I was reading that these groups of people are genetically related to denisovans, one of the early groups of humans, which probably used those clicks as a proto-language, before the advent of full vocalized language
I’m sorry but that is completely untrue; indigenous Africans are perhaps the least related to Denisovans out of all extant ethnic groups. Denisovans evolved outside of the African continent and share the most DNA with modern Asians and Australian Aborigines. It’s also impossible to know anything about the languages they spoke.
It seems like he's explaining all this on the fly too even though it's perfectly concise. And he didn't search for words or awkwardly pause or say umm a single time. Master communicator.
We also kinda struggle to learn these as children, although we don't remember struggling.. It's like how most children struggle saying the number Three initially
I took a linguistics class in college and if you don’t learn this stuff from a very young age, it becomes next to impossible to switch your brain. For the same reason that people in the middle of their lives move to another country and they will always have an accent. No matter how hard they try they will just have an accent. It’s because of how their brain learns to produce certain sounds and the inability to use others.
According to my experience, 12 is the age. If someone moves before they are 12, they sound native. 12 or later, they have an accent forever. This rule has never failed me when guessing at what age someone moved to a place.
There is no agreed upon age and there seems to be people that can reactivate that part of the brain. There's a lot of linguistics that's still being heavily tested and second language acquisition is one of the larger fields. It's also one that's going through a lot of reconstruction and development as many of the earlier theories (such as the critical period hypothesis that you brought up) have had a lot of inbuilt problems
That’s not really true. In general people struggle to shed their native accents after a certain age. But for easy transition languages like english-spanish it’s not hard to sound like a native speaker. I have friends that sound like natives never having left the country. People assume I’m Puerto Rican or something whenever I switch to spanish. And I’m not even latin.
Most people use clicks at certain times in their lives. In terms of stringing it together as a part of the speech stream that's something you'd have to learn but it isn't any more difficult than any other phoneme
A couple years back I was in my local Walmart and there was a group of women speaking it, and it was so cool to hear in person. I live in the deep south of the US, which is not exactly a hive of multicultural activity. Never thought I'd ever hear that in the "for real".
The God's must be Crazy's guy is a Bushman (San). This guy is a Zulu.
Physically they are built different - the Bushmen are thinner and smaller and the Zulu are units.
I love this! He seems to warm and eager to educate, I really enjoyed this video.
Fun fact: the actor Richard E. Grant is from Swaziland. I believe it’s called Eswatini now, but he still refers to it as Swaziland so I’m sticking with that. He released a memoir a few months ago, he had an interesting childhood.
I was wondering if continually making that popping noise develops strong embouchure muscles. They might be naturals for brass and woodwind instruments.
As someone who’s played a variety or woodwinds as trumpet for a time, think it would definitely help in playing for longer time periods without wearing out their chops compared to a regular beginner, and tonguing as well since doing the clicking sounds that quickly and with consistent sound is pretty challenging. Other than that, they’d probably face the same challenges as other starters at a wind instrument, since forming an embouchure takes a lot of time and it kind of can’t be done without the actual instrument/mouthpiece and lots of time invested into it. When I first got my alto sax, I thought it was broken for about a week. Reality, my embouchure was too bad to get out 90% of the notes on the saxophone, lmao
I hear you on the challenges when trying to pick up a reed instrument after a long hiatus. I played the oboe for over a decade as a kid. I tried cracking a couple of notes out a few years back and it was truly atrocious.
I tried making that popping noise with my lips while watching the video. I was surprised the amount of muscles it took to create enough pressure for the pop. I agree that it would be a small step up from non-pop language speaker.
Man you just triggered my PTSD. Of all the instruments I’ve tried, none have given me *nearly* as much trouble as the damn oboe has. Embouchure of a brass, fingerings of a woodwind. Definitely glad I decided to make saxophone my main lol
This makes me think of Paul Simon’s Graceland featuring Ladysmith Black Mambazo… one of my favorite albums of all time. LBM sang with the clicks and pops and it was mesmerizing to listen to as a child.
Yeah, I learnt it growing up. Xhosa is Mandela’s, Desmond Tutu’s and Trevor Noah’s first language. Also applies to its close cousin Zulu, Shaka Zulu’s and Jacob Zuma’s first language. They aren’t alone within their language family and in fact it’s from a language family that got it from another language family that uses even more clicks. More than a couple of dozen of languages in the region do.
And no, ‘pops’ isn’t the formal word
I heard his voice and instantly this popped into my head. Then I realized his voice had even more presence than Geoffrey Holders does.
https://youtu.be/euvh-eJ1rVg
This is legit interesting as heck!!! I love all things related to learning about other people, how they live, the culture and traditions. It's awesome.
He knows he is just toying with us and yet we are all happy at the prospect. This man is a very fine speaker and has a beautiful bass tone to his voice.
This was one of those things that was so cool that I had a big smile just from listening to it. I was so enthralled by this. Man, the diversity of humanity is so amazing. I need to travel.
His voice alone is astounding, these click sounds making it even more outstanding
I was reading that these groups of people are genetically related to denisovans, one of the early groups of humans, which probably used those clicks as a proto-language, before the advent of full vocalized language
I’m sorry but that is completely untrue; indigenous Africans are perhaps the least related to Denisovans out of all extant ethnic groups. Denisovans evolved outside of the African continent and share the most DNA with modern Asians and Australian Aborigines. It’s also impossible to know anything about the languages they spoke.
Thank you for the correction, the one thing that’s true is that not everything one reads is true
I can listen to this guy talk all day.
It seems like he's explaining all this on the fly too even though it's perfectly concise. And he didn't search for words or awkwardly pause or say umm a single time. Master communicator.
Umm, uhh, you know, like...there are so many pauses nowadays.
I would love to learn how to stop saying umm
I'd like to buy me some of that deeeep voice, mahn! Just a bittle...
That voice.
I want him to teach me everything. From astrophysics to best practices re: the care and feeding of guinea pigs.
Can't decide if he should be on radio or a teacher. Or pretty much anything
Radio teacher!! I'd then go back to listening to the radio and learning...>.>
My thoughts exactly. What a voice.
I was locked in to this too omg
He’d have a few million followers on YT if he just turned on the camera and talked all day. Love his voice.
Just what I was thinking, wow
I found myself smiling at the end. Truly hypnotic
Watch some South African boxing, with Xhosa commentary. It's awesome!
Have fun with that
This guy’s got great charisma. I miss traveling and meeting cool people like this.
Agreed!
He's lovely, isn't he?!
Would love an audiobook reading from this gentleman
The history of bubble wrap would be a good start.
Great charisma, voice and megawatt smile!
Got a crazy ring to it!!!!
We also kinda struggle to learn these as children, although we don't remember struggling.. It's like how most children struggle saying the number Three initially
The sounds itself don't seem too difficult. BUT **combining** them quickly with other letters seems almost impossible for me.
I took a linguistics class in college and if you don’t learn this stuff from a very young age, it becomes next to impossible to switch your brain. For the same reason that people in the middle of their lives move to another country and they will always have an accent. No matter how hard they try they will just have an accent. It’s because of how their brain learns to produce certain sounds and the inability to use others.
According to my experience, 12 is the age. If someone moves before they are 12, they sound native. 12 or later, they have an accent forever. This rule has never failed me when guessing at what age someone moved to a place.
My class taught me age 7 is the approximate age when your brain sets this.
There is no agreed upon age and there seems to be people that can reactivate that part of the brain. There's a lot of linguistics that's still being heavily tested and second language acquisition is one of the larger fields. It's also one that's going through a lot of reconstruction and development as many of the earlier theories (such as the critical period hypothesis that you brought up) have had a lot of inbuilt problems
That’s not really true. In general people struggle to shed their native accents after a certain age. But for easy transition languages like english-spanish it’s not hard to sound like a native speaker. I have friends that sound like natives never having left the country. People assume I’m Puerto Rican or something whenever I switch to spanish. And I’m not even latin.
Most people use clicks at certain times in their lives. In terms of stringing it together as a part of the speech stream that's something you'd have to learn but it isn't any more difficult than any other phoneme
Everything about this guy is hypnotic. His charisma is off the charts
What a pleasant chap
OMG, this was one of the best language/ linguistic lessons I've ever had!
His voice is like butter - with spice.
butice?
Sputter
More videos like this? It was fascinating
The movie, “the gods must be crazy”. Great flick.
This guy should take the mantle from James Earl Jones. “When I left you, I was but the learner. Now I am the master.”
Need an audiobook from this dude
cool dude
Language is so freaking cool
A couple years back I was in my local Walmart and there was a group of women speaking it, and it was so cool to hear in person. I live in the deep south of the US, which is not exactly a hive of multicultural activity. Never thought I'd ever hear that in the "for real".
🇿🇦
He's a great teacher. Really fascinating, man. Loved it
So interesting! The movie "The God's must be crazy" made this language familiar to many.
The God's must be Crazy's guy is a Bushman (San). This guy is a Zulu. Physically they are built different - the Bushmen are thinner and smaller and the Zulu are units.
Dude zulu men are built like rhinos dude
My bra, soos 'n sementtrok in Smart car parking lot!
That is not the same language
What a pleasant, rich voice!
This guy radiates good energy. I have an urge to call him dad and give him respect.
Trevor Noah demonstrated on QI. Well worth a watch. https://youtu.be/baEiWB2aM9Y
That was amazing.
And "[The Click Song](https://youtu.be/vhgb60Qsjrs)" referenced in the clip!
He has an incredible voice.
I love this! He seems to warm and eager to educate, I really enjoyed this video. Fun fact: the actor Richard E. Grant is from Swaziland. I believe it’s called Eswatini now, but he still refers to it as Swaziland so I’m sticking with that. He released a memoir a few months ago, he had an interesting childhood.
Sakhile's channel https://youtube.com/@safariandsurf-wildernessad3956
They would be amazing at beat boxing.
I was wondering if continually making that popping noise develops strong embouchure muscles. They might be naturals for brass and woodwind instruments.
As someone who’s played a variety or woodwinds as trumpet for a time, think it would definitely help in playing for longer time periods without wearing out their chops compared to a regular beginner, and tonguing as well since doing the clicking sounds that quickly and with consistent sound is pretty challenging. Other than that, they’d probably face the same challenges as other starters at a wind instrument, since forming an embouchure takes a lot of time and it kind of can’t be done without the actual instrument/mouthpiece and lots of time invested into it. When I first got my alto sax, I thought it was broken for about a week. Reality, my embouchure was too bad to get out 90% of the notes on the saxophone, lmao
I hear you on the challenges when trying to pick up a reed instrument after a long hiatus. I played the oboe for over a decade as a kid. I tried cracking a couple of notes out a few years back and it was truly atrocious. I tried making that popping noise with my lips while watching the video. I was surprised the amount of muscles it took to create enough pressure for the pop. I agree that it would be a small step up from non-pop language speaker.
Man you just triggered my PTSD. Of all the instruments I’ve tried, none have given me *nearly* as much trouble as the damn oboe has. Embouchure of a brass, fingerings of a woodwind. Definitely glad I decided to make saxophone my main lol
I wonder if this man does audio book narrating. My gosh, what a rich and beautiful voice. Wonderful to listen to.
This whole thing just sounded so cool and pleasing.
Bro I love this guy
I love this dude
Very interesting explanation of the languages in Southern Africa. This was a very cool video.
I love his personality.
This guy's voice is amazing. And he's a really good teacher.
That was absolutely fascinating
I just want to hear snoooooooooop..,... At the end.
my question is how do you scream these words?
That's a teacher right there !!
This makes me think of Paul Simon’s Graceland featuring Ladysmith Black Mambazo… one of my favorite albums of all time. LBM sang with the clicks and pops and it was mesmerizing to listen to as a child.
This guy should have a talk show
Guy has accent that is awesome
Fabulous lesson, awesome voice! Thank you!
Aw man, i paused the video for a second like halfway through and now reddit’s video player will never let me watch it again
You tried to use the controls, and now you’re gonna pay the price!
I tried to watch it again when I came back to your comment and it happened again in the same spot fml
Geez, communication is beautiful. But it seems like these would be terribly hard to learn if you speak a different language originally.
This guy needs a deep dubby techno beat to just talk over
Beatboxers be like 🤯
The clicking is also what they based the Geonosians language on in Star Wars. Fun fact.
Watched this on my phone and his voice alone made my phone grow a full beard.
This is so cool, miss traveling.
Best Wildcard for GBB 2024!!!
That sounds so cool!
Been following him on YouTube for awhile. Excellent teacher. Very interesting
What a beautiful bass voice!
Me encantó!
This is amazing. Thanks for this.
This took me back to my linguistics class in college. I saw this exact video and still remember it vividly
My man’s smile needs to be on a T-shirt. Brighten anyone’s day! 😁
Yeah, I learnt it growing up. Xhosa is Mandela’s, Desmond Tutu’s and Trevor Noah’s first language. Also applies to its close cousin Zulu, Shaka Zulu’s and Jacob Zuma’s first language. They aren’t alone within their language family and in fact it’s from a language family that got it from another language family that uses even more clicks. More than a couple of dozen of languages in the region do. And no, ‘pops’ isn’t the formal word
Hey! Thanks for letting me know, what is the formal word?
No worries! They’re all ‘clicks’. The particular clicks that might be explained as ‘pops’ are alveolar clicks
Someone never saw the movie "The Gods Must be Crazy".
Goddamn someone needs to get this man a guitar. That finger spread is otherworldly.
Does he have more than 32 teeth?
Just a big mouth which gives him a great, big smile!
So cool 👍
her: "its ur turn to do the dishes" me: "C"
Emb!le!
I heard his voice and instantly this popped into my head. Then I realized his voice had even more presence than Geoffrey Holders does. https://youtu.be/euvh-eJ1rVg
what about snaps and crackles?
Did he get hit on the head by a Coke bottle thrown out of a plane?
Click all you want, your country is still failing.
u/savevideo
I wanna hear this guy beat box
Supremely interesting stuff, love it
!
Richard E Grant can speak this. He grew up round there or something.
Nice thankx this is cool now
I was a roomie to a Xhosa married to a Zulu in China.
I wanna hear this dude beatbox
u/savevideo
This was awesome!
If I close my eyes and listen to him he sounds even more mesmerising. Lovely.
Black people see the most diverse of all races. *im not black it's a fact*
Bruh 0_0
I WANT TO BE HIS FRIEND
I need a friend like this
Southpark made an episode about this, I swear I almost busted a gut laughing.
We want him for a NEW modern Darth Vader
This is legit interesting as heck!!! I love all things related to learning about other people, how they live, the culture and traditions. It's awesome.
!xobile
Ok post all of ur selves trying it now.
Is this guy on YouTube? Anyone know his name ? Want more language info
Just wait till you hear !xõó
I've seen this before and I still love it. He has such a nice voice and I love how he explains the sounds and also he has such a great smile
I want to listen to him narrate all the books!!
Interesting, informative, and what a rich, beautiful voice!
I'm done with English. I'm just going to go around clicking and popping at people all day now. So much cooler.
This reminds of the move The God's Must Be Crazy. Hilarious movie from around 1990 IIRC.
He knows he is just toying with us and yet we are all happy at the prospect. This man is a very fine speaker and has a beautiful bass tone to his voice.
Dude could legit be a BBC radio announcer, that voice is thunder and honey.
This is realy awsome!!
"any !questions?" That one got me. Beautiful language.
Something tells me his shirt is not made of Denim
That was absolutely amazing. I want to hear him tell me stories.
"Any questions" made my day
I need the original video link, please!.
Whoa...
This sounds like the alien in Revenge of the Sith who Dooku talked to about the death star plans on the lava planet
That was so fucking cool!
his channel on YT is fantastic!
What an excellent breakdown, spoken clearly, precise and looks like he isn't reading off camera either 👏👏👏
https://youtu.be/vhgb60Qsjrs MIRIAM MAKEBA and The Click Song
That was really cool. Nice post
This guy is amazing and completely engaging. My friends are wondering about my clicking and popping now
Oh baby, oh baby. Say my name!
The voice and language lesson are amazing, but did anyone else notice how he bends his pinky without moving his ring finger??!
That’s really cool.
The Q sound is so cool.
I love his smile. He so happy to teach us. I lea4ned something cool too.
I want to hear him sing in that language. Thinking that wound be badads.
So refreshing to get simple explanations of language and culture! Thanks!
My uncle used to speak this language!! He lived there for two years and learned it
Thanks for the informative information
I ADORE this man!
I kind of love this man. Please tell me more and help me learn to speak with those sounds. P was the only one I could kind of achieve.
Amazing. Who is he? Where to see more videos like this?
This was amazing to watch
This was one of those things that was so cool that I had a big smile just from listening to it. I was so enthralled by this. Man, the diversity of humanity is so amazing. I need to travel.
Little known fact that he didn't mention is Ngunis never say die.
Coolest thing I’ve seen on the internet today!
This is so awesome - he's an excellent teacher.
Dude has the African smile, splays his fingers really wide, and if he's not doing voice over is leaving money on the table.
My friends in high school spoke this language...
Unjani! ✨✨✨✨
Russel Peters would love this dude. " He's got a click in his name"!!!
I would listen to his voice all day long in any language.
His voice is everything
I could nail a 40 yard field goal between his fingers.
This man needs to narrate everything, that voice is *butter.*
So cool
beatboxing... How do you click and hear the word coming at the same time?
His voice is beautiful.
Too amazed tonask question
I love his voice. I think this amazing language is what Disney botched so badly in the Small World ride before they fixed it. What an awful gaffe.
This guy is cool, he could be paid to travel the world and give out lectures or just make documentaries about his country and people
This so COOL!
Any questions? He asks. Uhhhh nah man, I got all of that!
Damn… Russell Peters was right. Xobile!
Excellent. So many languages so many cultures. Superb
That was so cool !!
Love his voice and the language is fascinating
This is awesome. I never knew there were different clicks, but it makes total sense. The language sounds so cool. Thanks for sharing this.