Tuu, also called Taa-Kwi, is a language family of Botswana, South Africa and Namibia comprising two branches, and is counted among the world's primary language families. The Taa branch survives as a single language, Xoo, with about 2,500 speakers, while the Kwi, or Ui, branch survives only as Nlng, which as of the source consulted had a single elderly speaker remaining. Tuu languages were once classified as the Southern Khoisan branch of a broader Khoisan family, a grouping now considered obsolete and abandoned by mainstream classification.
Facts
RegionBotswana, South Africa and Namibia 1 Speaker CountFigure is for ǃXóõ, the sole surviving language of the more robust Taa branch; the other branch's sole survivor, Nǁng, has only one elderly speaker left. Proto-Language StatusConsists of two language clusters whose relationship is not doubted but is distant; the family is not demonstrably related to any other language family, though it shares many similarities with the Kx'a family, generally attributed to a sprachbund of thousands of years of contact rather than genetic relationship, though some scholars believe the two may eventually prove related. 1 Sources
1. Wikipedia: Tuu Languages
Wikimedia FoundationIntroduction, first sentence
The Tuu languages, or Taa-ǃKwi (Taa-ǃUi, ǃUi-Taa, Kwi) languages, are a language family consisting of two language clusters spoken in Botswana, South Africa and Namibia.
Classification section, first sentence
The Tuu languages are not demonstrably related to any other language family, though they do share many similarities to the languages of the Kxʼa family.
Languages section
The Taa branch of Botswana is more robust, though it also has only one surviving language, ǃXóõ, with 2,500 speakers.
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