Three Bushman languages

Abstract

SYNOPSIS The three Bushman languages are d3u\?ōã:si (Northern Group, a dialect of !khū, partly in South‐West Africa and partly in the Bechuanaland Protectorate), //ganakwe (Central Group, Bechuanaland Protectorate) and lk3: (Southern Group, Bechuanaland Protectorate). Recordings of these three languages, on which the present study is based, were made during the Peabody Museum Harvard Smithsonian Institution Kalahari Expedition (1955).1 In this first instalment d3u\?ōã:si and //ganakwe are critically examined. lk3: will form a second instalment, to be published at a later date. Notes on the phonology of d3u\?ōã:si and a detailed exposition of its morphology, together with supporting texts, reveal the instability of its vocalic and consonantal system, characterized by extensive fluctuations, within certain limits, and the extreme simplicity of its grammatical structure, of which the existence of the “double verb”, the wide range of juxtapositional constructions, and the absence of tense formatives, among others, are features. The shorter study on //ganakwe follows, in which a very important question is raised. It is the relationship — phonological, morphological and lexical — of the Central Group of Bushman languages to Hottentot and more especially to the Korana dialect of Hottentot. A preliminary conclusion is arrived at that those languages must have had a common origin in pre‐historic times.