/Xam is die taal wat gepraat is deur die /Xam-Boesmans wat binne menseheugenis suid van die Oranjerivier gewoon het, in die gebied wat vroeër bekend was as die Kaapkolonie. Mettertyd het Hollands en later Afrikaans hulle taal van voorkeur geword, en die /Xam-taal het in onbruik geraak. Hierdie amper vergete taal is hoofsaaklik deur WHI en DF Bleek opgeteken, en dit vorm ʼn belangrike deel van die kulturele erfenis van tallose nasate van die /Xam en ander San wat vandag Afrikaanssprekend is. Hierdie woordeboek is onontbeerlik vir almal wat deel is van hierdie erfenis, veral in hierdie tyd van hernieude belangstelling in die Eerste Mense en hulle eie identiteit, kultuur en taal. Die /Xam-taal het ʼn invloed gehad op al die ander tale in die land, wat veral gesien kan word in plekname en name van diere. Hierdie woordeboek sal nuttig wees vir studente, navorsers en belangstellendes, asook vir pleknaamowerhede wat die brontale van name moet bepaal.

Clicks Vowels, consonants and clusters Prefixes or class markers Locative affixes Structure of Zulu place names Diphthongs and vowel clusters

The preservation of South Africa’s indigenous languages – the extinct Bushman and Khoikhoi languages in particular – is a pressing concern. Voices Past and Present serves as a comprehensive, scholarly and practical source for documenting and preserving some of them. The subcontinent of Africa has been inhabited by Bushman, Khoikhoi and Bantu-speaking peoples for thousands of years, and, for the past few centuries, also by European-speaking peoples. Contact between these peoples brought about changes in the different languages. As a result, modern languages are no longer identical to the original ones, many of which, especially in the case of the Bushman and Khoikhoi languages, have become extinct. Words used in ancient times and recorded long ago often bear no resemblance to their modern counterparts. In this book, Peter E. Raper provides a detailed investigation of the earliest recordings of words available. Words from Old Cape dialects are compared for correspondences in sound and meaning to words from 29 Bushman languages and dialects, as well as to words from Nama, Koranna, Griqua, !Xuhn, !Xoon, Khwe and N/uu. Voices Past and Present provides an extensive corpus of words that can be further utilised for the purpose of shedding light on the specific languages from which the recorded words (and names) were derived, on historical distribution of the various groups, on the classification of the different languages and peoples, for determining relationships or otherwise between the different languages, potentially identifying components of place-names and ethnonyms from ancient and extinct languages, and elucidating other matters that have long vexed scholars who have complained about a lack of recorded data.

From text: The hunter-gatherers, also known as Bushmen or San, inhabited the present KwaZulu-Natal for 10 000 to 20 000 years. During that time, they named features in the landscape, and place names in the region were derived from their languages. Approximately two thousand years ago, the ancestors of the Zulu penetrated the region in small groups. Interaction with the Bushmen (or San) at different levels led the Zulu to adopt many Bushman place names which they adapted to their phonological and later orthographic systems. In due course, the Bushmen (San) became extinct, being killed or absorbed by the Zulu. Many of their place names survived, however, but were adapted into the Zulu phonological and orthographic systems to such an extent that they are no longer recognisable as Bushman (San) names, except through research and the application of validation criteria.

The primary process of toponymic formation by the earliest indigenous inhabitants of the African sub-continent, the Bushmen and Khoikhoi, was evolutionary. Due to their primary onomastic function, descriptions or common names that identified and referred to geographical features gradually lost their descriptive or lexical semantic relevance and assumed the status of proper names. Physical and cultural contact, including language contact, took place between these indigenous groups and incoming Bantu and European peoples over the past 2000 years. Some indigenous toponyms were adopted by the incoming peoples, but adapted to the phonological and later orthographic systems of the receiver languages; some names were translated, while some were replaced by other names. The present article investigates the phonological and semantic processes of the adaptation of Bushman toponyms by Bantu and European peoples, including folk etymological and associative reinterpretation, and identifies fossilized and disguised Bushman common names embedded in the toponyms.

An analysis of Herero toponyms sheds new light on linguistic, cultural and other correspondences in the vocabularies of a variety of peoples inhabiting Southern Africa over many thousands of years. Evolutionary processes as primary toponymic formatives were determined by environmental and cultural conditions. Semantic and phonological comparison of Herero place-name elements with recorded Stone Age hunter-gatherer lexemes indicates cognates: linguistic modification manifested orthographically reflecting the results of language contact. Numerous Herero place-name elements correspond to Bushman words in sound and meaning, while click replacements and other sound shifts are also evident. Cultural diversity between hunter-gatherers and Iron Age pastoralists initially precluded terminological cognates relating to animal husbandry, agriculture, and the like.

The Bushman languages are characterised by clicks or suction consonants. Six distinct clicks have been identified in these languages, but five is the most that occur in any one language (Traill 1978: 137). An understanding of the way in which clicks are pronounced and what they sound like will facilitate a comparison with the sounds and means of production of Zulu equivalents.

Column 1 gives the meaning of the word or component in English as given or defined in Doke & Vilakazi (2005). Column 2 gives the Zulu verb or noun stem without the prefix. If the addition of the prefix causes a change in the stem, the singular prefix and stem are given. Column 3 gives the Bushman and, where relevant, Khoikhoi words that correlate with the Zulu words in Column 2. Column 4 gives the meanings of the words in Column 3, as provided by Bleek (1929) and/or Bleek (1956).

The following should be noted regarding the list of individual place names displaying Bushman influence: In discussing words that have been 'borrowed' from Bushman languages and adapted the Zulu system, reference may be made some words being cognate with others. Since Zulu and the Bushman languages are unrelated and not descended from a common ancestor, the term 'cognate' should be understood, according Webster's definition, as c of a word: related in a manner that involves borrowing rather than descent from or as well as descent from an ancestral language - often used with with, sometimes with to (Gove 1961: 440). Translations of quotations are those of the author. Over the past years, the spellings of many Zulu place names have been standardised in accordance with the prescriptions of the Pan South African Language Board, and many Zulu place names have been changed accordingly. However, in the present investigation, the spellings of Zulu place names are given as they occur in the sources, since it is against these forms that Bushman cognates and correspondences are compared. In some instances, several Bushman words, from different Bushman languages, are given as cognates for Zulu words and components of place names. Although these do not all correspond the same extent their Zulu counterparts, they have been included for purposes of future comparison and for possibly shedding light on the relationship between languages, and former language distribution and language contact. With a view facilitating comparison between the Zulu and Bushman components of names, and in the interests of transparency, reliability and authenticity of given meanings, the page numbers on which the words appear in the relevant dictionaries are given in each case. For this reason, there are frequent references the compilers of dictionaries, vocabularies and word lists, such as Bleek, Colenso, Doke & Vilakazi, Nienaber, Kroenlein, and Rust.

The lexical, content or descriptive meanings of place names were of great importance to the Bushmen, because it enabled them to correctly identify and refer to entities in their environment. These meanings are also a valuable part of the cultural heritage of the people, and are frequently preserved as part of their oral tradition. In some instances, names were also translated into other languages, Dutch, English and Afrikaans, often by Europeans who learnt the languages.

As stated earlier, Doke & Vilakazi (2005: xviii) point out that by removing the prefix (or class marker) from the noun the stem is revealed, and that it is under this stem that the word is entered in their Dictionary.

The nomadic pastoralists formerly called “Hottentots” are today known as the Khoikhoi, a term also encountered as Khoekhoe, often abbreviated as Khoe. The name, said to be derived from the words khoi (khoe) “person” and khoin (khoen) “people”, is variously interpreted as “people of people”, “the best people”, “people of pure race”, “excellent people”, “our people”, “people of our group”, among others. Early forms of the name indicate that the two components of the ethnonym are not identical, and that the first contains a click, thus casting doubt on the given interpretations. This article proposes an interpretation based on definitions of words in Van Riebeeck’s Diary. Variant forms Khoikhoi(n), Khoekhoe(n) and Quena are discussed, as well as a number of ethnonyms that mean “mountain people”.

The first part of the term “Bushman” has been variously explained as referring to bush-covered country, or to bushes as refuge from enemies, as cover from which to attack man or beast, or as dwelling places. The word boes is neither Afrikaans nor Dutch, and is probably a phonological adaptation. Several San ethnonyms mean “bush men” or “bush people”. The term San, a contraction of Sanqua, earlier Sonqua, has been explained as “gatherers”, “outcasts, pariahs”, “servants, subjects”, “aborigines or settlers”, and “those who sit and rest”. Van Riebeeck’s addition of the explanations Vismans (“fish men”), struyckroovers (“bandits”, literally “bushrobbers”) and Berghvolck (“mountain people”) to various mentions of Souqua, Soaqua and similar words, prompts the possibility of translations.

AbstractThe ≠Aunin, also called Topnaars and !Naranin, are an exceptional people, currently regarded as Nama (Khoikhoi) but thought to be originally San (Bushmen). They inhabit the Walvis Bay area and Kuiseb Valley in Namibia, and live primarily from fishing, and from harvesting the seeds of !nara (Acanthosicyos horrida) plants. Various explanations of the names ≠Aunin and Topnaars have been encountered, the most popular linking the former to the Khoikhoi (Nama) word ≠aub “peak, top, point, pinnacle,” etc., and the latter to the English, Dutch, and Afrikaans word top and the Dutch and Afrikaans substantive ending -naar. The present paper postulates on linguistic and anthropological grounds that the name ≠Aunin reflects the unique means of livelihood of these people by fishing.

The not equal Aunin, also called Topnaars and !Naranin, are an exceptional people, currently regarded as Nama (Khoikhoi) but thought to be originally San (Bushmen). They inhabit the Walvis Bay area and Kuiseb Valley in Namibia, and live primarily from fishing, and from harvesting the seeds of !nara (Acanthosicyos horrida) plants. Various explanations of the names not equal Aunin and Topnaars have been encountered, the most popular linking the former to the Khoikhoi (Nama) word not equal aub "peak, top, point, pinnacle," etc., and the latter to the English, Dutch, and Afrikaans word top and the Dutch and Afrikaans substantive ending -naar. The present paper postulates on linguistic and anthropological grounds that the name not equal Aunin reflects the unique means of livelihood of these people by fishing.

The prefix Kwa occurs in many Zulu placenames, indicating "the place of," frequently referring to a person or personified feature. In composite placenames derived from Khoisan but adapted into the Zulu phonological and orthographic system, the component Kwa is often found to be a folk etymological adaptation of a Khoisan word, sometimes with the same lexical meaning as the other component of the name. In placenames of the latter sort, the prefix Ma- is sometimes also inserted as a result of misinterpretation of a Khoisan component phonologically similar to Kwa-. The present investigation also reveals a feature of Khoisan placename formation relating to the utilization of demonstrative adverbial locative elements that have in the past sometimes been regarded as generic terms or feature type designators.

Although the meanings of Zulu placenames are important as part of the culture of the Zulu people, these meanings are frequently uncertain, and various interpretations of a name are sometimes encountered. The reason is that many names, particularly those of natural features such as watercourses and mountains, are ancient, in the present KwaZulu-Natal frequently being of Bushman (or San) origin, but subsequently adapted into the Zulu phonological and orthographic systems. Such names would tend to be primarily descriptive of the color, shape or other characteristic of the named feature, or to designate the feature itself. In some instances the meanings have been preserved as part of the oral tradition, in others recourse may be had to toponymic configurations, sometimes revealing Bushman (or San) words fossilized in the placename but otherwise not in the Zulu vocabulary or lexicon.

Abstract Tshwane is the Tswana name for the Apies River. This name has been used by Tswana speakers for many years also to refer to the city of Pretoria. In the process of the transformation of geographical names in South Africa, the name Tshwane has been proposed as a replacement for the name Pretoria. Various explanations of the meaning of the name Tshwane have been suggested, but most have been discarded on linguistic grounds. On the basis of the river name being primary, this article argues that Apies is synonymous with, or has the same meaning as, an ancient Bushman (San) name of which Tshwane is an adaptation.