Kung

(ko̵oŋ)

or !Kung

noun

  1. pl. Kung, !Kung a member of a people of S Africa living in the Kalahari
  2. the Khoisan language of this people

See Kung in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun
  1. A member of a San people of eastern Namibia and western Botswana.
  2. The Khoisan language of the !Kung.
Usage Note: The orthographically unusual word !Kung refers to a language spoken by a group of San in southern Africa. This language and its relatives employ a series of consonants called clicks that are only rarely found outside of this area of Africa. In English, clicks are found only in a few interjections, such as tsk-tsk, which is technically a repeated alveolar click in which the front end of the tongue is pressed up against the alveolar ridge behind the teeth. The exclamation point in !Kung symbolizes a similar click, but with the front part of the blade of the tongue pressed against the palate close to the alveolar ridge. It is thus called a postalveolar click.

Swiss Roman Catholic theologian. An adviser (1962-1965) during the Second Vatican Council, he was later censored by the Vatican (1979) for his rejection of papal infallibility. His works include On Being a Christian (1976).
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