!Korana

Introduction

!Korana is an extinct central Khoisan language which shows some lexical and grammatical similarities to Nama, the largest of the still-existing Khoisan languages. It was spoken in the region surrounding the town of Kimberly, near the borders of Northern Cape and Orange Free States, in what is now the Republic of South Africa.

!Korana was spoken by the kei!Korana, or Great Korana (also Taaibosh) tribe.

The !Corana Verb

!Korana has a rich tense and aspect system, which is one of the main ways in which it can be distinguished from Nama. !Korana has a total of 7 tense-aspect (TMA) markers:

kie	past
ko	recent past
nã	progressive/imperfect
ta	future
hã, a	present
n~i	"must" (modal auxiliary)
ka	"could" (modal auxiliary

These TMA markers can also be combined in eight different ways to denote remote past, continuousness, doubt, or to add emphasis to, for example, the recentness of the past.

haka	koexaigu	kie	kie	!hami	ha
four	men	ASP	ASP	hunt	ASP

Four men once upon a time went hunting

ibi	ko	!kãsa	//na
and	ASP	backwards	fall

(he) just fell backwards

Negation

Negation in !Korana is expressed the negative particles tama and te. Negation precedes the final tense/aspect markers, but follows the main verb.

taip	ka	ip	kx'ummi	arep	oe	te	hã
why	ASP	it	house	mine	answer	not	ASP

Why does my house not answer?

xare	its	kana	m~u	its	m~u	tama	hã
perhaps	you	ASP	see	you	see	not	ASP

Perhaps you can see, (or) can you not see?

Verbal compounds

!Korana has a productive class of verbal compounds.

/koi	!xo	khãsi
child	seize	raise

(she) lifted up the child

=noa	=kx'ari	kx'am	he
strike	split	mouth	was

(it, the rabbit) was hit in its mouth and its mouth was split open

Reduplication

Verbs can also be reduplicated, which gives them a causative reading.

=xu	=xu=xu
to pound	to pulverize

//xa	//xa//xa
to learn	to teach

External Links

• The Syntax of !Korana
• Maingard, L.F. 1962. Korana Folktales. Witwatersrand University Press. Johannesburg.