Classification
The most promising candidate as a relative of Sandawe are the Khoe languages of Botswana and Namibia. Most of the putative cognates Greenberg (1976) gives as evidence for Sandawe being a Khoesan language in fact tie Sandawe to Khoe. Recently Gueldemann and Elderkin have strengthened that connection, with several dozen likely cognates, while casting doubts on other Khoisan connections. Although there are not enough similarities to reconstruct a Proto-Khoe–Sandawe language, there are enough to suggest that the connection is real.
The pronominal system is quite similar:
| Sandawe | Proto-Khoe–Kwadi | |
|---|---|---|
| 1sg PN | tsi | *ti (Kwadi tʃi) |
| 2sg PN | ha- | *sa |
| 3 PN base | he- | xa (Kwadi ha-) |
| 3ms suffix | -w(e), -m | (Khoe *-bV, *-mV) |
| 3fs suffix | su | (Khoe *-sV) |
These may cast some interesting light on the development of clicks. For example, the Sandawe word for 'horn', tlana, may be a cognate with the root n||â found throughout the Khoe family. This and other words suggests that clicks may form from consonant clusters when the first vowel of a word is lost: tlana > tlna > ||na (n||a).
Since the Khoe family appears to have migrated to southern Africa from the northeast, it may be that Sandawe is closer to their common homeland than the modern Khoe languages are.
Read more about this topic: Sandawe Language