Endangered Languages Project

ALSO KNOWN AS		Shiyeyi, Yeei, Yei, Ciyei, Koba, Kuba, Seyeyi, Seyei, Ceyei
CLASSIFICATION		Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Benue-Congo, Southern Bantoid
CODE AUTHORITY		ISO 639-3
LANGUAGE CODE		yey
VARIANTS & DIALECTS		Shirwanga
DOWNLOAD		As csv
MORE RESOURCES		OLAC search

Compare Sources (11)

Information from: “A sociolinguistic survey of the languages of Botswana” (1-142) . Hasselbring, Sue (2000) Basarwa Languages Project, Collaborative Basarwa Research Programme of the Univ. of Botswana & Univ. of Tromsø

Severely endangered

80 percent certain, based on the evidence available
20,000
Native speakers worldwide
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
"1100-1500 in Boteti."

DOMAINS OF USE

TRANSMISSION

MORE ON VITALITY

"… [A] greater percent of older respondents said they spoke their own languages best than did the younger generation. This was particularly true of the !Goro, Yeyi and Nambya. This indicates that these languages may be undergoing a rapid shift… to Tswana or other languages."

"Yeyi and Danisi show serious signs of losing vitality since children and young adults rarely speak them."

SPEAKER ATTITUDE

Positive

OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY

Tswana
Kalanga
English
Herero
Nambya
Ndebele
Khoesan
Kuhane
Deti

LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS

"Some Bible translation efforts were begun in the 1960's but no portions of the Bible were published. Recently the Kamanakao Association was formed by Yeyi speakers who are interested in developing and preserving their language."

Scripts (Writing system)

Yes

More on Orthography

"An orthography conference for Yeyi was held in April 1997 at which an orthography for Yeyi was presented and agreed upon."

PLACES: Botswana, Namibia, Zambia

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: Northwest, Boteti, Ghanzi District, Botswana; Namibia; Zambia

Vulnerable

40 percent certain, based on the evidence available
Ethnic population
~20,000
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
"The number of people considering themselves to be Wayeyi might be around 20,000, but might also be considerably lower or higher. Another open question is to what extent the Wayeyi speak Shiyeyi."

TRANSMISSION

MORE ON VITALITY

"It is quite possible that the Shiyeyi language may disappear altogether within a few generations if the present trends continue. It is possible, though, that the situation for the language may be somewhat better in Namibia than it is in Botswana."

OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY

Setswana;

LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS

"It appears that around 80 percent of the Wayeyi school children speak Setswana as their first language."

Scripts (Writing system)

None.

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: "In and around the Okavongo delta in Ngamiland [Botswana], and in Caprivi in Namibia."

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
24,000
Native speakers worldwide
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
"20,000 in Botswana (R. Cook 2004). Ethnic population is 47,000 in Botswana."

PLACES: Botswana; Namibia;

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
20,000
Native speakers worldwide

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
25,200
Native speakers worldwide

Threatened

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
5,200
Native speakers worldwide
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
"According to Prinsloo et al. (1982, vol. 12) 7.9%% of the Bayeyi people used Shiyeyi as their first home language during the early 1980's. When applied to the 1991 census data the figure would be 5,200 people."

DATE OF INFO: 1991

More on Orthography: "Shiyeyi is not standardized and has no published orthography."

PLACES: Okavango Delta in Botswana.

Ethnic population
20000

OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY
LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS: "Yeyi is replaced by a dialect of Tswana."

PLACES: North-West District, Botswana; East Caprivi, Namibia

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: "...in and around the Okavango Delta, Ngamiland, North-West District, Botswana; also in East Caprivi, Namibia"

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
25,000-30,000
Native speakers worldwide
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
"Während Sommer & Vossen (1992: 407) für das Jarh 1995 circa 25.000 bis 30.000 Yeyi-Sprecher in Ngamiland vermuteten..."

OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY

PLACES: Botswana, Namibia

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: Okavango Delta, Ngamiland District, Northwest, Botswana; south Caprivi region, Namibia

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: "Yeyi wird rund um das Okavango Delta im Ngamiland-Bezirk in Nordwest-Botswana und im Süden der Caprivi Region in Namibia gesprochen."

Critically endangered

80 percent certain, based on the evidence available

DATE OF INFO: 1986-1987

DOMAINS OF USE

SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS

TRANSMISSION

MORE ON VITALITY

"The evaluation of questionnaires concerning bilingualism among speakers with a non-Tswana background clearly showed that, especially in areas closer to the district capital Maun, bilingualism in an ethnic language (e.g. Shiyeyi) and Setswana is gradually being abandoned in favour of Tswana monolingualism."

"...recordings of narrated Yeyi texts from places other than Shorobe indicate that there elderly people (especially women) still stuck to story-telling as a means of transmitting Yeyi knowledge to the younger Setswana-speaking generation."

OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY

Tswana

LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS

"It was thus discovered that in Shorobe, a village with a vast majority of Yeyi community members, Setswana was used almost exclusively not only in inter-ethnic conversations (e.g. communal beer-drinking with Tswana-speakers originating from outside Ngamiland) but also in family-internal everyday conversation in Yeyi households. Only elderly women, who still master the Yeyi language beside Setswana, occasionally made use of Yeyi insertions when casually discussing among themselves most recent events in the village."

PLACES: Botswana

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: Seronga, Shobe, and Maun villages in Ngamiland

Ethnic population
94,000
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
20,000 Wayeyi in Botswana who have maintained their identity

DATE OF INFO: 1991

	Duisburger Arbeiten zur Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft, #40		2000	Language gain and language loss: the spread of Setswana in Ngamiland	Botswana: The Future of the Minority Languages	129-153	Herman M. Batibo and Birgit Smieja	Peter Lang	40	Frankfurt-am-Main		Gabi Sommer and Rainer Vossen	Gabi Sommer and Rainer Vossen. 2000. "Language Gain and Language Loss: the Spread of Setswana in Ngamiland." In Botswana: The Future of the Minority Languages, edited by Herman M. Batibo and Birgit Smieja. 40: 129-153. Peter Lang.	EBALL			1986-1987			Tswana often used by secondary school students outside the home and in the family	Tswana		"It was thus discovered that in Shorobe, a village with a vast majority of Yeyi community members, Setswana was used almost exclusively not only in inter-ethnic conversations (e.g. communal beer-drinking with Tswana-speakers originating from outside Ngamiland) but also in family-internal everyday conversation in Yeyi households. Only elderly women, who still master the Yeyi language beside Setswana, occasionally made use of Yeyi insertions when casually discussing among themselves most recent events in the village."		Critically Endangered (80 percent certain, based on the evidence available)	15	"The evaluation of questionnaires concerning bilingualism among speakers with a non-Tswana background clearly showed that, especially in areas closer to the district capital Maun, bilingualism in an ethnic language (e.g. Shiyeyi) and Setswana is gradually being abandoned in favour of Tswana monolingualism." "...recordings of narrated Yeyi texts from places other than Shorobe indicate that there elderly people (especially women) still stuck to story-telling as a means of transmitting Yeyi knowledge to the younger Setswana-speaking generation."	14	15		Botswana	Seronga, Shobe, and Maun villages in Ngamiland
0199255911			2005	The World Atlas of Language Structures			Bernard Comrie and David Gil and Martin Haspelmath and Matthew S. Dryer	Oxford University Press		New York			2005. "The World Atlas of Language Structures." edited by Bernard Comrie et al. Oxford University Press.																				-20.0, 23.5
		16	2009	Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th Edition (2009)			M. Paul Lewis	SIL International		Dallas, TX	http://www.ethnologue.com/		Lewis, M. Paul (ed.). 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16 edn. http://www.ethnologue.com/home.asp. (15 February, 2011.)	ll_pub		24,000		10000-99999	"20,000 in Botswana (R. Cook 2004). Ethnic population is 47,000 in Botswana."						Vulnerable (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)						Botswana; Namibia;
	Sociolinguistic studies of Botswana language series		2000	A sociolinguistic survey of the languages of Botswana		1-142		Basarwa Languages Project, Collaborative Basarwa Research Programme of the Univ. of Botswana & Univ. of Tromsø	v. 1	Gaborone		Hasselbring, Sue	Sue Hasselbring. 2000. "A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Languages of Botswana." v. 1: 1-142. Basarwa Languages Project, Collaborative Basarwa Research Programme of the Univ. of Botswana & Univ. of Tromsø.	EBALL		20,000		10000-99999	"1100-1500 in Boteti."	With spouse, with children, among friends, at the lands or cattle post, by the chief, kgotla, at the clinic, singing to oneself, church, prayer, reading/writing	Tswana, Kalanga, English, Herero, Nambya, Ndebele, Khoesan, Kuhane, Deti	Positive	"Some Bible translation efforts were begun in the 1960's but no portions of the Bible were published. Recently the Kamanakao Association was formed by Yeyi speakers who are interested in developing and preserving their language."		Severely Endangered (80 percent certain, based on the evidence available)	14	"… [A] greater percent of older respondents said they spoke their own languages best than did the younger generation. This was particularly true of the !Goro, Yeyi and Nambya. This indicates that these languages may be undergoing a rapid shift… to Tswana or other languages." "Yeyi and Danisi show serious signs of losing vitality since children and young adults rarely speak them."	15			Botswana, Namibia, Zambia	Northwest, Boteti, Ghanzi District, Botswana; Namibia; Zambia
			2011	Zur Konzeptualisierung von Vergangenheit im Bantu Areallinguistische Vergleiche im südlichen Afrika	Afrikanische Sprachen Im Fokus. Linguistische Beiträge Zum 19. Afrikanistentag, Mainz 8.–10. April 2010	75-92	Raija Kramer and Holger Tröbs and Raimund Kastenholz	Rüdinger Köppe Verlag		Köln		Frank Fessler and Gabriele Sommer	Frank Fessler and Gabriele Sommer. 2011. "Zur Konzeptualisierung Von Vergangenheit Im Bantu Areallinguistische Vergleiche Im Südlichen Afrika." In Afrikanische Sprachen Im Fokus. Linguistische Beiträge Zum 19. Afrikanistentag, Mainz 8.–10. April 2010, edited by Raija Kramer et al. 75-92. Rüdinger Köppe Verlag.			25,000-30,000		10000-99999	"Während Sommer & Vossen (1992: 407) für das Jarh 1995 circa 25.000 bis 30.000 Yeyi-Sprecher in Ngamiland vermuteten..."		Tswana				Vulnerable (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)					"Yeyi wird rund um das Okavango Delta im Ngamiland-Bezirk in Nordwest-Botswana und im Süden der Caprivi Region in Namibia gesprochen."	Botswana, Namibia	Okavango Delta, Ngamiland District, Northwest, Botswana; south Caprivi region, Namibia	-18.458768,22.650375
			1998	Few People, Many Tongues: The Languages of Namibia		222		Windhoek, Namibia: Gamsberg Macmillan				Jouni F. Maho	Maho, Jouni F. 1998. Few People, Many Tongues: The Languages of Namibia. Windhoek, Namibia: Gamsberg Macmillan. x+222pp. (Survey of the linguistic typology and the sociolinguistics of the Namibian languages. Revision (heavy) of Maho (1993).)	HHOLD		5,200	1991	1000-9999	"According to Prinsloo et al. (1982, vol. 12) 7.9%% of the Bayeyi people used Shiyeyi as their first home language during the early 1980's. When applied to the 1991 census data the figure would be 5,200 people."						Threatened (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)						Okavango Delta in Botswana.
		3rd	2010	Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger				UNESCO Publishing		Paris	http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas	Christopher Moseley (ed.)	Moseley, Christopher (ed.). 2010. Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, 3rd edn. http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas. (03 June, 2011.)	ll_pub		20,000		10000-99999							Vulnerable (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)								-19.4562, 23.2031
	Duisburger Arbeiten zur Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft, #40		2000	Linguistic and cultural domination: the case of the Wayeyi of Botswana	Botswana: The Future of the Minority Languages	217-234	Herman M. Batibo and Birgit Smieja	Peter Lang	40	Frankfurt-am-Main		Lydia Nyati-Ramahobo	Lydia Nyati-Ramahobo. 2000. "Linguistic and Cultural Domination: the Case of the Wayeyi of Botswana." In Botswana: The Future of the Minority Languages, edited by Herman M. Batibo and Birgit Smieja. 40: 217-234. Peter Lang.	EBALL	94,000		1991		20,000 Wayeyi in Botswana who have maintained their identity
			1997	Shiyeyi: a Bantu click language	Languages in Botswana: language ecology in southern Africa	72-82		Longman Botswana		Gaborone		Andersson, Lars-Gunnar and Janson, Tore	Andersson, Lars-Gunnar and Tore Janson. 1997. "Shiyeyi: a Bantu Click Language." In Languages in Botswana: language ecology in southern Africa, 72-82. Longman Botswana.	EBALL	~20,000				"The number of people considering themselves to be Wayeyi might be around 20,000, but might also be considerably lower or higher. Another open question is to what extent the Wayeyi speak Shiyeyi."		Setswana;		"It appears that around 80 percent of the Wayeyi school children speak Setswana as their first language."	Many	Vulnerable (40 percent certain, based on the evidence available)	11	"It is quite possible that the Shiyeyi language may disappear altogether within a few generations if the present trends continue. It is possible, though, that the situation for the language may be somewhat better in Namibia than it is in Botswana."					"In and around the Okavongo delta in Ngamiland [Botswana], and in Caprivi in Namibia."
				World Oral Literature Project							http://www.oralliterature.org		"World Oral Literature Project." Online: http://www.oralliterature.org.			25,200		10000-99999							Vulnerable (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)
	Contributions to the sociology of language, #64		1992	A survey on language death in Africa	Language death: factual and theoretical explorations with special reference to East Africa	402	Brenzinger, Matthias	Mouton de Gruyter		Berlin & New York		Sommer, Gabriele	Gabriele Sommer. 1992. "A Survey On Language Death in Africa." In Language death: factual and theoretical explorations with special reference to East Africa, edited by Matthias Brenzinger. 402. Mouton de Gruyter.	EBALL	20000						Tswana		"Yeyi is replaced by a dialect of Tswana."								North-West District, Botswana; East Caprivi, Namibia	"...in and around the Okavango Delta, Ngamiland, North-West District, Botswana; also in East Caprivi, Namibia"

Yeyi

Language metadata

Language information by source

Severely endangered

80 percent certain, based on the evidence available

20,000

Vulnerable

40 percent certain, based on the evidence available

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

24,000

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

20,000

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

25,200

Threatened

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

5,200

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

25,000-30,000

Critically endangered

80 percent certain, based on the evidence available

Discussion

Yeyi

Language metadata

Language information by source

Severely endangered

80 percent certain, based on the evidence available

20,000

Vulnerable

40 percent certain, based on the evidence available

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

24,000

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

20,000

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

25,200

Threatened

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

5,200

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

25,000-30,000

Critically endangered

80 percent certain, based on the evidence available

Discussion

Suggest information or improvement

Download language data

Sources of information

Compare Sources