Using older Khoisan sources: quantifier expressions in Lower Nosop varieties of Tuu

Abstract

This paper tries to demonstrate that older sources on extinct Khoisan languages can provide valuable information for modern linguistic research in spite of their problems concerning transcription, translation, and morphosyntactic analysis of the data. This is done with the example of quantitier expressions in two little known varieties of the Tuu family (alias Southern Khoisan), spoken in the wider area of the Lower Nosop, namely|' Auni and| Haasi. In particular, this new analysis corroborates the closer alignment of the two vis-a-vis other Tuu languages as proposed by Dorothea Bleek, but also shows that they display as a group a considerable affinity to the !Xō-o cluster. which goes against the currently dominating proposal on Tuu classification.