Click consonants are one of the hallmarks of “Khoisan” languages of southern Africa. They are also found in some Bantu languages, where they are usually assumed to have been copied from Khoisan languages. We review the southern African Bantu languages with clicks and discuss in what way they may have obtained these unusual consonants. We draw on both linguistic data and genetic results to gain insights into the sociocultural processes that may have played a role in the prehistoric contact. Our results show that the copying of clicks accompanied large-scale inmarriage of Khoisan women into Bantu-speaking communities and took place in situations where the Khoisan communities may have had relatively high prestige. In the Kavango-Zambezi transfrontier region, these events must have occurred at an early stage of the Bantu immigration, possibly because small groups of food producers entering a new territory were dependent on the autochthonous communities for local knowledge.

点击辅音是南部非洲“ Khoisan”语言的标志之一。在某些班图语中也可以找到它们，通常假定它们是从科伊桑语中复制而来的。我们通过单击来回顾南部非洲班图语，并讨论他们可能以何种方式获得了这些不寻常的辅音。我们利用语言数据和遗传结果来深入了解可能在史前接触中发挥作用的社会文化过程。我们的结果表明，点击的复制伴随着科伊桑族妇女大规模流放到讲班图语的社区中，并且发生在科伊桑族社区享有较高声望的情况下。在卡万戈-赞比西河跨境地区，这些事件一定是在班图人移民的早期发生的，