Hadza

Hadza is a language isolate spoken by the Hadza people of the Lake Eyasi area in Tanzania's Singida, Manyara and Shinyanga regions, with roughly 1,000 or more native speakers recorded in a 2012 census among a Hadza population of about 1,200 to 1,300. It is one of only three East African languages with click consonants, alongside Sandawe and Dahalo. Some linguists once grouped Hadza with the Khoisan languages on the strength of its clicks, but that connection is now considered doubtful, resting mainly on loanwords rather than deeper structural evidence, and UNESCO classifies the language as vulnerable despite continued vigorous use among children. The Hadza are widely described as among the last full-time hunter-gatherers in Africa.