!Ui-Taa

!Ui-Taa refers to the Southern Khoe-San language family. This family originated in South Africa and is almost extinct today. There are two distinct branches. The !Ui branch was spoken across South Africa and included: |Xam, N|u (including ‡Khomani and ||Ng), ||Xegwi, ‡Unkue, ||Kxau, ||Ku||e and Seroa-!Khuai. !Ui means ‘a person’ and is sometimes written !Kwi. The only known representative of the Taa branch of the family is !Xóõ, a language still spoken in southern Botswana. There were other languages that formed a bridge between the Taa and !Ui subfamilies, these included |’Auo and K’u|haasi, and one generically known as ‘Masarwa’. The extinct |Xam language is used on the South African coat of arms.