The Kalahari is a sandy savannah that sits on land that borders Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa.

They are a branch of the San people, who are some of the earliest known hunter-gatherers in southern Africa.

The Khomani language is deeply rooted in the emergence of humankind, which makes it even more valuable to us all.

There are five primary click sounds used in N|uu, including one that’s found in only a handful of closely related languages.

It’s known as the “bilabial plosive,” or a “kiss click” because of the way it sounds.

The language was not typically written or inscribed, which makes its origins and evolution that much harder to trace. Linguists and historians believe it began to wane when the British arrived in the 19th century, their political boundaries breaking up the tribes that spoke it to one another.

Dr. Kerry Jones is one of the linguists involved in trying to save the endangered languages of southern Africa.

“People used to move through that whole region between South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana all the time. Then all of a sudden, these people came and started putting up fences and saying you had to have identification and passports. This was the beginning of the demise in a way because it’s started to separate people. Their families were split up.”

The British Empire was also keen to eradicate native languages, replacing them with English and Afrikaans, a language derived from Dutch.

Some local San people tell stories of their ancestors being belittled, beaten, and even killed for speaking N|uu.

Natives were also stripped of their ethnic and cultural identity and placed into random categories by the British overlords.

After the end of decades of colonial rule and apartheid, linguists were thrilled to find that some native speakers of N|uu survived.

Dr. Nigel Crawhall found around 25 speakers in the mid-1990s, most of whom were old and tired of hiding.

“We had these elderly people who were coming forward saying, ‘look, I’m gonna die soon anyway, so it’s okay. I’m gonna let you know: I’m not actually Coloured, I’m San. And I can prove it because I can still speak the language.’ The language became key in proving their identity.”

Many of those original people have passed away, though, without passing their knowledge and fluency of their language along. The second to last one passed in December of 2021, leaving only one left.

Her name is Ouma Katrina Esau, and she has spent the last few years of her life working with Dr. Jones to create a digital N|uu dictionary.

She and her granddaughter Claudia Snyman have created a children’s book in the language, Qhoi n|a Tijho (Tortoise and Ostrich).

Dr. Jones spoke to IFLS about their efforts.

“Her granddaughter, Claudia, can speak the language. Not fluently, but as an additional language. But she’s literate and Ouma Katrina isn’t literate, so between the two of them, it’s a good combination.”

In May of 2024, Ouma Katrina began teaching the language to local school children in the hopes that the next generation will help spread it once again.

“Children are learning to greet, they are learning to sing songs, they are learning names for animals and plants. They’re not going to be fluent speakers and be fully monolingual in N|uu. That’s not reality, but they will be able to greet, they will be able to sing songs, they will be able to understand a basic children’s story.”

Around nine languages die every single year, crushed by globalization and cultural homogenization. Each loss is sad and significant, but can seem inevitable in face of the modern world’s obsession with progress.

Dr. Jones and others think there is value in trying to keep the alive, though.

“There are these codes that we use to communicate and we label these codes ‘languages.’ Your experience with one code or another code is the structure that creates your reality. That is fascinating.”

Each and every piece of history is important.

“Because of globalization, we are losing access to these codes. That’s such a loss. It’s the same as saying ‘Well, why give a s**t about animals and plants that are going extinct?’ It’s because it’s part of a bigger network – it’s important.”

Maybe being human doesn’t mean being able to save each and every thing that’s disappearing before our eyes.

Maybe it means just being willing to try.

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