Yeyi (autoethnonym
Shiyɛyi) is an
endangered Bantu language spoken by many of the approximately 50,000
Yeyi people along the
Okavango River in
Namibia and
Botswana. Yeyi, influenced by
Juu languages, is one of several Bantu languages along the Okavango with clicks. Indeed, it has the largest known inventory of
clicks of any Bantu language, with dental, alveolar, palatal, and lateral articulations. Though most of its older speakers prefer Yeyi in normal conversation, it is being gradually phased out in Botswana by a popular move towards Tswana, with Yeyi only being learned by children in a few villages. Yeyi speakers in the
Caprivi Strip of north-eastern Namibia, however, retain Yeyi in villages (including Linyanti), but may also speak the regional lingua franca,
Lozi.