This is the main database for Sandawe material that draws upon several existing data sources, generalizing the entries in the "Proto-Sandawe" field and tentatively linking them to the "Macro-Khoisan" database. The genetic status of Sandawe is at the present time better established than that of Hadza; the language is almost certainly Khoisan, in fact, it is not even excluded that stronger ties exist between Sandawe and Central Khoisan (Khoe) than between Sandawe and Peripheral Khoisan. Nevertheless, even so, the distance is quite impressive, and given Sandawe's status as an isolated language, no regular correspondences have been established so far.
Lexically, Sandawe seems to be somewhat more resistant to external influence than Hadza; even so, some Bantu borrowings frequently penetrate into the language, and not all of them have, as of yet, been identified within the database.

Data sources: The main source is Kagaya 1993, but Kimmenade 1954 and especially Dempwolff 1916 often provide valuable data not found in Kagaya's dictionary or alternate variants which provide extra insight into Sandawe phonology and morphology. Another valuable source is the large list of click-less entries found in Elderkin 1983.

The database consists of the following fields:
1. Proto-Sandawe: a unified phonological transcription of the various transcription styles in available data sources. Sandawe does not have much dialect differentiation, so the term "Proto-Sandawe" is provisional.
2. Meaning: the general meaning of the Sandawe stem.
3. Sandawe: the data itself. In most cases, the data have been transliterated exactly the way they are found in original sources.
4. Notes: various notes and observations.
5. References.

Notes on transcription:
Clicks: | = dental click, ! = alveolar click (Sandawe does not phonologically distinguish between alveolar ! and palatal ǂ; Kagaya 1993 transcribes with ǂ the click that all other sources transcribe as !), || = lateral click. Click effluxes include zero (no special marking; Dempwolff and Kimmenade transcribe it as `), aspiration (|h, etc.; Dempwolff and Kimmenade do not distinguish between zero efflux and aspirated efflux), nasalisation (ɳ|, etc.), and the glottal stop (|ʔ, etc.; transcribed as ' by Dempwolff and Kimmenade).
Non-click consonants are transcribed as follows: ƛ = tl (K., Kim.) = t_ (D.) = voiceless lateral affricate; ʎ = hl (K.) = dhl (Kim.) = s_ (D.) = ɫ (E.) = voiceless lateral fricative; Ł = dl (K., Kim.) = d_ (D.) = voiced lateral affricate;
c (ts), ʒ (dz) = hissing voiceless and voiced affricates;
the dot under the consonant marks glottalisation (ḳ, ƛ̣, etc. = k', tl' in most transcriptions).
It is not always clear which details in various researchers' transcriptions are phonologically relevant and which ones merely reflect phonetic peculiarities. Thus, Kagaya consistently marks vowel length, while Dempwolff and Kimmenade never do; contrastive vowel length is practically non-existent in Khoisan, and thus, although we do follow Kagaya in this respect, the feature has to be taken with a grain of salt.

For bibliographical details please click on the links in the "References" field.