Cattle and cattle colour terminology in South Africa

Abstract

A comparison between cattle colour terminology found in the Khoikhoi languages and that found in South African Bantu languages brings noticeable similarities to light, leading to the assumption that both the cattle and the terms used to describe their characteristic features were acquired by the South Eastern Bantu-speakers through contact with Khoikhoi pastoralists. In this article we investigate the possibility that these terminological similarities are the result of mutual relatedness to a single progenitor set of terms, rather than of borrowing that took place in a restricted geographical area. To this end, three hypotheses are proposed, respectively termed the East African link-hypothesis, the Northern Botswana link-hypothesis and the Sudan link-hypothesis. We argue that the latter, pointing to a common Nilotic proto-source, represents the most plausible explanation for the origin of cattle colour terminology shared by amongst others, the South African Bantu and Khoikhoi languages.