Page:George McCall Theal, Ethnography and condition of South Africa before A.D. 1505 (2nd ed, 1919).djvu/59

Rh “It is curious to notice that the Bushman tongue apparently agrees most, of all the Hottentot dialects, with that of the Cape, and next to it, with that of the Koranas, the latter being, in many respects, the connecting link between the Cape dialect and that of the Namaquas, in which the fullest and most original form of the Hottentot language has been preserved. But we must not forget here, that what materials for a knowledge of the Bushman tongue are at hand are as yet limited to vocabularies of one dialect, namely that of the district of the Winterveld, from the vicinity of Colesberg and Burghersdorp. Other Bushman dialects may be widely different, nor is it impossible that many so-called Bushmen are of quite different origin. However this may be, these Bushmen from the Winterveld have decidedly been distinct from the Hottentots, as a nation, for many centuries; for their language presents more than dialectical differences from that of the Hottentots. There are, indeed, many Bushman words similar to those in use among the Hottentots, and in the general features of their structure both languages agree together. But the grammatical forms which my vocabularies of the Bushman tongue contain are peculiar, and also the construction of sentences appears to be different from that of the Hottentot language.”

Before 1869 a great stride forward in knowledge was made, for in a volume termed The Cape and its People, published in that year, an article appeared from Dr. Bleek's pen dealing with the Bushman language from a scientific point of view. He wrote:

“The additional information which I have been able to collect (unsatisfactory as it is in extent) has impressed upon my mind this truth, that the Bushmen have been separate from their neighbours, the Hottentots, for at least many thousands of years… The task of taking down as exactly as possible the sounds of this language was, of course, a great difficulty, for as many as six different clicks, formed either by the tongue or the lips, can at the least be distinguished here. When endeavouring to give the right mark for each click, I have no doubt frequently erred, as my ear is not very acute nor accustomed to distinguish these sounds; but as the clicks and other different sounds are not contained in the grammatical portions of the words, my observations on the structure of the language are not affected by this deficiency.