C3: 12 Indexing Asian names Nasreen Akhtar

This article explains the distribution of Khoe-San or ‘click ’ languages, defines clicks, provides a style and typing guide on how to obtain the symbols representing them in the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) or (for Naro) Roman characters, and considers the ordering of click signs in indexes. Finally, it describes the current situ-ation of the Khoe-San languages and the various projects in which native speakers of these languages are now involved. Khoe-San or click languages The languages under discussion are spoken mainly in southern Africa and are sometimes referred to as ‘click languages ’ because these unique consonants are found only in such languages and in those Bantu languages that have been influenced by them. The term ‘Khoe-San ’ is a construct developed by linguists from two Nama words, Khoe meaning ‘person ’ and San meaning ‘forager’ (Andersson and Janson, 1997). The Khoe and San peoples were the earliest indigenous inhabitants of the countries where they still exist, and they pre-date the speakers of Bantu and European languages who subse-quently became the rulers of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. The Khoe or Khoi were cattle and sheep herders while the San, until the recent past, were hunters and gatherers. The Khoe and San peoples are distantly related but are genetically quite distinct from the Bantu-speaking family which covers such a large part of Africa. The fact that there are two click languages in Bantu Tanzania (Sandawe and Hadza) suggests that the Khoe-San peoples were once far more widespread in Africa. The Bantu languages that contai