Richtersveld Nama

In 2004-2006, I was a member of Project P7 "Expression of Focus in Southern African Languages" at ZAS, funded by the German Science Association (DFG).

The project was primarily designed to investigate the prosodic and grammatical expressions of focus in Southern African languages. A special emphasis was paid to documentation and description of understudied languages and language varieties, Richtersveld Nama being one of them.

Richtersveld Nama is a heretofore undescribed variety of the Nama language spoken in the Richtersveld (the Northern Cape province of South Africa).

Nama belongs to the Khoekhoe branch of the Khoe language family, also known as Central Khoisan. It is spoken in Namibia, South Africa, and Botswana.

Before colonization, the Nama language used to be widespread in the Cape region. Nowadays, the Richtersveld and the area around Rimvaasmaak are the only two areas in South Africa where Nama is still spoken.

More information on Richtersveld Nama can be found in my M.A. thesis and in the following handouts.

Witzlack-Makarevich, Alena. 2006. Aspects of information structure in Richtersveld Nama. M.A. thesis.