Seroa language

Seroa
Seroa
ǃUi
Native to	South Africa
Region	Bloemfontein
Ethnicity	ǃUi
Extinct	1870s (Traill 2002)
Language family	Tuu ǃKwi Eastern Seroa; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kqu
Linguist List	kqu
Glottolog	sero1239

Last updated: 2025-08-01 20:16:57

Seroa language

Seroa, or ǃUi, is a ǃKwi language or dialect of South Africa that went extinct in the 19th century. It was spoken in the area of Bloemfontein. Seroa is the Sesotho name, literally "language of the Baroa (Bushmen)"; the people called themselves ǃUi (that is, ǃKwi), which just means 'people'. The language is labeled SIId in Dorothea Bleek's classification.

Doculects

Güldemann (2019) lists the following doculects.^[2]

Label	Researcher	Date	Origin	Notes
ǃUi	Wuras	> 1836	Bethany	Bleek label SIId.
ǃUi	Arbousset	1836	Mokhasi/Puchane	Bleek label SIId.

Seroa was closely related to ǁŨǁʼe and Boshof ǃUi, but analysis of the recorded data has not been enough to determine the boundary between language and dialect.

References

↑ Seroa at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
↑ Tom Güldemann. 2019. Toward a subclassification of the ǃUi branch of Tuu. Paper presented at Afrikalinguistisches Forschungskolloquium at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, 8 January 2019. 10pp.

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[e25-1] Seroa at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)

[Güldemann2019-2] Tom Güldemann. 2019. Toward a subclassification of the ǃUi branch of Tuu. Paper presented at Afrikalinguistisches Forschungskolloquium at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, 8 January 2019. 10pp.

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