Sandawe people

The Sandawe are an ethnic group (ethnicity ) of about 40,000 people in central Tanzania ( Kondoa District in Dodoma Region). Today they operate livestock and agriculture, but were originally hunters and gatherers.

The Sandawe are followers of their traditional religion, Christianity or Islam.

According to the results of a human genetic study include the Sandawe to the populations with the oldest DNA lineages.

Language

Their language is usually attributed to the Khoisan languages ​​, which are distinguished mainly by the presence of Schnalzlauten and noun classes. The Sandawe have a positive attitude towards their language. Most of them use the Swahili as a second language (see also bilingualism ), but some are still monolingual ( monolingual ).

Güldemann / Elderkin detect a genetic relationship of the Sandawe to Khoe languages ​​( " Central Khoisan " ) and Kwadi.