Taking Khoekhoegowab forward as a language

/Awebahe J //Hoeseb writes:Why the choice of the name "Khoekhoegowab"?Ignorance is a disease that can be cured through reading broader on the origin and rationale behind the choice of that name.Namagowab is the name of the language of Nama people, whereas #Nùkhoegowab is the language of the Damara people. We use the collective name Khoekhoegowab to avoid notions of a claim of ownership of the language, because such arguments do not add an iota to the status and corpus of the language.Names such as Damara-Namagowab or Nama-Damaragowab are misleading because that implies that we are speaking one and the same language.It is only in the central regions of our country that one would fail to discern peculiarities in terms of lexicion, adages and syntax. But those of us who have lived and worked amongst Namas and Damaras are able to distinguish the dialectological diversity within each one of those two languages, as well as the similarities and dissimilarities between the two languages amongst the Damara and the Nama speech communities.A language is a dynamic living reality, and evolves from time to time when the speakers thereof come into contact with speakers of other languages and or dialects, and assimilation and accultarization occurs. That is why a language cannot remain static.Any language that seeks to qualify for use in formal education, is supposed to have an approved standardized orthography, so that teaching and learning materials can be developed.Khoekhoegowab was accorded the status of a language that can be used as a medium of instruction from the pre-primary grade up to grade 3 in the junior primary phase. It is also having the status that it may be offered as a language subject from grade 1 up to grade 12 and beyond. That is the status that Khoekhoegowab enjoys according to the Language Policy for Schools in Namibia.The current written form of Khoekhoegowab First Language, is the approved standard orthography for Khoekhoegowab First Language, and is used in formal education.There was a need to revise the old orthography, and these type of changes are not peculiar to Khoekhoegowab First Language. All languages undergo changes. New words are coined.The corpus of a language grows when loan words and new lexical items are added to it.My advice to the Namagowab mother tongue speakers and the #Nukhoegowab mother tongue speakers is to:a) Refrain from the time-wasting fruitless debate around the name "Khoekhoegowab".b) Rather focus on acquainting themselves with the approved standard orthography of Khoekhoegowab First Language. Read the AME Hymnal and the newly translated version of the Bible in Khoekhoegowab, because the approved standard orthography of Khoekhoegowab First Language is used therein.c) Join forces with those involved with efforts geared towards the preservation of Khoekhoegowab First Language.d) Attend the Annual Khoekhoegowab Workshop & Seminar, which is staged in conjunction with the International Mother Tongue Celebrations. Obtain copies of the reports of these workshops, cum seminars, and play a role in the quest for the full implementation of the resolutions that are aimed at the development of the corpus of Khoekhoegowab in order to preserve our language.e) Become members of the Khoekhoegowab Development Society and add value to the objective of the cementing of the status of this language via digitization.f) Write poems, dramas, stories and other genres, and translate books and written pieces from other languages, in Khoekhoegowab First Language for recreational reading as well as formal educational purposes.

Taking Khoekhoegowab forward as a language

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Republikein 2025-06-20

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Taking Khoekhoegowab forward as a language

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