Only one person alive still speaks the world’s most endangered language

The language is over 20,000 years old.

N|uu is a click language, traditionally spoken by some factions of the ǂKhomani people from the southern Kalahari, a sandy savannah that sits within the modern-day borders of Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. 

They are a branch of the San people who have lived here for over 20,000 years and are some of the earliest known hunter-gatherers in southern Africa.

In December 2021, the penultimate speaker of N|uu passed away, leaving behind just one person with a true knowledge of the language: Ouma Katrina Esau.

Esau is the only person remaining who speaks the language fluently, and has spent the past few years diligently working to preserve the language.

Together with Dr Kerry Jones - a linguist and Director of African Tongue, an organisation that looks to preserve and promote endangered languages of southern Africa - she has helped to create a digital N|uu language dictionary.

The project, 20 years in the making, hopes to act as a vital repository of information that will keep the language alive. 

Dr Jones, spoke to IFLScience detailing the history of the language.

She said: "The 90s was a massive turnaround point and where people were starting to feel safe to come forward.

"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.

"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."

Esau has also been teaching the language to her granddaughter, with the hope of keeping it alive amongst the younger generations.

Along with her granddaughter, Esau created a N|uu children’s book called Qhoi n|a Tijho (Tortoise and Ostrich).

"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," said Dr Jones.

Esau also spends her time visiting local schools and teaching kids the basics of the click language.

N|uu is unlikely to be a “mother tongue” ever again. Like many traditional languages, it has been crushed by globalisation and cultural homogenisation, weighty forces that have levelled many ways of life.

Under the strain of these pressures, around nine languages die every single year.