Editing Hadza language (section)

==Classification==
Hadza is a language isolate.{{sfn|Sands|1998}} It was once classified by many linguists as a [[Khoisan languages|Khoisan language]], along with its neighbour [[Sandawe language|Sandawe]], primarily because they both have [[click consonant]]s. However, Hadza has very few proposed [[cognate]]s with either Sandawe or the other putative Khoisan languages, and many of the ones that have been proposed appear doubtful. The links with Sandawe, for example, are [[Cushitic languages|Cushitic]] loan words, whereas the links with southern Africa are so few and so short (usually single consonant–vowel syllables) that they are most likely coincidental. A few words link it with [[Oropom language|Oropom]], which may itself be spurious; the numerals ''itchâme'' {{IPA|/it͡ʃʰaame/}} "one" and ''piye'' {{IPA|/pie/}} "two" suggest a connection with [[Kwʼadza language|Kwʼadza]], an extinct language of hunter-gatherers who may have had recently shifted to Cushitic. (Higher numerals were borrowed in both languages.){{Citation needed|date=May 2023}}

Several parallels have been collected with many of the [[Afroasiatic languages]]. A [[Lexicostatistics|lexicostatistical]] proposal for Hadza as a member of the family, perhaps particularly close to [[Chadic languages|Chadic]],{{sfn|Militarev|2023}} was criticized by specialists of Hadza and Cushitic as more likely consisting of several layers of loanwords and some chance resemblances, due to insufficient regularity in [[sound correspondence]]s and a lack of grammatical evidence for a relationship.{{sfn|Sands|Harvey|Mous|Tosco|2023}} [[George Starostin]] finds the hypothesis of a relationship of Hadza with Afroasiatic theoretically plausible, but that any demonstration of it by lexical comparison remains "almost by definition impossible", due to the reconstruction of [[Proto-Afroasiatic]] being still poorly developed.{{sfn|Starostin|2023}}

There are no dialects, though there is some regional vocabulary, especially Bantu loans, which are more numerous in the southern and western areas of high bilingualism.{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}}

The language is marked as "[[Endangered language|threatened]]" in ''Ethnologue''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/hts |title=Hadza |website=Ethnologue.com |date= |accessdate=2017-01-17}}</ref>