Language name and location: |Xam, Western Cape, South Africa [Refer to Ethnologue]

语言名称和分布地区: 沙姆语, 南非共和国西开普省扎克河流域地区

1. koai

2. !ku:

3. !nwonna

4. |ku

Linguist providing data and dateː Mr. Mark Rosenfelder, The Author of the website "Numbers from 1 to 10 in over 5000 languages", Chicago, USA, October 7 2023.

提供资料的语言学家: Mr. Mark Rosenfelder, 2023 年 10 月 7 日.

Other comments: The |Xam language is an extinct language of the Khoisan people formerly spoken by the San (or Bushman) people on the Zak (Sak) river area in the Western Cape province, South Africa. |Xam has only recorded traditional numerals from 1 to 4 years ago. New data for numbers after four is required. 

|Xam speakers originally occupied a large part of western South Africa. By 1850, only a few hundred |Xam speakers lived in remote parts of the Northern Cape.
Today, the language is gone. But it survives in 12 000 pages of hand-written testimony taken down word-for-word from some of the last |Xam speakers in the 1860s and 1870s. These pages record not just the |Xam language, but also their myths, beliefs and rituals. A comprehensive |Xam dictionary was produced by Dr Bleek at that time, but was only published years later. (DF Bleek, 1956. A Bushman Dictionary. New Haven, American Oriental Society).
The symbols used for the click sounds follow the Lepsius-Rhenish Mission Society-Bleek system developed in the 19th century. This remains the standard system used by most authors when representing clicks in Khoisan languages.
The three clicks sounds in |Xam language: !, |, and ǁ
! Place the tip of the tongue against the gum root in the middle of the mouth and click hard. This is similar to the q sound in Zulu, for example in iqanda (egg).
| Place the tongue softly against the root of the teeth in the middle front of the mouth. Then click with the middle of the tongue. The sound is similar to the c sound in Zulu, for example in ucingo (telephone).
ǁ Another click, this time with the side of the tongue against the palate, similar to the x sound in the word Xhosa. The k is not pronounced.