There’s hope that a recently completed dictionary of the critically endangered N/uu language could be the saving grace of the language.
It was a two-year labour of love for a group of language activists to get one of the oldest languages in the world into written form. There’s currently only one person, Katriena Esua, who can speak the language fluently.
N/uu a language thought to be extinct – the 25-thousand-year-old language from the heart of the Kalahari. But, it was rediscovered in the 1990s and revival efforts began. It is now at a stage where the only living being in the world who can speak it fluently, Katriena Esau, feels contend.
Esau says she is very happy with the dictionary. It means the language will not die.
Work on the dictionary also uncovered words and phrases that was nearly lost.
David van Wyk was one of the language activists working on the dictionary.
Pansalb in the Northern Cape says the dictionary is a demonstration of how technology can be used to save indigenous languages.
