Stronger than ever: the effect of language contacton the expression of kinship in Omaheke Juǀ'hoan

The Omaheke in Namibia has changed dramatically over the last 150 years, reshaped demographically, culturally, and linguistically by colonialism and the cattle economy. In the spirit of the conference theme Living Well Together, this paper describes a dynamic linguistic response by Omaheke Juǀ’hoan to their changing sociolinguistic landscape that speaks to the resiliency and centrality of hunter-gatherer communality. The Juǀ’hoan language has a grammatical gender system that expresses the dichotomy between kin and non-kin – or between “those who are frequently here and now with us, real, genuine people, as opposed to those faraway who we can only imagine” (Bird-David 2019: 190). One gender regroups consanguineal, social, and cultural kin and another gender regroups those whose markings and mannerisms diverge from the group, which includes all non-hunter-gatherers (Dickens 2005, Pratchett 2021). In communication, the distinction reveals itself through the subtle use of pronouns when referring to discourse referents. In Omaheke Juǀ’hoan speech communities, the gender system has undergone significant changes due to the influence of Khoekhoe – which is so pronounced that local Juǀ’hoan youth also adopt a Khoekhoe identity (Brown & Haihambo 2015). In this talk, I illustrate the stark yet subtle typological change to the gender system, as well as the general increase in its overall complexity. Most crucially, I demonstrate how the adaption by speakers of novel features effectively reinforces – and reaffirms – the expression and importance of Juǀ’hoan kinship. This talk therefore exemplifies community agency in the context of language change and how speakers actively navigate their changing sociolinguistic landscape.