Languages

Khoekhoe

Language

Citation Formats

General Reference

Language Atlas. "Khoekhoe." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://language.interactiveatlas.org/languages/khoekhoe.

APA Style

Language Atlas. (n.d.). Khoekhoe. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://language.interactiveatlas.org/languages/khoekhoe

BibTeX

@misc{languageatlas-khoekhoe,
  author = {Language Atlas},
  title = {Khoekhoe},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://language.interactiveatlas.org/languages/khoekhoe},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Khoekhoe (also known as Nama or Khoekhoegowab) is spoken by roughly 200,000 people in Namibia, Botswana and South Africa, making it the most widely spoken language traditionally grouped as Khoisan. It belongs to the Khoe family; Khoisan itself is now recognized as an obsolete areal grouping rather than a genuine genetic family. The language is written in the Latin alphabet augmented with click letters for its distinctive click consonants.

Facts

Speaker Count

200,000 1

Estimated 200,000 plus or minus 10,000 (2011); a lower estimate of around 167,000 remaining speakers also appears in the sourced literature.

Status

Living 1

Region

Namibia, Botswana and South Africa 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

In Family

Khoisan

Khoisan is now recognized as an obsolete areal grouping rather than a genetic family; Khoekhoe own demonstrated affiliation is the Khoe language family. Recorded as associated with this atlas Khoisan entity for continuity with the traditional grouping, not as a claim of genetic unity.

Source Wikipedia: Khoekhoe Language