Editing Khwe language (section)

==History==
The Khwe-speaking population has resided around the "bush" in areas of [[sub-Saharan Africa]] for several thousand years.<ref name=":7">Brenzinger, M (No Date). The Vanishing of Nonconformist Concepts.</ref> Testimonies from living Khwe speakers note that their ancestors have come from the [[Tsodilo|Tsodilo Hills]], in the [[Okavango Delta]], where they primarily used [[hunter-gatherer]] techniques for subsistence.<ref name=":7" /> These testimonies also indicate that living Khwe speakers feel as though they are land-less, and feel as though the governments of Botswana and Namibia have taken their land and rights to it.<ref name=":7" />

Until the 1970s, the Khwe speaking population lived in areas that were inaccessible to most Westerners in remote parts of Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa.<ref name=":7" /> Since then, livelihoods have shifted from primarily from hunter-gatherer to more Westernized practices.<ref name=":8">Chumbo, Sefako, and Kotsi Mmabo. Xom Kyakyare Khwe: Am Kuri Kx'ûî = The Khwe of the Okavango Panhandle: The past Life. Shakawe: Teemacane Trust, 2002.</ref> The first [[Bantu languages|Bantu]]-speaking education that Khwe speakers received was in 1970 at a settlement in Mùtcʼiku, a settlement proximate the Okavango River.<ref name=":8" />

Some argue that this put the language in a state of decline, as younger populations learned Bantu languages, such as [[Tswana language|Tswana]]. Khwe is learned locally as a second language in Namibia, but the language is being lost in Botswana as speakers shift to Tswana.<ref name=":8" /> It is also argued that this has led to a semantic broadening in meaning of words in the Khwe language. For example, "to write", ''ǁgàràá'', was formerly used to describe an "activity the community members perform during healing ceremonies".<ref name=":7" /> The semantic broadening of word meanings has also permeated other parts of Khwe-speaking culture, such as food, animals, and other forms of naming that some argue have introduced nonconformity. Noting this, the original meanings of these words is still understood and used during Khwe cultural practices.<ref name=":8" />

While Khwe-speakers were in minimal contact with the outsiders until 1970, there was limited interaction between the Khwe and [[Missionary|missionaries]] in early and mid-twentieth centuries.<ref name=":8" /> The missionaries, for the most part, failed to convert the Khwe-speaking population.<ref name=":8" /> The introduction to missionaries, however, introduced [[Western culture]] and languages, in addition to Bantu languages.<ref name=":8" />

Despite the influence of Bantu languages in Khwe speakers education, historically, Khwe, and other [[Khoisan languages]], have had linguistic influences on Bantu languages.<ref name=":9">Gunnink, H., Sands, B., Pakendorf, B., & Bostoen, K. (2015). Prehistoric language contact in the Kavango-Zambezi transfrontier area: Khoisan influence on southwestern Bantu languages. ''Journal of African Languages and Linguistics,'' ''36''(2). {{doi|10.1515/jall-2015-0009}}</ref> The Bantu language speakers of the Okavango and [[Zambezi]] regions migrated to the area during the [[Bantu expansion|Bantu Migration]], and came in contact with the native Khoe speakers in the area.<ref name=":9" /> Several Bantu languages of this area adapted the clicks of the Khoe languages and integrated them into their [[phonology]], in a reduced manner through paralexification.<ref name=":9" /> Some scholars argue that the "contact-induced" changes in Bantu languages have contributed to the general [[language shift]] away from Khoe languages, such as Khwe, to Bantu languages because of the increased familiarity in phonology.<ref name=":9" />