N/u belongs to the Southern African branch of the Khoisan language phylum, and to the Southern subbranch of the Southern African branch. It is a !Kwi language, with /Xam being among its closest relatives.
N/u prospered right through the nineteenth century, but encroaching non-!Kwi languages and acculturation threatened it, like most other Khoisan languages. In the case of N/u, the native language of these Khomani speakers was mainly displaced by Afrikaans and Nama, especially after they started moving during the 1930s and found themselves surrounded by non-N/u-speaking people in their new towns.
In the 1990s, Khomani people became upset that the language was dying out. By now, it seemed that no one they could find was still able to speak the language. They asked people if there were any tribal elders who still spoke N/u. They finally located 101-year old Elsie Vaalbooi, who said she still remembered the N/u language. Linguist Anthony Traill interviewed her in 1997 and discovered she could still speak N/u. The South African San Institute soon became involved in the pursuit of information on the N/u language, and with the help of Vaalbooi they tracked down 25 other people who were able to speak or at least understand it. Thabo Mbeki handed over 40,000 hectares of land to the Khomani people in 1999 and Vaalbooi came up with the new (N/u) motto "Sa ||'a !ainsi uinsi" (We move towards a better life) for her rehabilitated people. Today there are 20 living speakers, and 8 of the people who speak it fluently live in the Cape Town province signed over to them.