Abstract
The present article instantiates types of lexical borrowing from Afrikaans and Dutch in Namibian Khoekhoegowab (also known as “Nama”/“Damara”), but occasionally also refers to borrowings in the opposite direction. Where evidence allows, loans are traced back beyond Afrikaans to the era of Cape Dutch and contemporary interethnic contacts. Various categories ranging from adoptions to phonologically integrated loans, hybrids and calques are presented and, where possible, historical inferences are offered. The high degree of translational equivalence between Khoekhoe serial verbs and Afrikaans compound verbs leads to the consideration of some grammatical aspects including replication and relexification. Finally, reference is made to a parallel between Afrikaans and “Khoekhoe Afrikaans” syntax pointed out by den Besten (2013): Afrikaans circumlocutions like ek / sy wat Anna is (Khoekhoe: Anna. ta / Anna. s ) are literal equivalents of the underlying phrasal structures of Khoekhoe surface nouns #stem.pgn# in first, second or third person, as accounted for by the “desentential hypothesis” (Haacke 2006).
Highlights
The influence of Cape Khoe on Cape Dutch and early Afrikaans has received recurrent attention as far as syntactic issues are concerned, by Hans den Besten
The data are selectively drawn from the dictionary of Haacke and Eiseb (2002), which marks some 330 Khoekhoe entries as loans from Afrikaans or Dutch. As this dictionary records 20th century Khoekhoegowab as spoken in Namibia, there inevitably exists a disparity between the contemporary situation in this country, on the one hand, and the interaction of substrate Cape Khoe and Cape Dutch in previous centuries in South Africa, on the other
While it is not always evident whether a word was borrowed by Khoekhoe during the early Cape Dutch period, or more recently from earlier or later versions of Afrikaans, certain loans are revealed as early loans by traces of Dutch suffixes, the plural -en
Summary
The influence of Cape Khoe on Cape Dutch and early Afrikaans has received recurrent attention as far as syntactic issues are concerned, by Hans den Besten (cf. his list of publications in this volume). As the influence of Khoe on Cape Dutch and early Afrikaans has been covered fairly comprehensively, the present article will concentrate predominantly but not exclusively on loans from Afrikaans and Dutch in Khoekhoegowab as currently spoken in Namibia. The data are selectively drawn from the dictionary of Haacke and Eiseb (2002), which marks some 330 Khoekhoe entries as loans from Afrikaans or Dutch As this dictionary records 20th century Khoekhoegowab as spoken in Namibia, there inevitably exists a disparity between the contemporary situation in this country, on the one hand, and the interaction of substrate Cape Khoe (and other Khoe lects) and Cape Dutch in previous centuries in South Africa, on the other.
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