Simon Sauls: Man Who Could Speak Oldest San Language Fluently Has Died
- Simon Sauls, one of only two men who could speak the oldest San language, the N|uu language has sadly passed away on Monday the 7th of June
- The MEC for Sport, Arts and Culture Ms Desery Fienies headed to the government website to share her heartfelt condolences with the elderly man who was known for his efforts in preserving the San language
- N|uu is the language of the San people, who were the first hunter-gatherers in southern Africa and is therefore considered one of the country's oldest languages
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Simon Sauls, one of only two people able to fluently speak an ancient San language, N|uu has sadly passed away bringing the old click language even closer to extinction. Heading online, the Northern Cape govt announced the news.
The MEC for Sport, Arts and Culture Ms Desery Fienies said that Sauls takes with him valuable knowledge about the names of different kinds of animals and insects in the N|uu language.
Source: Getty Images
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"The death of Simon Saul is indeed a great setback for the preservation and promotion of the N!UU language in the Northern Cape. Simons Sauls death comes just after the Northern Cape Provincial Administration in collaboration with Puku Books and Ouma Katriena Esau launched the first children’s book to be published in the N!UU language on the 24 May 2021," reads a statement made by Fienies.
She also goes on to share that Sauls played an important role in preserving the language which has been on the verge of extinction for a while now.
N|uu language family
Meanwhile, a few years ago Briefly News also reported that Katrina Esau, an 84-year-old, is one of the four people in the world who know how to speak a language called Nluu that is more than 25 000 years old.
It has been reported that the Nluu language was spoken by the Khoisan people. Nluu language is believed to be a sound of clicks, and when the language is written, the language is often punctuated with exclamation marks.
Katrina and her three other siblings, Griet Seekoei, an 86-year-old, Johanna Koper, a 97-year-old, and Simon Sauls, a 69-year-old, are on a mission to preserve the language. Katrina has another sibling, Lena Sauls, a 70-year-old, who does not speak Nluu, but she does understand it.
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Source: Briefly News
