Some Ngoni Weapons Obtained in 1900

A Collection of Objects from the District to the South-West of Lake Nyassa.

Author: R. W. Felkin

Source: Man, Vol. 1 (1901), pp. 136-137.

Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland

With notes by R. W. Felkin, M.D., and others.

'The objects represented in the photograph were collected by the Rev. R. Stewart Wright, of the Manse, Haydon Bridge, Northumberland. They are now in the possession of Dr. Felkin, and were exhibited at a meeting of the Anthropological Institute in the latter part of 1900 (Journ. Anthr. Inst., XXX., Miscellanea, No. 120 pp.).

The information which has been collected about them is very scanty, and they are figured now in the hope that some of the readers of Man may be able to throw some further light upon their peculiarities.

Of No. 1 Mr. Stewart says :-" The scraper-and-dagger combined is used by the " Shire Highlanders. It is made by the Ngoni, living to the west of Lake Nyasa, who do not think of putting a handkerchief to its legitimate use, when it will answer the purpose of a suit of clothes. The carrier, when toiling along under a heavy burden, with the sweat streaming down his face, scrapes it away with his iron scraper, while the reverse end may be useful as a defence should he be attacked at close quarters."

[ 136 1901.] MAN. [Nos. 112 -113.

Ngoni weapons

Nos. 2 and 3 are a combined dagger and beer ladle; the former lurks in the handle of the latter, which is hollowed to form its sheath. Mr. Stewart Wright says "The combined knife anid beer ladle is unique, as I have never seen a duplicate of it. I should imagine that the maker had the idea that he would have a knife always at hand, in case of a drunken brawl. I got it in the Shire Highlands; it was made by a Manganga."

No. 4 appears to be a small fighting axe. The blade is of iron, and of a curious recurved form. The mode of hafting is peculiarly simple; the blade being simply thrust through a hole in the haft, and secured by a wrappiug of bark-cloth. The handle is carved into a conventional representation of the head of a gazelle, or other horned animal. There are no details as to the place or mode of manufacture.

No. 5 is a short iron spear with a flowing tuft of hair at the butt-end. Mr. Stewart Wright says of it:-" The spear is made, fused, by the Ngoni. It is a stabbing spear, "and used in finishing off the wounded after a battle."

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Zulu Beads and Some Ngoni Beadwork

Beads and beadwork have been an important part of the culture of southeast Africa for hundreds of years, perhaps for millennia. They have been used by archaeologists to date the ancient ruins of Mapungubwe and Zimbabwe, by historians to provide evidence of trading activities and contacts with other civilizations and cultures, and by anthropologists who have recognized Zulu beadwork as an important social regulator and index of status within the society. Curiously enough, however, Zulu beadwork, acknowledged to be among the finest in Africa, has received very little attention as an artistic expression.

The Robert Hull Fleming Museum of the University of Vermont in Burlington has an outstanding collection of this beadwork which was the special province of the Zulu women, consisting of over 150 pieces collected by various donors from 1847 to circa 1910. A number of them can be pin-pointed as to geographic origin. The main sources of the collection are in the Transvaal, Natal and southern Mozambique. This geographic and time span allows for speculation about regional variations and stylistic developments.

1. Zulu  Necklace Beadwork

Mozambique  Maseko Ngoni beadwork

The bulk of the Fleming Museum's collection is composed of pieces made from modern beads of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, although there are nearly two dozen older pieces. These older beads are not only the indigenous stone, ostrich shell, seed and wood beads, but also cowrie shells and glass beads imported by Arab traders from India, Persia, Arabia and the Far East, with most of the trade beads coming from Cambay. The Arabs monopolized the trade routes to East Africa until exploration by the Portuguese in the early sixteenth century opened up the area to European exploitation. The modem beads, brought by the Portuguese and English, were smaller, mass-produced and thus regular in size and shape (an advantage to the beadworker), and generally indistinguishable from one another. While the older beads were used to indicate one's wealth and status, the modem beads were available in plentiful quantities to anyone since they were used as specie by traders, settlers and missionaries.

The oldest part of the collection was bequeathed to the University of Vermont by the Reverend Lewis Grout, an American Presbyterian missionary in Umsunduzi, Natal from 1847 to 1862. Generally, this section is representative of the ornaments of the Zulu prior to prolonged contact with Europeans; the pieces are probably at least several decades older than the collection dates of 1847-1862 since during this period, the new beads had already flooded Africa. The Grout ornaments are composed of teeth, bones, cowries, pith and brass as well as the large irregular beads which fell into disfavor as the imported ones became available.

Most are strung on twisted vegetable fiber rather than on the imported cotton cord and linen string found in later pieces.

Among the beadwork collected by Grout are three large brass balls, indondo, each approximately three centimeters in diameter and of irregular shape, which were traditionally strung around the neck of a married woman as evidence of her marital status. There is also a string of leopard phalanges strung on a fiber cord, probably worn by a man, which had a greater magical than decorative function (Fig. 3). A large gray cocoon on a string fits a description by the Reverend Franz Mayr in a 1907 article, "The Zulu Kafirs of Natal," of

a caterpillar cocoon which may have been filled with tiny

BELOW PAGE: 2. IMIBIJO AND IMIGONQOLOZI, FIBER TUBES COVERED WITH COILS

OF BEADWORK AND WORN ON THE ARMS, NECK, SHOULDERS AND WAIST

2. Imibijo and Imigonqolozi

3.Older Zulu Beadwork, amaka strings of leopard phalanges,  Trade Beads from the east , Job's tears and a cacoon

4.Zulu Child's string of beads, the ingeje, a little girl beaded tab  shown with an adult tab necklace for comparison

Note From Blogger: compare the above with Ngoni child beads

Malawian Ngoni child with ingeje and beaded necklace

7. Probabley Zulu Widows necklace

8. Two Zulu Handsome shoulder bands and a matching  tab and collar 

9. Ubala abuyisse or "love letter" necklace

10.  A magnificent Zulu fringed loin covered with diamond  and chevron designs

pebbles and worn on the ankle as a noisemaker by young boys at dances (Fig. 3). A vegetable fiber string of little pith beads may be the amaka also described by him, where scented herbs are ground, kneaded and shaped into little balls and pierced with a thorn. The Grout collection also contains an example of the traditional cylindrical reed snuff container, often worn in a pierced ear. This particular container, however, consists of two reeds bound together by black and white bands of the fine modern beadwork.

A string of the old, tapering, large wound glass cylinders in opaque white, blue and plum color on a white core is an example of still another type of beadwork from this varied collection. These plum colored or red-on-white beads, also called "slave beads," are among the most common older beads in the world, and existed in a variety of sizes in southeast Africa after 1800. In the Fleming Museum, they are most often found as fasteners in conjunction with a thread loop affixed to pieces composed largely of small modern beads-only in two examples are they an integral part of the piece.

Two of the most dazzling ornaments in the Fleming Museum were acquired by Grout. Two long, beaded shoulder bands, 113 centimeters long, and a matching collar with a large pendant breast tab are worked in alternate red, blue and black triangles against a white beadwork ground while the neckband of the collar is worked in an intricate lace-like stringing technique (Fig. 8). The ensemble would have been an especially handsome dance or courtship attire for a young Zulu man.

In 1934, Laura Buckham presented the Museum with some Zulu articles of considerable age. Among them were several pieces of beadwork which were recently discovered to have been collected by Miss Buckham's grandfather, Josiah Tyler, a Congregational missionary who was Grout's friend and neighbor in Natal; in fact, Tyler took over Grout's mission from 1862, when the latter returned to Vermont, until 1889. The several pieces of beadwork which Tyler obtained should be regarded as an extension of the Grout collection by virtue of collection date and locality.

An interesting item in the Buckham/Tyler group is a rectangular bag made of thin pieces of hollow grass or reed tied together and lined with cotton cloth. It is decorated with occasional beadwork on the front, and has two long beaded strings attached, probably used to carry it around the neck. The use of grass contrasts with later examples of entirely beaded bags.

Tyler also possessed a string of red seed beads alternating with tiny, hexagonal, black iridescent beads which seems to be an example of the traditional single-strand love beads, ucu lokuqoma, strung by a young Zulu girl for her first lover to wear around his neck. She had similar strands for her waist, wrists and ankles. This string marked the first stage of her love life and after this point she was allowed to wear any kind of beaded ornament to beautify herself.

By far the largest part of the Museum's Zulu beadwork came from Mrs. Robert Catlin, whose husband was the General Manager for Consolidated Gold Mines at Johannesburg in the Transvaal from 1895 to 1906. The Catlins acquirednearly one hundred pieces of excellent beadwork, and their gift contains striking examples in almost every category. In a dazzling array of color and pattern, the superbly crafted pieces summarize the Zulu woman's gift for design and technique.

A Zulu donned various types of beadwork corresponding to stages of development from childhood to adulthood; it functioned to order the progression of love from courtship to marriage. When a child began to crawl, a medicinal amulet- a special berry acting as a charm for good health-was replaced by a single string of beads, the ingeje (Fig. 4). Sometimes the child's string had tiny beaded tabs, one for little girls and two tabs, front and back, for boys. As the girlchild grew, her loin band became more elaborate with beaded fringes and larger square tabs, the isiheshe. A stunning isiheshe in the Catlin gift (Inside Front Cover) has a black and white striped beaded tab with back fringes in red, white and blue; three long strands of larger beads hang from each side of the tab, ending in a cluster of small brass bells which gave out a musical jingle when the wearer walked. At puberty, the young girl adorned herself with a red or blue cloth extending from waist to mid-thigh and decorated with beads, the utshodo. Young unmarried men often wore the utshodo of their future brides around their heads, according to Mayr.

The most symbolic of Zulu beadwork communicated both publicly and privately the state of one's love life. In addition to the ucu lokuqoma noted in the Tyler gift were the "love letters," ubala abuyisse or "One writes in order that the other should reply." These were highly prized by the young Zulu men who wore them all over their necks, heads andchests. The greater the number of love letters, the more sweethearts or wives the owner was shown to have, reflecting his wealth and status. The Catlin collection contains numerous ubala abuyisse with tabs varying in size, shape and number, on strings both plain and beaded or occasionally fringed with lace-like beadwork (Fig. 9). Common to all of them are the richness and intricacy of their patterns, produced

with a limited range of colors which have symbolic meanings. Brilliant visual effects are created in geometric

designs of diamonds, chevrons and zigzags.

6. A necklace of two wooded pieces usually worn by married women

5. Examples of Bags made entirely of beads

A knowledge of the local color code used in the beadwork is necessary before one can read the message in the tabs and strings. Regina Twala did field work in 1948 on the cipher and colors used in beadwork by the Emangwaneni tribes of the Bergville district of Natal, but her interpretation of the color codes often contradicts that of Rev. Mayr who also wrote from personal observation in 1907. Mayr, however, did not record from which groups of Zulu he drew his information; he seems to have assumed that the color symbolismwas standard throughout the Zulu world and stated that "... the actual pattern does not appear to have any defined significance; it is rather the succession of the color and the relative amounts of the colors, that express the tenor of themessage." I Twala, however, felt that the interpretation of the colors varied with the pattern. Also, according to Mayr the border was merely decorative and the beaded string the most important message bearer, while Twala believed that the main message was in the tab. Regional variations and the difference in the dates of investigation are very likely responsible for these discrepancies.

However, certain colors seem to have retained general meanings which were shared by all Zulu. For instance,

opaque white beads, Ihambo or "bone," stood for purity of love; pink symbolized poverty; vaseline-yellow signified wealth; and blue symbolized the dove. Mayr interpreted a string of beads in the following manner: "My heart is pure and white in the long weary days (white beads); I have become quite lean and sickly (green beads); If I were a dove I would fly to your home and pick up food at your door (blue beads); Darkness prevents my coming to you (black beads).'2 The entire message is repeated a number of times. The following

is Twala's interpretation of a design according to the physical arrangement of the beads: "(a) WHITE ... I say

this with an open white heart. (b) BLUE ... I say, Oh for the dove that picks food (c) WHITE ... In the yard at your kraal. (d) RED ... I envy also the one who enjoys your fireplace. (e) WHITE ... Although my heart may be pure. (f) PINK... You are poor."3

Despite apparent general similarities in meanings of colors, accurate interpretations can be made only by one who knows the exact local origin of the love letter and the color code peculiar to that place. Unfortunately, lacking a more specific provenance than the vast Transvaal, the color code to the pieces in the Fleming Museum must be considered lost.

In many pieces throughout the collection as a whole, and especially in the love letters, some odd beads appeared to create a certain tension or imbalance in an otherwide regular pattern. Usually these stray beads were red, although occasionally blue or pink, and they occurred either singly or by twos. Since they are found most often in the love letters, it may be possible that they formed part of the message. However, the beads may also have been deliberately placed to break the repetitive rhythm of a design on either aesthetic

or magical grounds, or both.

Beads could also represent the rejection of a lover, as in the case of the inkakane, beads whose royal blue color symbolized a wandering, noisy bird. A young man whose lover had offended him would have his sister make the strand which would be given to his erring sweetheart on the eve of a public event. Beads presented at such a time obliged the receiver to wear them at the ceremony and thus display her lover's rebuke to all.

The greatest attention was paid to beaded body ornamentation by those between the ages of fourteen and forty. Young people bedecked themselves lavishly for courtship and dancing. When a girl accepted a marriage proposal, she gave her sweetheart a string of white beads symbolizing her purity, and before the marriage all the girls in her age group would gather to make quantities of beadwork for her "trousseau." On the day of the wedding dances, the bride dressed in her finest beadwork, including many thick fiber tubes covered with beaded coils called imibijo or imigonqo-lozi, worn over the arms and shoulders and around the neck. She would also wear a bead-fringed headdress. The Catlin collection contains many fine imibijo worked in stripes and patterns (Fig. 2), as well as a headband studded with brass buttons and fringed with two veil-like clusters of white looped beads, very possibly a bridal headdress (Fig. 1).

Except for special occasions, married men and women wore little beadwork. When men attained warrior rank, their personal adornment changed from beaded to feather ornamentation. A married woman often wore a simple necklet of white beads and little wooden pieces from the fragrant Umtomboti tree (Fig. 6).

Black beads in quantity were a sign of the wearer's widowhood. Widows also wore necklets to indicate whether or not they were interested in remarrying. An unusual example in the Catlin gift is a predominantly black, tubular neckpiece with some patches of white (Fig. 7). Hanging in the center are four brass rings beaded in black, but with contrasting center sections of red beads in two rings, and blue beads in the other two. This message of the piece may bethat the widow's eyes are red with weeping (red beads) but that she is amenable to a new love (white and blue beads).

11. An example of a lace like stringing  technique from Kellogg 's collection

Also found in profusion in the Catlin collection are splendid woven fiber beaded girdles studded with brass buttons, bead and fringed loin coverings on heavy beaded strings (Fig. 10), wide armbands and long strings of beadwork to be wound around the wrist and ankle. The seemingly endless variety of intricate patterns in startling color combinations along with flawless technique indicates the high quality of Zulu beadwork as a creative art form in the late nineteenth century. Perhaps the most elaborate and beautiful piece in the entire collection is a magnificent necklace in a delicate network of shades of blue (Fig. 1). This piece is unique to

the collection, and may have been worn by a member of the Zulu royal house. The Catlin gift dominates the Fleming Museum's collection of beadwork, not only due to its impressive quality but also to its sheer superiority in number.

While Director of Agriculture for Mozambique, Portuguese East Africa from 1908 to 1910, Otis Warren Barrett made a 1300 mile trip through Zulu country in southern Mozambique, where he collected the beadwork later donated to the Fleming Museum. There are several very fine pieces: an animal skin headband covered with cowry shells, sewn with sinew thread and with leather strips for a tie closure- an older type of ornamentation; a small bracelet of twisted copper and metal wire with interwoven bands of pink and green beadwork which distinguishes it from theplain twisted-wire bracelets usually worn; and an exquisitely delicate hair ornament made of a thin, curved skewer of bone. This ornament is wrapped for half its length in fine wire; hanging from the wrapped wire are long strands of fine wire strung with tiny red, white and blue beads. When worn, the beaded wires shimmer and tremble in response to the slightest movement of the body or head.

The most recent acquisition to the Museum's beadwork collection remains mysterious as to provenance. About a dozen pieces similar in color, design and manufacture technique were given by Julia Kellogg of Vermont, who had missionary friends in South Africa. The beadwork was sent to her by one of these friends somewhere in South Africa, probably after 1910.

The significance of the Kellogg collection lies in the incorporation of European objects into the beadwork. Although an exact provenance is not available for these pieces, all evidence points to a Mission origin. Many of the articles are executed in a fancy and strikingly lace-like pattern, reminiscent of heavily lace-edged Victorian garments at the turn of the century (Fig. 11). A lace-like stringing technique exists as early in the collection as the Grout pieces, but only in the Kellogg group does it seem to openly mimic European lace. There is also a brass safety pin and a stout Victorian hairpin, both with beaded appendages. A small leather purse with a flap is fastened with a European pearl shirt button and buttonhole, and beaded with four neat little

rosettes, in great contrast to the traditional Zulu beaded bags mentioned earlier. Finally, there is a necklace with a long blue and white lace-like tab from which hangs a tin cap box stamped with the legend "King Edward VII" and his royal profile. This container exemplifies a new development in Zulu beadwork at variance with the traditional container such as the reed snuff container collected by Grout, and a gourd snuff container collected by the Catlins. In these examples from the Kellogg donation, the beadwork has become

subsidiary to these foreign extraneous objects.

Although the designs are simple and the colors monotonously limited to blue and white, technically these pieces represent the apogee of Zulu beadwork. The virtuosity in stringing is surpassed only by the superb Catlin necklace. But this technical excellence marks the final stage in the development of Zulu beadwork. Increasing European influences in all aspects of Zulu life, the political and military upheavals of the nineteenth century, the introduction of more standardized beads and ready-made imported necklaces of the twentieth century, irrevocably changed the character of this traditional art. The forces of life that motivated the creation and wearing of beaded ornaments changed direction.

It is difficult to ascertain whether stylistic and other variations in the Fleming Museum's collection can be construed as representing a period of development and decline in Zulu beadwork throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, or merely a difference in regional styles. Both arguments seem tenable; comparison with other collections could help resolve this problem. However, the significance of the collection as a whole lies in the contrast between the old and new decorative objects-in its progression from the beadwork of the more ancient, contained world of the Zulu where the complex rituals of life bound the people together, to the beadwork of a world increasingly controlled by the white man, and reflecting the increasing acceptance of a white, Western system of values. -]

Mzimba Ngoni Women in early 1900s

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ZULU AND XHOSA PRAISE POETRY AND SONG

 by DAVID RYCROFT 

Part of the following article has previously appeared in a paper presented to the Anthropology Section of the 124th Annual Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Manchester, August/September, 1962.

The boundary between song and some forms of verse or declamation which are nowadays classified as "oral literature" is a blurred one and calls for co-operation between linguists and ethnomusicologists. Very little study has yet been made of musical characteristics found in the border-line art of praise-poetry or praise-singing which is practiced very widely throughout Africa. Among the Eastern and South-Eastern Bantu, what small evidence there is reveals considerable differences between the traditional style of delivery associated with Zulu izibongo praises,1 and that, for example, of the Heroic Recitations of the Banyankore, a Bantu people of East Africa. A. N. Tucker2 has recorded some of the latter and they were taken as the subject for a thesis by H. F. R. Morris.3 They are uttered with quite phenomenal rapidity and the overall intonation contour of each line is a gradually descending one, without the observance of fixed musical pitches.

Zulu practice, in the South-East, is totally different. In a number of recordings of iZibongo, by two different reciters,4 four recurrent levels of pitch resembling the "scale" of notes in a piece of music appear to predominate and might be said to serve as a basic tonal structure (in the musical sense) throughout the recitation. Rudimentary evidence of reciting conventions among other South-Eastern Bantu such as the Xhosa, Sotho and Venda seems to suggest that this four-note, quasi-musical style is practised only by the Zulu, in this area. Other peoples, from evidence available so far, seem to deviate less from normal speech when they recite praises. 

The four predominant notes used in the Zulu izibongo recordings mentioned, could be represented roughly by the Tonic Solfa symbols doh', te, sob, and Dob. Low Dob occurs only finally in a stanza and may tail off to lower, indeterminate pitch just as the final syllable fades into silence. Syllables taking one or other of the higher notes do not always main- tain absolutely level pitch. Glides to or from one or other of the notes, or from one to another, are frequent, but this is also the case in true Zulu song. 

My teacher, the late Dr. B. W. Vilakazi, left us with a long-standing riddle when he made the statement that "It lyric poetry was originally intended to be sung, then this quality of poetry still exists in Zulu. The poet has to tune his voice to some melody when he recites his imaginative descriptions".5 

He added the observation that tone in Zulu is "semantic" and that this "semanticism of tone, though wide in the spoken language is more apparent in the recitation of verse." From the last statement, one gathers firstly, that the "melody" in izibongo recitation does not violate the speech-tones. This certainly turns out to be true. There is no single, constant melodic sequence - pitch movement is conditioned by the words. 

But there are four possible notes, and Zulu, in common with most other Bantu languages, is a two-tone language (in the linguistic sense), using only two contrasting registers. Attempts to establish the upper two notes as variant realisations of High speech tones, while the lower two represent Low tones, prove fallacious. As I have described in some detail in an earlier papers, it finally became evident that only the highest note, doh', represented High speech tones. Low speech-tones take low Dob when final, but whether they take te or sob when non-final depends upon the initial consonant of the syllable. Unvoiced consonants require te for the syllable, while most voiced consonants demand sob. The process is operated quite mechanically by the Zulu reciter. There is, in fact, in the spoken language - as also in German and Chinese - an auto- matic voiced consonant/pitch-lowering correlation, as was first noted by D. M. Beach in 19247. This phonetic feature seems to be exploited and exaggerated in izibongo recita- tion. But this, no doubt, has a natural foundation in the fact that consonantal pitch- lowering has a more pronounced effect, in Zulu, when one talks at the top ot one's voice. From the recordings it seems that recitation takes place within a pitch range at least an octave higher than that of normal speech - judging by pitches used by the reciter when announcing the title of each izibongo. 

The validity of Vilakazi's claim that speech-tone contrasts become "more apparent" in recitation is borne out if we compare recited lines with normally spoken ones, as in Fig. 1. The upper transcription in each case shows recited pitch levels while the lower shows those of a normally spoken version of the same line. The multiplicity of pitches in the spoken versions results from the interaction of speech-tones, lowering consonants (underlined), and, thirdly, overall "sentence intonation" which, in most types of utter- ance in Zulu, confers progressive dropping of pitch, or "downdrift." 

In recitation, this normal intonation feature is entirely absent until the last two syllables of a stanza where, as the pitch drops all at once, a wide interval is traversed which provides an effective concluding formula. Avoidance of the normal downdritt intonation of speech, and the maintaining of fixed levels ot pitch like musical notes instead, is no doubt what Vilakazi had in mind when he referred to tuning the voice to "some melody" when reciting. He was himself a leading Zulu poet. 

Fig. 1 Extract from IZibongo zikaShaka 8

U-Shaka ngiyesab' ukuthi unguShaka

U-Shaka kwakuyinkosi ya.semashobe-ni.

Upper transcription:  Recited pitch levels (Mr. John Mgadi);
Lower transcription: Spoken pitch levels (Mr. S. Ngcobo).

Translation: "Shaka - I am afraid for thou art Shaka!
Shaka - There was a king amongst the cattle tails!"
(i.e., A master of the cattle raid he was!)

The question remains, however, whether or not Izibongo recitation should be regarded as a species of song. The sequence of pitches is certainly not a free, musically determined melody. Use of one or other of the four notes is conditioned directly by an interaction of speech-tones, consonants, and stanza finality. Linguistic determinism here appears to be absolute, and this state of affairs stands in distinct contrast to what happens in items which are clearly acceptable to true song. In traditional Zulu songs, speech-tones and consonants certainly have an influence on the melodic rise and fall, but musical requirements are also in evidence and there is give and take between the two. As Hornboste I stated of African Negro song, generally:

"The pitches of the speaking voice, indeed, appear to determine the melodic nucleus; but they have no influence upon its inborn creative forces; these forces, and not any qualities of speech, direct the further course of the melodic development"9.

In the old dance-song of the Buthelezi clan shown in Fig. 2, only four notes are used - or three and their octaves. But these bear no relationship to those used in izibongo and the way in which High and Low speech-tones are set to the notes is quite different. Hign speech-tones are not realised always on the highest note. In the first two words of the initial phrase, High and Low speech-tones do consistently take dob' and sob, respectively. But in the next word, High tones take sob, and Low tones take ray and, finally, Doh. In the final word of the men's part, speech-tones are melodically over- ruled: the sequence should properly be High-Low-High.


Fig. 2 Buthelezi (Zulu) dance-song.10
Translation: "They set him up for one month: then they deposed him.
                   He is getting old now! Father is getting old!"

It seems to be permissible in this and other true songs, for High syllables at various points in the line to be realised on almost any note within the particular "scale" in use, provided that one or more lower notes remain available for the setting of intervening Low syllables. Occasionally, especially at the end of a line, speech-tone requirements may be entirely over-ruled. The descending melodic line which is characteristic of all such Zulu songs gives a suggestion of affinity with the overall downdrift intonation of normal speech, while the iZibongo convention of consistently maintaining the pitch height of High syllables stands in distinct contrast both to song and to normal speech. The use of exaggerated concluding formulae is also peculiar to Izibongo.

Regarding metre, fundamental distinctions could be cited between practices in song - where length is often distorted mercilessly for metrical ends' - and in Izibongo, where such things as regular "feet" are not to be found, but rather the natural ryhthms of speech.

Izibongo and song differ further in rate of utterance. An appreciably greater number of words per minute are uttered in recitation than in any true Zulu song. Words, chosen for their imagery, sound and aptness, are the very core of iZibongo. Their pitch setting could be said to be somewhat mechanical, despite the fact that a series of notes is used which resembles a rudimentary musical scale. In song, on the other hand, words often convey little actual meaning. Lyrics generally consist of a few short phrases which are constantly repeated, with occasional interpolations. Musical expression is paramount.

From this it would seem that Izibong do not fit, conveniently into the category of Zulu song. From the linguistic point of view they constitute a form of speech utterance with its own special form of overall intonation - possibly comparable with forms of "monotonic chant" in other cultures, such as mentioned by George List in a recent article12. From a musical point of view, Izibongo are excessively word-bound, allowing no freedom to Hornbostel's "inborn creative forces" of the melodic nucleus.

In contrast to this borderline category of musically stylised speech we find the clear prose folk-tale within whicn short crystallised items of true song occur - though tne teller may at times slip almost imperceptibly from tne one medium into the other and back again. In Africa, as elsewhere in the world, the song within the folk-tale often has magical power. In a Xhosa tale from the Cape, the river monster, Sinyobolokondwana, steals the clothes of the twin sisters, Wele and Welekazi, from the river bank while they bathe. One of the sisters manages to get her clothes back from the monster by singing the required song:
. Fig. 3 Xhosa folk-tale song'3
Translation: " Sinyobolokondwana!
                  Give back my clothes!
                 Bhakubha is a long way off;
               Mother will give me a beating."

What became of the other sister, who refused to sing properly, is another story. Two transcriptions of this little song have been shown in Fig. 3 - first of an initial recording without any rhytnmical accompaniment, and secondly of anotner recording in which tne singer accompanied herself with regular hand-clapping.

Singing in Negro Africa very frequently takes place, as we know, against some rhythmical accompaniment - whether this be provided by instruments, dance-steps, hand-clapping, or merely the repetitive movements of some daily task. In such rhythmi- cally accompanied song it has been observed that it seems to be a widespread African habit for word-stresses to fall not on, but between the physical beats.

A perfectly natural physiological foundation for this suggests itself in the case of work-songs in which heavy muscular effort is called for, or in strenuous acrobatic dancing. It is, of course, an instinctive human reflex to tense the diaphragm and hold the breath, by closing the glottis, at the actual moment of maximum exertion - in tact, even babies do so during defecation. At the actual moment ot this instinctive breath-holding during pushing, lifting, leaping and the like, the emission ot vocal sound of any kind is, of course, impossible. But immediately before or after the moment of exertion - or both before and after it: "buk - - - aaab" - sound of some sort is not only possible, but very probable. A Zulu work-song with the unfortunately all too topical text, "They arrest us!", which is repeated ad infinitum, demonstrates this point clearly. A transcription of the first few lines of this song appears in Fig. 4. The beat, heard as a heavy physical thud whenever it is given expression, always just immediately precedes the beginning of the phrase, during vocal silence.

Ba-ya-a-si-bo -- pha-, Percussion (thud of shovels) Ba - ya-si-bo - pha - -- etc
 Fig. 4 Zulu work-song14

Among the Zulu and Xhosa peoples of the extreme south-east, instrumental ensembles are not used at all as a basis for dancing. Dancers sing their own dance music and, particularly with Xhosa dance-songs, there is what seems to be a subtly calculated off- beat relationship between word syllables and the regular dance-step and hand-clap rhythm. This may be seen in Fig. 5, as also in the second version or the song referred to earlier in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 shows what my informant called a "sour grapes" dance song - which she had heard during wedding celebrations, and which she thought must have been composed by an old maid.

Fig. 5 Xhosa dance-song15
Translation: "How fortunate I am to be unmarried -
                  I can still follow my own inclinations!"


Here it will be seen that word syllables seldom exactly coincide with a hand-clap, and often fall somewhere between the beats. One gains the impression of a rather loose relationship between words and clapping. This "near miss" relationship is not hap- hazard, however, but seems to be repeated with exactitude with each repetition of the song. My own theory, put forward in an earlier paper,16 is that in Xhosa singing, instead of the best being made to coincide with the release of a consonant - into a vowel, so that the onset of the vowel is on the beat, as is our own practice - it coincides with the initial closing or thrusting movement of the consonant (when this type of consonant occurs) so that the commencement of the vowel invariably occurs later, a little after the beat. This effect appears to be further exploited and exaggerated for stylistic purposes, and closure of the glottis - necessary in strenuous exertion - could, of course, also take place on the beat, during the consonantal closure, if required.

In passing, it may be ot interest to observe that, in America today, one of the most highly paid singers of "pop" and cabaret songs - with their currently favoured gimmicks of off-beating and deliberately loose word-phrasing-is Miss Miriam Makeba17, a South African of Xhosa extraction, who played the leading role in the original production of the musical, King Kong. This feature of non-coincidence between words and rhythm is, of course, not confined to the Xhosa. Richard Waterman coined the expression "off-beat phrasing of melodic accents in relation to percussion metre"s8 to describe what he found to be a common characteristic in West African music, thousands of miles north of the Xhosa. Apart from this point of similarity, however, there seems to be very little in common between the musical practices of tne West Coast and those of tne extreme soutn-east, where there are no drums or spectacular percussion ensembles.

Since 1947, an invaluable rallying point for African musical studies has been tne African Music Society and, later, the International Library of African Music, which together have their headquarters near Johannesburg, under the directorship of Mr. Hugh Tracey. The Society issues a journal entitled African Music, and Mr. Tracey has conducted recording expeditions throughout a large part of Africa south of the Sahara. Long-playing discs of the field recordings are available from the International Library.

Founders of the African Music Society were a handful of white people in Africa who had grown to love indigenous African music and were concerned by the rate at which, in many parts of the country, this was being lost or diluted in the context of rapid social change and under the influence of imported Western styles. Rescue action in the form of a large-scale recording drive was envisaged so that these treasures might be pre- served. Such recordings, it was felt, should be given the chance to compete with foreign music in regional radio programmes and in the record shops. Should the present genera- tion of new African townsmen fail to be impressed, a body of authentic recorded material might still serve to inspire later generations who turn in search of their cultural heritage.

A "preservationist" attitude towards tradition is by no means widely held by those Africans who have deserted tribalism for a way of life they feel is more suited to the 20th century and who feel that music from their past is out of place. The raison d'etre of many of their traditional musical practices, interwoven as they are with social custom, is no longer provided in town life, or now institutions may pay the piper and hence call a new tune. Under the circumstances, however, they deserve hardly more personal blame than the Western man-in-the-street who relishes only "rock-'n-roll" and the "twist."

African musicians and scholars there certainly are, however, who do value their indigenous music. The eminent Ghanaian sociologist and ethnomusicologist, Professor J. B. Nketia writes:

"In contemporary Ghana, old and new forms of folk music exist side by side... For some time there has been a danger of... the older type of folk music being abandoned by literate and urbanised Ghanaians as Ghana gets more and more industrialised. Nationalism, however, is fostering a new pride in our tolk music, and efforts are now being made to preserve or encourage the practice of the best in the older type of folk music throughout the country"x9. 

NOTES: 

(1) For examples of texts with English translation, see E. W. Grant: "The Izibongo of he Zulu Chiefs", Bantu Studies, III, 1928, pp. 203-244. 

(2) Professor of East African Languages, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
(3) H. F. R. Morris: The Heroic Recitations of the Banyankore, University of London Ph. D. thesis, 1957 (unpublished).
(4) James Stuart reciting: IZibongo !ikaSenZangakhona, Zonophone 4195; IZibongo ZikaSolomoni ka- Dini.ulu, Zonophone 4178, and IZibongo ZikaShaka, Zonophone 4175. (These, among other praises and folk-tales spoken by Stuart, were recorded in 1927) and John Mgadi reciting the I:ibongo of six of the Zulu kings, recorded on Gallotone GE 1001; GE 967, and GE 998.
(5) B. W. Vilakazi: "The Conception and Development of Poetry in Zulu", Bantu Studies, XII, 1938, p. 116. (6) D. Rycroft: "Melodic features in Zulu Eulogistic recitation", African Language Studies, 1, 1960, pp. 60-78. (London: Luzac & Co.).
(7) D. M. Beach: "The Science of Tonetics and its application to Bantu languages", Bantu Studies, II, 1923-6, p. 75.
(8) Diagram reproduced from D. Rycroft: op. cit., p. 67. Recording: Gallotone GE 967.
(9) E. M. von Hornbostel: "African Negro Music", Africa, I, Jan. 1928, p. 31.
(10) Recorded by Hugh Tracey, 1955. Issued on LP disc., "The Sound of Africa" Seies, AMA TR-12 (A, 1). Transcription reproduced from D. Rycroft: op. cit. 2, p. 26.
(11) See: D. Rycroft, "African Music in Johannesburg: African and non-African features", Journal of the International Folk Music Council, XI, 1959, p. 26.
(12) George List: "The Boundaries of Speech and Song", Ethnomusicology, VII, 1, January 1963, pp. 3-6. (13) Singer: Mrs. L. Nongobo Whyman, 1955. Recording: D. Rycroft.
(14) Singer: Mr. R. Kunene, 1959. Recording: D. Rycroft.
(15) Singer: Mrs. L. N. Whyman, 1956. Recording: D. Rycroft.
(16) D. Rycroft: "Stylistic Evidence in Nguni Song", paper at Symposium: Music and History in Africa and Asia, Royal Anthropological Institute, London, 1962.
(17) See, inter a/ia, LP recording "Miriam Makeba Sings", London Records, HA 2332.
(18) Richard Waterman: "African Influence on the Music of the Americas", in Acculturation in the Americas, ed. Sol. Tax, University of Chicago Press, 1952, p. 213.
(19) J. H. Nketia: "Changing Traditions in the Folk Music of Ghana", Journal of the Internat. Folk Music Council, XI, 1959, p. 34. * Khulwane means "big" and may be omitted. N.B.--The notation shows the nearest notes in the diatonic scale.

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Xhosa Poetry and The Usage of The Word Tribe

In the following correspondences are some insights into the nature of Xhosa tribal poetry. Xhosa as a nguni language is in many respects similar to the Ngoni language. As noted in a previous post use of words such as licansi, lizulu show resemblance of the ngoni language in usage of so many words as isiXhosa. While isiZulu has dropped li or ili the ngoni language spoken in Ntcheu and Mzimba in Malawi and Chipata in Zambia seem to have maintained them just as isiXhosa. The post below focuses on Xhosa tribal poetry which is also similar in many respects with ngoni praise poetry or tribal poetry. 

The discussions also focuses on the perceived patronising attitude of the author of an article called Imbongi Nezibongo:The Xhosa Tribal Poetry. To refer to the Xhosa as a tribe is an insult as they are more numerous than most European peoples. I have recently also had problems with the issue of calling the Ngoni as a tribe when the reality is the Ngoni were a nation and controlled a significant portion of present day Malawi. Our paramount chief ought to be called a King and not chief a title the colonialists gave him.

To the Editor:
Jeff Opland's comments on Xhosa poetry ("Imbongi Nezibongo: The Xhosa Tribal Poet and the Contemporary Poetic Tradition," PMLA, 90, 1975, 185-208) are particularly interesting to the Africanist, but are additionallyan effective reminder to all critics that poetry has its roots in oral tradition and performance. Given the scholarly quality of much of his analysis, I was distressed by his tone and by what he left unsaid. At best, his attitude toward the Xhosa is patronizing, but considering the political realities of South Africa, there are more troubling implications in the manner he treats his material.
 

Throughout the article, Opland refers to the "Xhosa tribal poet." When anthropologists define "tribe," "tribal," and "tribesman" clearly, these terms may have value. However, anthropologists are not even in agreement about their meaning, and when amateurs use them loosely, they often reinforce Western stereotypes of non-Western societies. As the title of Moravia's recent book reminds us, one of the most common questions  non-Africans ask Africans is "What tribe do you belong to?" The average Westerner sees Africans only as tribesmen (primitive) or de-tribalized (Western) individuals. The point is: both before European contact and today an African might well be a member of a nation or a state rather than a "tribe" in any sense of that word.
 

Anthropologically, we might speak of the 3.5 million Xhosa as a nation comprised of several "tribes," but the
complexities of racial stratification in South Africa today make such a distinction useful and important only to the white South African government which continues to impose "tribal" identity on the South African people to consolidate apartheid rule. The black man who would think of himself as South African, or simply African, is reminded of his assigned "tribal" identity by the "pass card" the law requires him to carry. Even if we could accept Opland's use of "tribe," to speak of a "Xhosa tribal" anything would be redundant. Further, nothing in his performer-oriented typology is specific to Xhosa. The Xhosa and the Zulu, both Nguni people sharing a mutually intelligible language, share izibongo (praise poetry). More important, Africans do not speak of "tribes," a term derived from European ways of examining societies. Because Westerners have used the term loosely to categorize Africans, and in a calculating manner to control them, it has become pejorative.
 

Were it simply a question of usage, Opland's article would not warrant a sharp critical response. However, the tenor is what we might have expected from a nineteenth-century ethnographer discussing "his" people. Chadwick, whom he quotes, could still talk in the 1930's from an ethnocentric bias about "higher cultures" and "great cultures." Leach, Levi-Strauss, and other contemporary anthropologists have shown how such an attitude is untenable; yet throughout this article we hear reminders that Opland has gone down into the Bantustans (reservations-in a sense, the South African equivalent of our cotton fields) and captured with his
tape recorder the "spontaneous poetry" of a simple folk. His academic colleagues are always referred to by their last names, but Opland patronizingly refers to a young informant as "little Ziyanda" (p. 191), more tellingly to an older man, Wilson Mkhaliphi, as "an illiterate pagan," and then most amazingly refers to him, not simply by his first name, but as "Old Wilson" (p. 191). If Opland were interviewing a contemporary Western poet such as Pablo Neruda, would he describe him as "a proud man who answered my questions in English patiently, carefully, intelligently, and confidently" (p. 199)? We are given an even less liberal view of the African in the stereotypic description of Nelson Mabunu as "a mild, soft-spoken man who wears glasses and seems to be developing a paunch" (p. 196). We would never accept this Time magazine approach to an article on "Donne and Ecclesiastes"; why must we expect anything less in an article on oral literature?
 

Finally, Opland acknowledges the very important protest element in the poetry which is now being written, but he does little more. His silence is possibly the result of limitations imposed on him as a scholar working in a pigmentocracy controlled by strict censorship laws. By law, white and black cannot meet on equal terms, so it is startling and speaks well for his ability in the field that his informants even gave him protest lyrics. After all, the consequences for "stirring up trouble" are severe. Over three hundred blacks are under a ban forbidding the printing or performance of their work. Perhaps Opland is trying to protect his informants and not his own position, but whatever his reasons, specific commentary on the social factors that have helped to influence contemporary izibongo are as conspicuously absent as would be lines blacked out by a South African censor.
 

Regardless of what the artist or critic feels should be the relationship between art and politics, the pass laws, the Bantustans, and the censor's ink impose a relationship in the South African context. As the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe has repeatedly pointed out, it is not a question of commitment, but of commitment to what. It is unfortunate that Opland's commitment to the peoples of South Africa appears limited only to a naively romantic view of the "tribal poet" as an endangered species, that it does not extend to a holistic view of the essential problems of a racially stratified society-problems that have helped to shape the poetry no less than they have impinged upon the lives of the people. Mabunu's eloquent izibongo puts questions before Opland that we never see answered:
What do you want me to say, fair-skinned one ...
Why do you want this information,
Information about the people?
When did you begin, men,
To concern yourselves
About the things of the people?
Because the day that the missionaries arrived
They carried a Bible in front,
But they had a breechloaders lung behind.( p. 199)
 

There is more abuse than praise in this poem, and until Opland takes full cognizance of this fact he will have
done little to show the West the significance of izibongo in "man's intellectual history."
 

RICHARD PRIEBE
Virginia Commonwealth University
 

Mr. Opland replies.
Objections to my article are raised under two headings: "the tone and what was left unsaid." Under "tone" Richard Priebe finds offensive my use of the term "tribe" as well as my "patronizing" style. "Tribe" is a term sanctioned by scholarly usage, employed by the ethnographers I have consulted, and, in my experience, free of any derogatory connotations. It is certainly meaningful to the people themselves: for example, considerable
animosity still exists today among certain circles in the Ciskei between the Mfengus and the Rharhabes. Following established practice, I have in my article called such units "tribes" (other Xhosa speaking tribes are mentioned in n. 6); even if no self respecting anthropologist would use the word today, scholars in other disciplines might still find it useful and generally meaningful. Or are we all now to talk of the twelve clans or family bands of Israel?

In presenting my informants to my readers I consciously chose to adopt an anecdotal style designed to suggest something of the human relationship that exists between folklorist and performer. If my attitude to my
informants were patronizing, they would hardly tolerate my frequent visits or entertain my questions with patience. No description of any informant could be a stereotype, since each is an individual: my description of Nelson Mabunu, for example, as "a mild, softspoken man who wears glasses and seems to be developing a paunch" is accurate, and was intended to convey the contrast with the "agile and athletic" performer he suddenly and dramatically became during that interview (p. 199).
 

Priebe asserts that "the essential problems of a racially stratified society" have "influenced" and "helped to shape" the poetry I describe. This is an interesting hypothesis, one that I would wish Priebe or any other qualified person to develop in a scholarly article: unfortunately, I am not equipped to do it. My interest is in the comparative study of oral literatures, as I thought I made clear in my article. There is much more that can and must be said about the material I present, but I did not feel that this general article was the place for exploring in detail all these interesting and important bypaths. As I said, "In this article many questions have been left unanswered, and many topics have perhaps been treated too summarily. The intention, however, was merely to show the interaction of the different kinds of poets in the Xhosa community, their influence on and relation to one another" (p. 205).

I confess to being somewhat taken aback by the readiness of American Africanists to criticize adversely anything South African that is not black or banned; their zeal often outpaces their discretion. To cling to the belief that all white South Africans support their government (or that all black South Africans oppose it) is indeed naively romantic, however fashionable or necessary it may be for one's existence as a teacher of African Studies in an American university. I wish to extend a public invitation to Priebe to travel to South Africa and join me in my field work. Perhaps then his view of my article would be more balanced, and perhaps then his scholarly criticism of the material I present would be better informed.
 

JEFF OPLAND
Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies

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Zulu Clicks

Author: C. U. Faye, Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, Vol. 3, No. 4 (1925),pp. 757-782 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the School of Oriental and African Studies

By C. U. FAYE

1. Oertel, in Lectures on the Study of Language, writes (in the footnote on p. 304): " The effect of taboo on the lexicon of savage tribes deserves further investigation."

Bryant, p. 9 of the preface: "... it will be found that the hlonipha speech of the Zulu women has preserved words of the ancient Zulu language now quite obsolete, as well as many other words brought along by them from alien tribes from whom the men in remoter times had taken wives, and which words will now provide much elucidation for the ethnologist when tracing the origin and ancient history of these Zulu people."

2. When a Zulu word has to be hlonipha'ed, this can be done in three ways (Wg. KG., pp. 143-4):-

3. A synonym may be substituted for the word to be hlonipha'ed. If a man's name is U-Phepha (from Z. ili-Phepha, " paper," from English " paper "), his wife may use, to indicate " paper ", the word ili-Khasi, " a leaf," instead of ili-Phepha.

4. A word may be made up to take the place of the word to be hlonipa'ed. For is-Andhla, "hand," may be substituted is-Amu'kelo, literally " that which receives", from Amu'kela, "to receive."

In this category of hlonipa words may be put the argot of crime and sorcery. I-nQola yom-Lilo, " fire wagon," is used for "revolver "; cf. English, or, rather, American " smoke wagon." 2 Ili-Phumalimi (ili, prefix; phuma, "go out "; li, prefix; mi from ma, verb, " stand ") = (" the beast " or "game ") "that goes out standing up " is used in the language of sorcerers to denote Europeans, because the houses of white men have doors which enable one to go out upright, while one must go in and out of native huts on all fours.

5. The word to be hlonipa'ed, after having suffered a phonetic change, may be used for its unchanged form-generally another consonant is substituted for the first consonant of the stem, for instance: tshona may be used as the hlonipa variant of bona.

6. As it seemed that the hlonipa words of this third category might throw some light on certain click words in the Zulu language, I have picked out the words of this category 1 from the " Vocabulary of the Hlonipa Language of the Zulu Women ", in Bt D., p. 738 f., and arranged them as follows :-

(a) A non-click for a non-click.

(b) A click for a non-click (for the inclusion of rr among the clicks, see below, ? 27).

(c) A click for a click.

(d) A non-click for a click.

In each case the word, together with its hlonipa variant (or variants), is separated from the next one by a semi-colon. The first word given is the word used in the general language, and the following word (or words) the hlonipa variant (or variants).

For the (?) after some words, see below, 12.

7. Non-click for non-click 

b for non-click :-

hla'kanipha: ba'kanipha; um-Lotha, iNgqumathi, i-Ngqubathi; um-Ntwana : um-Bana.

b plus another change (or other changes) for non-click :-

i-nDhlela : i-Nyatu'ko, i-mBhanu'ko.

p or ph plus another change (or other changes) for non-click :-

Dhlula : Phunda; Name'ka : Phaqe'ka.

t or th for non-click :-

Khulu: Thulu; i-nKunzi: i-nZe'ka, i-nZetha; 'kwakhe : 'kwate; 'kwakho: 'kwato; 'kwami: 'kwati; shona-: tona.

nt for non-click :-

Fa : Nta.

g for z :-

Azi: Agi; Ozela : Ogela ; Za : Ga; Zama : Gama; ili-Zambhane : ili-Gambhane; Zamula : Gamula; ezantsi: egantsi; ili-Ze: ili-Ge; Ze'ka: Ge'ka; ili-Zeze: ili-Geze; um-Zimbha: um-Gimbha; ili-Zinyane: ili-Ginyane; Zwa: Gwa.

g plus another change (or other changes) for non-click, generally z :-

isi-Nene: isi-Gege; izolo: igoco; ama-Zolo: ama-Goco (igoco and ama-Goco have c instead of 1 to avoid confusion with igolo ( = ili-Golo) and its pl. ama-Golo).

k and kh for non-click (owing to Bt's spelling there may be some instances of 'k here, which have escaped my attention- I am not certain of the pronunciation of all the words given.

Bt uses k for both k. and 'k) :-

phezu: ekhezo; ili-Sela: ili-Kela; um-Sebe: um-Kebe; um- Sipha: um-Kipha; ubu-So: ubu-Ko; Um-Thimbha: um-Kimbha.

k and kh plus another change (or other changes) for nonclick:-

Bulala: Khilala (i substituted for u, probably to prevent confusion with Khulula) ; Buya : Khiya ; Diliza : Khithiza ; Fumana : Khaphana; Hosha: Khokha; Lila: Khica; um-Sizi: um-Kigi.

nk for non-click, often s or nts :-

i-nDhlu: i-Matshe'ko, i-nKatshe'ko; Esaba: Enkaba; hle:nke; 'kithi: 'kinki; 'kwenu: 'kwenku; Sala: Nkala; ulu-Sebe: ulu-Nkebe ; ili-Sela: ili-Nkela ; ili-Sele ; ili-Nkele ; Senga: Nkenga ; ubu-Senge : ubu-Nkenge ; ulu-Si : ulu-Nki; sibe'kela : Nkibe'kela ; Si'ka: Nki'ka; isi-Sila: isi-Nkila; Sina: Nkina; Sinda: Nkinda; ulu-Singa: ulu-Nkinga; Sitha: Nkitha; Sombhulu'ka: Nkombhulu'ka; Sondela: Nkondela; ili-Su: ili-Nku; ili-Sundu: ili-Nkundu; Thi: Nki; Thwasa: Entshesa, Enkesa; i-nTsele: i-nKele; i-nTsimbhi: i-nKimbhi; i-nTsumpa: i-nKumpa; u-Yise : u-Yinke.

nk plus another change (or other changes) for non-click:-

Hle'ka : Netsha, Nkesha; ntambhama : nkazama; Siza : Nki'ka; ulu-Sizi: ulu-Nku'ki.

v for non-click :-

ili-Va : ili-Bangulo, ili-Vangulo.

f for non-click:-

um-Hla'kuva : um-Hlafuthwa.

h for non-click :

Banga : Hanga; Duma : Huma; Fa'ka : Ha'ka; Fana :Hana; Khanu'ka: Hanu'ka.

h plus another change (or other changes) for non-click :-

Dabu'ka: Hantsu'ka; Fudumeza : Hadameza; Funa: Hana : Kaka : Haqa ; i-mVu'kuzi : ili-Hunguzi.

j for bh :-

Bhala: Jala; ili-Bhamuza: ili-Jamuza; um-Bhaqanga: um-Jaqanga; Bheda : Jeda ; ili-Bheshu : ili-Jeshu; Bhidhli'ka : Jidhli'ka; Bhina: Jina; Bhoboza: Joboza; ili-Bhodhlela : ili-Jodhlela ; ulu-Bho'ko : ulu-Jo'ko; ili-Bhulu'kwe: ili-Julu'kwe; Bhuqa : Juqa.

j plus another change (or other changes) for bh :-

Bhebha: Jeja; ulu-Bhici: ulu-Jixhi; Bhobhoza: Jojoza; Bhubha : Juja; isi-Bhumbe : isi-Junge.

tsh for b :-

ili-Bandhla : ili-Tshandhla; um-Bani: um-Tshani; banzi: tshanzi; Bingelela : Tshingelela; Bona : Tshona; Bona'kala: Tshona'kala; Bonga: Tshonga; isi-Bongo: isi-Tshongo; ub-Oya: utsh-Oya; Bu'ka: Tshu'ka; Buna: Tshuna; Bunga: Tshunga; Busa: Tshusa; Butha: Tshutha; ili-Butho: ili-Tshutho; obula: otshula; 'kwabo: 'kwatsho; yebo: yetsho.

tsh plus another change for b :-

u-Baba : u-Tshatsha.

ntsh for b:

ama-Bomu : ama-Ntshomu.

nj for mbh :--

Ambhula : Anjula; i-mBhabala : i-nJabala; i-mBhobo: i-nJobo; i-mbhongolo: i-nJongolo; i-mBhube: i-nJube; i-Mbho: i-Njo; Mbhoza : Njoza.

sh for ph :

Aphula : Ashula ; lapha-ya : lasha-ya ; Ophula : Oshula ; Pha : Sha ; ulu-Phahla :ulu-Shahla ; Pha'ka: Sha'ka ; Pha'kama: Sha'kama; phandhle: shandhle; Phanye'ka: Shanye'ka ; Phela : Shela ; Pheza: Sheza; Phila: Shila; Phoqa: Shoqa; Phosa: Shosa.

sh plus another change (or other changes) for ph :-

Phambhana: Shanjana ; phambhili: shanjili; Phaphama:Shashama; ulu-Phaphe : ulu-Shashe; Phinda : Shinga.

tsh for ph :

pha'kathi : tsha'kathi; Phehla : Tshehla.

ntsh for ph :-

Opha: Ontsha.

ntsh for mp :-

impela : intshela ; i-mPahla : i-ntShahla ; i-mPandhla : i-ntShandhla; i-mPethu: i-ntShethu.

j for g :-

ili-Gade : ili-Jade; ili-Goda: ili-Joda ; Godhla: Jodhla; Godu'ka : Jogu'ka ; ili-Golo : ili-Jolo.

j plus another change for h :-

Hambha : Janga.

nj for non-click :

i-nGozi: i-nJozi; ubu-Longwe: ubu-Name'ko, ubu-Njame'ko.

nj plus another change for non-click :

i-nDoda: i-nJonga; i-nKonkoni: i-nJongoni.

sh for kh :

Khalima : Shalima ; isi-Khathi: isi-Shathi; Khwehlela:Shwehlela; um-Khomo: um-Shomo ; um-Khondo: um-Shondo;  Khonza: Shonza; Khothama: Shothama; um-Khuba : um-Shuba; Khuhla: Shuhla; Khuluma: Shuluma; isi-Khumbha:isi-Shumbha; um-Khumbhi: um-Shumbhi; Khumu'ka: Shumu'ka; isi-Khundhla : isi-Shundhla; Khuza: Shuza; ili-Khwapha:ili-Shwapha; ubu-Khwe: ubu-Shwe; Khweza: Shweza.

sh for th :

'kwethu: 'kweshu; Phuza: Matha, Masha; Thembha:Eshembha; isi-Thembhu: isi-Shembhu; Thola: Shola; Thuma:Shuma; ulu-Thuthu: ulu-Shushu.

sh plus another change (or other changes) for non-click :

Amu'ka : Ashuxa (?); ili-Khanka : ili-Shantsha; Khipha:Shisha; Khokha: Shosha; Lingana: Shi'kana.

tsh for kh :

ili-Khala: ili-Tshala; Khawu'ka: Tshawu'ka; Khononda:Tshononda; um-Khosi: um-Tshosi; isi-Khwama: isi-Tshwama; Khwela: Tshwela.

tsh for k :-

u-Makoti: u-Matshoti.

tsh for th :-

thina: tshina; Thu'ka: Tshu'ka; Thula: Tshula.

tsh for non-click :-

is-Adhla : is-Atsha; Hleba : Tsheba; ili-Liba: ili-Tshiba.

ntsh for non-click:

de: ntshwe; edwa: entshwa; Hila: Hintsha; i-nKala: inTshala; Khalipha: Nishalipha; Khokha: Ntshokha; :Kholwa: Ntsholwa; Khule'ka: Ntshule'ka; Khumbhula: Ntshumbhula ; 'kodwa: 'kontshwa; i-nKosana: i-nTshosana; i-nKosi: i-nTshosi; lodwa: lontshwa; mpofu: ntshofu; ngedwa: ngentshwa; odwa: ontshwa; The'kela : Entshe'kela; Thena: Ntshena; Tho'koza: Ntsho'koza; Thusa: Ntshusa; i-nTo: i-nTsho; wedwa: wentshwa; Xabana: Hingana, Hintshana; yedwa: yentshwa.

ntsh plus another change (or other changes) for non-click:-

u-Khokho : u-Ntshotsho; i-nKonkoni: i-nTshontshoni; u-Nkonka: u-Ntshontsha; i-nTethe: i-nTsheshe; isi-Thwathwa: isi-Ntshwantshwa.

m for ng :-

i-nGane: i-Mane; 'kanga'ka : 'kama'ka ; um-Ngoma: um-Moma.

m plus another change for non-click:-

i-nKonkoni: i-Moboni; nga'ka : masha.

n for non-click :-

Akha: Ana; Bala: Nala; Bonga: Nonga; Fa'kaza: Na'kaza; um-Fazi: um-Nazi; isi-Gaba: isi-Naba; ili-Gatsha: ili-Natsha; um-Hawu: um-Nawu ; Hawu'kela : Nawu'kela ; Hlela :- Nela; Hlephu'ka: Nephu'ka; um-Hlola: um-Nola; Jabha: Nabha; Jabula: Nabula; Jiya: Niya; i-nJobo: i-Nobo; ulu-Jovela: ulu-Novela; ili-Juba: ili-Nuba; ili-Jwabu: ili-Nwabu; Kholwa: Nolwa; Khombha: Nombha; um-Khuba: um-Nuba; Khule'ka : Nule'ka; Khuluma: Nuluma; Khwela: Nwela; i-nKonjane: i-Nonjane; njalo: nalo; njani: nani; njenga: nenga; Ntshinga: Ninga; ili-Shiyi: ili-Niyi ; Sho : No ; ili-Shoba: ili-Noba; Sola : Nola; ulu-Thango : ulu-Nango ; Tho'koza : No'koza; Tshele'ka : Enele'ka; Ya: Na.

n with another change (or other changes) for non-click : i-mBabala : i-Nantshala; Bambha : Nanga; ulu-Bambho : ulu-Nango; Hle'ka: Netsha; Joja: Nona; u-Khokho: u-Nono; Mamathe'ka: Nanashe'ka; Sebenza: Nebenda; Shesha: Nena;i-nTliziyo : i-Ningiyo; ili-Tshe'ketshe : ili-Ne'kene; ili-Vezamanzi: ili-Nezimada; Zuza : Nuna.

nw for non-click :

ulu-Andhle : ulu-Nwange ; Hlwabusa : Nwabusa.

ny for non-click :-

i-nDebe : i-nTshezo, i-Nyezo; isi-Godhlo : isi-Nyodhlo; Hambha :Nyambha; ulu-Khambha : ulu-Nyambha; i-Mambha: i-Nyambha.

ny with another change (or other changes) for non-click:-

u-Dade: u-Nyaze; Hlabelela: Nyibelela.

y for non-click:-

Bona: Yona; Bona'kala: Yona'kala; um-Fazi: um-Yazi; Funda: Yunda; Thezu'ka: Yezu'ka; um-Thezu'ka: um-Yezu'ka.

y with another change for hl :-

isi-Hlobo : isi-Yoco.

8. Click for non-click

c and ch for non-click :-

Ahlu'kana: Acu'kana; Ahlula: Acula; Ala: Aca; Alu'ka: Acu'ka; Alusa: Aluca; ili-Bhantshi: ili-Cantshi; Bingelela: Cingelela; Bonda: Conda; Elama: Ecama; Elapha: Ecapha; Ele'ka: Ece'ka; Ena: Echa; Ene'ka: Ece'ka; Eyisa: Ecisa; Fa'kaza: Ca'kaza; Fe'ketha: Ce'ketha; Fisa: Cisa; ili-Fu: ili-Cu ; Fudumeza : Hadameza, Chadameza ; Fu'kamela : Cu'kamela ; Fulathela: Culathela; Fulela: Culela ; Funda :Cunda; Funga : Cunga ; Fuphi: Cuphi; Futhi: Chuthi, Cuthi; Fuya: Cuya; ili-Catsha: ili-Natsha, ili-Naca; Gijima: Gicima; Hlafuna: Cafuna; Hla'kaza: Ca'kaza ; um-Hla'kuva: um-Ca'kuva; ulu-Hlangothi: ulu-Cangothi; isi-Hlava: isi-Cava; Hlawula: Cawula; Hleba: Ceba; ili-Hlobo: ili-Cobo; isi-Hlobo: isi-Cobo; Hlola: Cola; Hloma: Choma; ulu-Hlomo: ulu-Chomo; Hlubu'ka: Cubu'ka; Hluma: Cuma; ubu-Hlungu: ubu-Cungu; Hlupha: Cupha; Hluphe'ka: Cuphe'ka; ulu-Hlupho : ulu-Cupho; Huba: Cuba; hlwa: cwa; ulu-Hlwayi: ulu-Cwayi; kusihlwa: kusicwa; ulu-La'ka: ulu-Ca'ka; Lala: Giyama, Ciyama; isi-Lalo: isi-Giyamo, isi-Ciyamo; um-Lamu: um-Camu; Landela: Candela; Lawula: Cawula; ulu-Lembhu: ulu-Cembhu; Lenga: Cenga; Letha: Cetha; Libala: Cibala; Linga: Cinga; um-Lobo'kazi: um-Cobo'kazi; um-Lozi: um-Cozi; Lunga: Cunga; ili-Lunga: ili-Cunga; Lwa: Cwa; isi-Lwana'kazana: isi-Cana- 'kazana; Mangala: Cangala; mnene: mchene; u-Mona: u-Moca; Na'ka : Cha'ka; i-Nala: i-Chala; Namathela : Chamathela; i-Nanzi: i-Canzi; isi-Nene: isi-Chene; Nenga: Cenga; Netha:Chetha; Ni'ka: Chi'ka; u-Nina: u-China; i-Ningizimu: i-Chingizimu; um-Nini: um-Chini; Nona : Chona ; ili-Noni: ili-Choni; ili-Nono: ili-Chono; Notha: Chotha; Ntula: Chula; um-Numzana: um-Chumzana; umu-Nwe: umu-Chwe; ulu-Nya: ula-Cha; i-Nya'katho: i-Cha'katho; u-Nyawothi: u-Chawothi; nye : chwe; isi-Nye: isi-Che; Ona : Ocha; Ozela: Ocela; pha'kathi: cha'kathi; Phela: Chela; Pheza: Cheza; ili-Sela: ili-Cela; ulu-Selwa: ulu-Celwa; Shu'ka: Cu'ka; ili-So'ka: ili-Co'ka; ulu-Su: ulu-Cu; Sula: Cula; Sutha: Cutha; Swela: Cwela; Thoba: Choba; ili-Thwabi: ili-Chwabi; Tshela: Cela; Vuma: Chuma; Ye'ka: Che'ka; um-Yeni: um-Cheni; Yovula: Chovula ; Zuza : Cuca.

c and ch plus another change (or other changes) for a non-click :-

u-Baba: u-Caca; isi-Hlabathi: isi-Cangathi; ili-Hlahla: iii-Caca; Hla'kanipha: Cha'kanisha; um-Hlandhla: um-Cangca; ulu-Hlaza: ulu-Cwambha; Mema: Ceca; Minyana: Cinana; mnandi: mncayi; Phendula: Chengula; ili-Sango: ili-Cha'ko; Senga: Che'ka; ulu-Swazi: ili-Thambho, ili-Cabo; Thethelela: Cecelela ; ili-Thumbha : ili-Chusha ; Vambhulula : Cunulula ; Yala: Caya.

gc for non-click :-

ulu-Bhishi: ulu-Gcishi ; Du'ka : Gcu'ka ; endhle : egce ; umu-Hla umu-Gca; um-Hlola: um-Gcola; umu-Nga: umu-Gca; Vama: Gcama; Veza: Gceza; Vunda: Gcunda; Vuthwa: Gcuthwa; Zonda : Gconda.

gc plus another change for non-click :-

Donda : Gcongca ; u-Zagiga : u-Zagcigca.

nc for non-click:-

Biza: Longa, Nconga; Enda: Enca; im-Fene: i-Ncene; ili-Fu : ili-Ncu ; i-mFuyo : i-Ncuyo ; Fuza : Ncuza ; isi-Ga : isi-Nca; isi-Khathi: isi-Ncathi; Khononda: Ncononda; Khonza: Nconza; um-Khovu : um-Ncovu; um-Khumbhi : um-Ncumbhi; isi-Khwama : isi-Ncwama; Shona: Ncona; Shumayela: Ncumayela ; ili-Thumbhu: ili-Ncumbhu; i-nTlanzi: i-nCwambhi, i-nCanzi; inTloni: i-nConi; i-nTlonze: i-nConze; i-nTlunu: i-nCunu; i-mVubu : i-nCubu.

nc plus another change (or other changes) for non-click:-

Babaza: Ncamaza; isi-Dwaba: isi-Ncwasha; ili-Dwala: ili-Ncwasha ; i-mFene: i-nDangala, i-nCa'kala ; i-nTothoviyane : i-nCocoviyane.

c for non-click :

Anda, Angca; Azi: Angci; Dhla: Ngca; Dhlala: Ngcala; Dumaza: Ngcumaza; u'kw-Indhla: u'kw-Ingca; i-mPi: i-Ngci; Shaya: Ngcaya; um-Shayo : um-Ngcayo ; Shinga: Ngcinga ; Vutha: Ngcutha; i-mVuzi: i-nGcuzi.

ngc plus another change (or other changes) for non-click :-

Da'kwa: Ngcashwa; Dela: Ngcesha; um-Khuhlane: um-Nyimbhane, um-Ngcishane; i-nTlahla : i-nGcagca.

q, qh, nq, and ngq for non-click :

Dhlula: Ngqula; Du'ka: Nqu'ka; Hlangana: Qingana; Pha'kama : Qo'kama; Phe'ka : Nitha, Qitha; Thimula : Qhimula; Thinta: Qhinqa; i-nTuthu: i-nTunqa.

x, xh, gx, for non-click :-

ili-Bhanga: ili-Xhanga; um-Bango: um-Xhango; ili-Bhotwe: ili-Xhotwe; Hluza : .Xuza; Hona : Xona; umu-Hlwa : umu-Xwa ; Jabha : Gxabha; Jabula : Gxabula; Jwayela : Exwayela; Phezu : Xhezu.

x with another change for j :-

Jwayela : xwabela.

nx or ngx for nj :-

i-nDoda: i-nJeza, i-Nxeza; njalo: ngxalo; njani: ngxani; nje : ngxe; njenga: ngxenga.

rr for d (rr is not a click, but see below, ? 27):-

Dweba : Rrrwebha.

9. Click substituted for non-click in addition to the first substitution The words in this section will be found above, in ? 7, in the proper place for the first substitution.

c (plus first substitution) for non-click :

isi-Hlobo: isi-Yoco; izolo: igoco; Lila : Khica; isi-Lilo :isi-Khico; ama-Zolo: ama-Goco.

q (plus first substitution) for non-click:-

Kaka: Haqa; Name'ka: Phaqe'ka.

x (plus first substitution) for non-click:-

Amu'ka: Ashuxa.

10. Click for Click

c for q :

Bo'ka : Qitha, Citha; ili-Nqe: ili-Che ; isi-Nqe: isi-Che ; Nqena : Chena; i-Nqulu: i-Chulu.

xh,ngx for c, nc :

ulu-Bhici : ulu-Jixhi (see above, ? 7, under "j plus another change (or other changes) for bh ") ; Ncenga : Ngxenga ; Ncinda : Ngxinda; Ncinza : Ngxinza.

x, gx, xh, ngx for q, gq, qh, nq, ngq :-

Eqa : Exa; Gqo'ka : Gxo'ka; ili-Gqubu : ili-Gxubu; u-Ngoqo : u-Ngogxa; i-Ngqa'kala: i-Ngxa'kala; i-Ngqondo : i-Ngxondo; Nqaba : Ngxaba; Nqanda : Ngxanda; isi-Nqe : isi-Ngxe; Nquma : Ngxuma; Qabu'ka: Xabu'ka; Qambha: Xambha; Qaphela: Xaphela; Qatha : Xatha; Qephula : Xephula; qha : xha; Qhama : Xhama; isi-Qhova: isi-Xhova; Qhuba: Xhuba; Qina: Xina; Qinisa: Xinisa.

11. Non-click for click (for the words followed by (?) see ? 12 below)

b for q :-

isi-Qunga : isi-Bunga ; Nqunu : Bhushu.

p for q:-

Name'ka : Phaqe'ka (see above, ? 7, under "ph plus another change (or other changes) for non-click ").

ng for ngc :-

i-nGcosana : i-nGoshana.

tsh for c :-

Ceba : Tsheba (?); Cwe : Tshwe.

n for c :-

is-Angco'kolo: is-Ano'kolo; Chuma: Numa; ulu-Cingo; ulu-Ningo (?) ; isi-Chotho : isi-Nontshe ; isi-Coco : isi-Nono ; Cwazimula : Nazimula (?); Cweba: Nentsha; Cwenga : Nwenga (?) ; i-Nce'ku :

i-Ne'ku.

n for q, gq, q4:-

isi-Gqo'ko : isi-No'ko ; Qaphela : Naphela ; Qephula : Nephula (?) ; ili-Qhawe : ili-Nawe ; Qholisa : Nothisa ; Qhuba : Nuba ; Qumbha : Numbha.

n for x:-

Xe'ka: Ne'ka; Xhuma: Numa (?); Xova: Nova; um-Xu'ku : um-Nu'ku; Xwaya : Nwaya.

12. The clicks are foreign elements in Z. The click words in ? 11, having a non-click hlonipa variant, may, then, be :-

(a) Click words borrowed from the Hottentot-Bushman languages, or

(b) Click hlonipa words which have usurped the place of the original word and then are hlonipa'ed by the original non-click word, or by a non-click hlonipa variant of the original word, or, possibly, by a nonclick hlonipa variant of the click word; it is improbable that there would be many cases of the last possibility, for ? 10 has shown the prevalence of click hlonipa variants for click words. The following may explain some of the forms with a (?) above :-

The original both of Ceba and Tsheba is Hleba.

ulu-Cingo, from "Ur-Bantu" linga (Mf HLW., p. 729)-the "Ur-Bantu " form is not now found in Z. Ulu-Ningo may as well be the hlonipa variant of the original word as of the click word.

Cwazimula took as a hlonipa word the place of Nyazimula or Phazimula,1 meaning "to lighten"; then its meaning became differentiated from that of Nyazimula and changed to "to shine ".

Nyazimula, then, may be the hlonipa variant either of the original Phazimula or of Cwazimula in its present sense. [Cf. Nyanja ng'azimira (ijazimira).]

The original both of Qephula and Nephula is Hlephula (probably from Dabula, see Dabu'ka, ? 15).

Xhuma means "to jump ". I do not know whether it has any etymological connexion with zuma or juma, which means "to take by surprise "-as by springing upon an enemy from an ambush.

13. The hlonipa word, as to meaning, is synonymous with the original word, with this reservation: the original word means something, the hlonipa word means that same something plus the implication that the speaker has such an attitude to the original word that he dare not, or does not wish, to utter it. Besides such hlonipa click words as those given above in ? 9, which yield priority to the original word, there are other click words which are like the hlonipa click words in that they have substituted a click for a non-click in the original word, but are unlike the hlonipa click words in that either they have usurped the place of the non-click word, or they subsist beside it, with a differentiated meaning. Jn (Jn CS., v. ii, p. 90) cannot explain how the clicks came into the Z. language. Mf gives on p. 729 of Mf HLW. instances of words whose clicks he cannot account for. (See also Wr LF., p.129.) Nearly all the Kafir (Xosa) words whose clicks Mf cannot explain, are also found in Z. I think that the clicks

768 C. U. FAYEcame

into these particular words for hlonipa purposes (? 21). In the

following, instances of click words, which have come into the language

as hlonipa variants of the third category (? 5), are given. All those given

by Mf (Mf HLW., p. 729), which I have recognized as being also Z.

words, I have included, putting (Mf) before them. I have divided them

into the two classes indicated above: those which have usurped the

place of the non-click word, and those which persist beside the nonclick

word with a differentiated meaning.

14. Click words which have usurped the place of the non-click word

With the click c :

(Mf) Cima, same as " Ur-Bantu " lima (ndima), Mf HLW., p. 729.

(Mf) Consa from Thonsa (Mf HLW., p. 729). The verb Thonsa

is now obsolete in Z., but the stem is found in the noun ili-Thonsi.

(Mf) Cwazimula, see above, ? 12.

(Mf) Cafuna, see above, ? 8.

(Mf) ulu-Cingo, see above, ? 12.

(Mf) um-Cebi, noun from Ceba, see ? 12.

(Mf) Cwila has supplanted Gwila (MVHf LW., p. 729). Gwila is

not found in Z. now.

isi-Catulo, " shoe," connected with Nyathela, " to tread." Found

also in Xosaas (Mf) isi-Qathulo.

With the click q :-

(Mf) ili-Qanda, same as Swahili ganda (Mf HLW., p. 729).

(Mf) Nqa'ka, same as Swahili nyaka (Mf HLW., p. 729).

(Mf) Qongqothas, ame as Swahili gogota (Mf HLW., p. 729).

Qhotha, same as Herero kota (Bt D.), found also in Xosa with

suffix: (Mf) qotama, same as Herero kotama (Mf HLW., p. 729) and

Z. Khothama.

ili-Qiniso, " truth," has supplanted i-Nyaniso, now obsolete (but

see ? 25). i-Nyaniso is not found in Bt D. and Sa. D., but it is given in

Co. D. and Dh. D. The literal meaning of the verb u'ku-Qina is " to

be hard, fast "; hence the Z. idea of " truth ", as expressed in ili-

Qiniso, may be compared with that of the Hebrews, as expressed in

" Amen ".

ili-Qhwa, "ice," has supplanted a form which may have been

ili-Khwa.

With the click x:

(Mf) Xhophe connected with ulu-Khophe (Mf HLW., p. 729).

(Mf) Xhaphazela, same as Kaphazac plus suffix (Mf HLW., p. 729).

Kaphaza is now obsolete in Zulu.

THE INFLUENCE OF "HLONIPA )) ON THE ZULU CLICKS 769

Xosha, same as Ganda Goba (Bt D.). B often becomes sh.

With rr :

Rraya, same as Congo Kaya (Bt D.).

Rrela, same as the obsolete verb Hela, from which the noun ili-

Hele is formed.

15. Click words subsisting, with a differentiated meaning, beside

the original non-click words.

(Mf) Gcwalisa, " to fill up." Zalisa, " to cause to bear children,"

causative form of Zala, "to bear children." 1

isi-Chuthe, " one whose ear lobes have not been pierced." Isi-

Putha, " a dull-witted person whose ears are closed to reason." See

under isi-Chuthe.

Chela, " to pour ceremonially, to asperse." Thela, " to pour."

Qala, "to begin." Dala, " to create."

Qeda, " finish." This must be formed from the Lala feda. The

Z. form of feda is feza (Wg. KG., p. 643, Z. z = Lala t). Feza means

" to complete ". Qeda may be used of finishing anything: a plate of

porridge, a task-anything. Feza could be used of completing a task,

but not of finishing a plate of porridge. It is clear that the click word,

qeda, was adopted from the Lala tongue. This word can be used to

support the contention that the Zulus got the clicks, not immediately

from the H.-B., but mediately through other B.

Qhuma, " to pop, explode." Duma, " to thunder, reverberate."

The variants of Dabu'ka are interesting :-

Dabu'ka, " to get torn, as a garment; crack, as an earthen vessel;

be torn with grief; get broken out into being, spring forth into life,

as new grass ; originate, as a tribe " (Bt D.).

Hlephu'ka, "to be or get chipped, cut; have a portion separated

off or otherwise removed, as an earthen pot, piece of cloth, land, herd

of cattle, etc." (Bt D.).

Gqabu'ka, " get broken, as a string or similar object by pulling;

get broken off, as anything like a button, affixed by strings ... expire,

breathe one's last " (the lungs being supposed to get broken off from

their place and so breathing to cease) (Bt D.).

Gqashu'ka, same as gqabu'ka.

1 These words are possibly connected, but I am inclined to think that zala, "

bring

forth," and zala, " be full," are distinct roots. The former is in Swahili zaa, the latter

jaa. Meinhof suggests as the original forms Vyala (cf. Mombasa Swahili vyaa) and

Yala respectively. One might be inclined to suppose that the form gcwala (the more

usual in Zulu) gained currency through a desire to distinguish it from the other zala.-

A. W.

770 c. U. FAYEQashu'ka,

same as gqabu'ka.

Gqibu'ka, same as gqabu'ka.

Qabu'ka, " have the first experience of anything " (see the last

meaning of Dabu'ka).

Rrebu'ka, " get torn or rent, as a piece of cloth."

Xebu'ka, "get stripped or peeled off, as plaster from a wall or

bark from a tree."

Xephu'ka, same as Rrebhu'ka.

The c click is also used with the stem of this word:

isi-Cephu, " a small sitting mat," is formed from isi-Hlephu (see

Hlephu'ka above), meaning " anything from which a portion has been

removed ". Presumably isi-Cephu came to be used of a small sitting

mat in the manner as a short man is sometimes vulgarly called

" a sawed-off specimen of humanity ".

16. Conclusions relative to " hlonipa " words

The words cited in the following paragraphs will be found in

Bt D., either in the list of hlonipa words at the end (p. 738 f.) or in

the body of the Dictionary.

17. General conclusions as to " hlonipa " words.-In the above

lists, hlonipa words of the third category (? 5) only have been treated.

Though words of this category are the ones most frequently used,

it must be remembered that words of the first (? 3) and second (? 4)

categories also are regularly used.

A Zulu word may have more than one hlonipa variant (see Bt D.,

p. 738 f.), and the variants may be of the same or different categories.

Bt D., p. 744, gives ten hlonipa variants for ama-Nzi, " water "-

these ten do not exhaust the list. Enda has the variant Enca (? 8,

under nc) of the third category, and the synonym, Gana, of the first

category. Ili-Khala, " nose," has the variant ili-Tshala, of the third

category (? 7, under tsh for kh), and also a variant of the second

category: i-mPumulo, from Phuma, "to go out" = " that which

sticks out."

18. Foreign words, after adoption, are treated like native words:

they may be hlonipa'ed, or they may be used for hlonipaing other

words.

Examples of foreign words " hlonipa'ed"

Ili-Bhantshi, " coat," from Du. baatje, is hlonipa'ed by ili-Cantshi

(g 8, under c and ch for non-click).

THE INFLUENCE OF '. HLONIPA" ON THE ZULU CLICKS 771

ili-Bhulu'kwe, "trousers," from Du. broek, is hlonipa'ed by. ili-

Julu'kwe (? 7, underj for bh).

Examples of foreign words used as " hlonipa" ' words

i-nDali, from Du. vendutie, is used as hlonipa variant of i-Mali.

The natives began to use it thus, probably because it sounded like a

third-category variant of i-Mali.

um-Miliso, from the South African (Du. and Eng.) word for

" maize ",1 spelled " mealies " in Eng. This word is used to hlonipa

the Z. u-Mbhila, " maize." Probably popular etymology connected

it with the verb Mila, " to grow " ; hence um-Miliso =" that which

has been caused to grow, crops." The staple crop is maize. To the.best

of my knowledge um-Miliso is used solely of " maize ", and never

as an exact equivalent of " crops ". A Zulu unacquainted with the

Du. or Eng. word would think um-Miliso was a hlonipa word of the

second category.

19. The form of " hlonipa " words of the third category

(a) A word may be hlonipa'ed by more than one non-click word of

the third category-this is not usual. Khuluma has as variants Nuluma

and Shuluma (? 7, under "n for non-click" and " sh for kh ").

(b) A word may be hlonipa'ed by a non-click as well as by a click

word of the third category-this is not infrequent.

Azi is hlonipa'ed by Agi (? 7) and by Angci (? 8).

Jabha is hlonipa'ed by Nabha (? 7) and by Gxabha (? 8).

(c) A word may be hlonipa'ed by more than one click word of the

third category. Du'ka is hlonipa'ed by Gcu'ka and Nqu'ka (? 8).

The Zulu negative particle nga, " not," was, perhaps, formerly

used like the English " No ". Old-fashioned Zulus still use the plural

of this particle, ama-Nga,2 for " No ". The words now in use for " No ",

Qha and Cha, came into being, I think, as hlonipa variants of Nga.

Xha is now used as the hlonipa form. If all these click forms are variants

originating from Nga, then Nga is ultimately responsible for three click

variants: Cha, Qha, and Xha.

Bt D., under Qha: " .. . qha is probably only a variation of the

adverb nga,' not.' " Here, among similar forms from other languages,

is given the Yao nga. Mf VG., p. 79, gives ka, nka as a negative particle

in " Ur-Bantu ". Jn CS., v. ii, p. 517: " Negation is indicated ...

by Ka-(Ga-) with its variants.. ."

1 Originally from Portuguese milko.

2 Is the noun ama-nga, meaning

" a lie ",'a secondary use of this word ?-A. W.

772 C. U. FAYEDabu'ka,

with its many click hlonipa variants (? 15), may also be

cited as an instance of a word hlonipa'ed by several click words of the

third category.

20. Concerning the substitutions in the third category of " hlonipa "

words, Bt D., under Hlonipa, has:-

".. . For there are not only a very large number of fixed and

distinct hlonipa words, but, by certain universally accepted rules of

transmutation, any word in the language may be so changed in its

prohibited particle as to lose all identity with the 'respected' name

and so become itself a hlonipa word. Thus alusa may become axusa;

or komba, nomba . . ." (Italics mine.)

According to Mf HLW., p. 743, B. k became hl, which under certain

circumstances became s; this change appears to have been quite

regular with B. rY, which almost always became z.1 (Cf. Jn CS., v. ii,

p. 91.) In many hlonipa substitutions this is reversed: z, s, nts, in the

ordinary word, become g, 'k, k, kh, nk, in the hlonipa variants, see ? 7.

Hence the original B. consonant may be found in the hlonipa variant

of the ordinary word. In some cases the change might make the

hlonipa word resemble the B. word more closely than the ordinary

word does; in other cases it might not do so. The point, however,

is that there has remained in the linguistic consciousness (or subconsciousness-

if I may so express myself) a feeling that the consonants

in question are interchangeable.

The favourite substitutions in present day Z.-or to be quite

accurate, during the period of more than twelve years during which

Bt collected the material for his Dictionary (Bt D., p. 5 of preface),

published in 1905--are :-

g, 'k, kh, k, nk, for z, s, nts.

j, tsh, nj, sh, ntsh for bh, b, mb(h), ph, mp(h), d, th, 'k, kh.

n seemingly for any consonant.

Clicks :

c, in various combinations, seemingly for any consonant.

q is used less than the other clicks.

rr seems now to have dropped out of the ranks of hlonipa

substitutes. For its inclusion among the clicks, see ? 26.

1 This seems to bq somewhat over-stated, if meant to apply to Zulu, as we have

endhle, indhlala, indhlela, indhlovu (it is true that dhl, which here represents Meinhof's y,

appears in other Bantu languages as z), and also inyoka, anya, inyongo, inyoni, etc.

See Meinhof, Lautlehre, pp. 221-3.-A. W.

THE INFLUENCE OF "cHLONIPA " ON THE ZULU CLICKS 773

x is used generally to hlonipa other clicks.

c is used seldom to hlonipa other clicks.

q is used not at all to hlonipa other clicks.

The use of non-clicks for clicks is negligible except in the case of n,

of the use of which, as a substitute- for a click, there are several

instances (? 11).

Hlonipa words of the third category are usually formed by substituting

another consonant for a consonant in the ordinary word.

Usually the first consonant of the stem of the word to be tabooed is

changed. Sometimes other changes take place as well. If the consonant

suffering change is repeated in the following syllable, the change is

generally repeated-thus both the b's in u-Baba become tsh, its

hlonipa variant being u-Tshatsha.

21. The survival of " hlonipa " words.-What is to be tabooed is

the distinctive sound, usually, in the name of a superior, the stem.

Inferiors hlonipa the name of a superior by avoiding the utterance of

this sound, and sometimes even of sounds like it (see below, ? 23, in the

discussion of the name Shaka). As generally women are the inferiors,

the custom affects them most, particularly the married women, who

have to hlonipa also their husbands and certain of their husbands'

relatives. ". . . Among the Zulus " the hlonipa custom "touches

mainly the married women, although as exceptional cases, the men,

or indeed the whole tribe indiscriminately, may hlonipa the name of

a renowned chief or ancestor .. ." (Bt D., under Hlonipa).

The position, with regard to the survival of hlonipa words, is

succinctly stated in J. L., p. 431 :-

" ... There was another reason for the richness of the vocabulary

of primitive man: his superstition about words, which made him

avoid the use of certain words under certain circumstances . . .

Accordingly, in many cases he had two or more sets of words for exactly

the same notions, of which later generations as a rule preserved only one,

unless they differentiated these words by utilizing them to discriminate

objects that were similar but not identical." (Italics mine.)

That is to say, a hlonipa word may survive in two ways :-

(1) It may take the place of the original word-that is if it survives

as an exact synonym; or

(2) It may survive beside the original word, in which case the

meanings will be differentiated.

As hlonipa words of the first two categories already have their own

meanings-which they are not likely to exchange for that of the word

774 C. U. FAYEthey

are variants of-this discussion applies chiefly to words of the

third category.

22. The hlonipa variants themselves may become taboo, then they,

too, are hlonipa'ed. It sometimes happens that those hlonipaing a

hlonipa variant will use the original word-thus bringing it to life again.

See quotation from Bt D., above, ? 1.

23. " Hlonipa '" words that supersede the original words.-These

are of two kinds : (a) such as supersede the original word, because the

original word is universally taboo; (b) such as supersede the original

word presumably because they are more convenient.

(a) A universally taboo word superseded.-A good example of a

universally taboo word is Shaka (pronounced Sha'ka), the name of the

great Z. conqueror. The B. all over south-eastern Africa dared not utter

words similar in sound to Shaka's name. Until about a generation ago,

a Zulu would not say Shaya, " hit," but used the Xosa Beta instead.

Shaka has been so hlonipa'ed that it has apparently been impossible

to be sure of its etymology-to-day it is not certainly known what it

means, nor which word or words are the hlonipa variants which took

its place in the language.

Words hlonipa'ed by the Z. nation alone were the names: Dingana,

Shaka's brother and successor; Mpande, another brother of Shaka

and Dingana's successor; and, to a less extent, Nandi, Shaka's

mother; Ndhlela, a councillor of both Dingana and Mpande; and

Nkobe, Ndhlela's father. The hlonipa variants are: Swela or Ntula

(first category) for Dinga, "to need, be in lack of "; i-nGxabo (first

category) for i-mPande, " root " ; mToti (first category) for mNandi,

" sweet, agreeable to the taste "; i-Nyatu'ko (second category) for

i-nDhlela, " path "; izi-mPothulo, pl. (probably of the second

category), for the pl. izi-nKobe, " boiled maize." I grew up in Zululand.

I remember that when I, for the first time, heard Dinga for " to

need " and i-mPande for " root ", these words sounded foreign to me-

I was accustomed to the hlonipa variants. The names of the two kings,

Dingana and Mpande, were not, like Shaka's name, hlonipa'ed all over

south-eastern Africa. The whites already had a foothold in Natal;

only those living north of the Tukela owed allegiance to the Zulu

kings, and their names were hlonipa'ed only by the Zulus proper.

Nandi, Ndhlela, and Nkobe also were hlonipa'ed in Zululand, but not

so much as the names of the kings. In my childhood I was familiar

both with words formed from the stems -Nandi, -Dhlela, and -Kobe,

and with their hlonipa variants. To-day, even in Zululand, they are

being hlonipa'ed less and less (? 29, below).

THE INFLUENCE OF " HLONIPA)) ON THE ZULU CLICKS 775

Cetshwayo, conquered by the British in 1879, seems to have inspired

the least terror. As far as I know, he is hlonipa'ed only by his own clan,

and by certain royalists, who, in spite of everything, have, in their

hearts, remained faithful to the old regime. The word ili-Khwatha

was used to hlonipa ili-Cebo, but " it has already fallen into disuse "

(Bt D., under ili-Kwata).

(b) " Hlonipa " words superseding the original word because more

convenient.-I cannot prove that the hlonipa forms are more convenient,

but, unless they should belong to the (a) class above, the only

reason I can offer for their survival is that they are more convenient

than the word they have superseded. Among these may be instanced

(see ? 13):-

Cha and Qha for Nga (? 19 (c)).

ili-Qiniso for i-Nyaniso, which seems obsolescent.

Xhopha, " to hurt the eye " (for more exact definition see Bt D.),

is probably the hlonipa variant of an obsolete verb Khopha-the Zulu

for " eyelash " is ulu-Khqophe(? 14).

There may be click variants of words, where the click form has

survived on account of being onomatopoeic. The following appear to

be such cases :

Qhuma, " to pop, explode," from Duma, see ? 15.

Rrebula, "to tear, as cloth," and Rrebu'ka, "to become torn,"

see under Dabu'ka, ? 15.

Rrwebha, " scratch," from Dweba, " draw, as a line " (see Bt D.).

Xhapha, " to boil," from the obsolete Kapha, surviving in the form

with the suffix, Kaphaza, see ? 14 and Bt D. under Kapaza.

If the original of the surviving hlonipa variant has become obsolete,

it is hard to trace it, unless it is found in related languages or in cognate

words in the same language.

24. " Hionipa" words surviving, with -a differentiated meaning,

beside the original words.-In ? 15 there is a list of such click words.

Non-click words of this kind (the third category) do not seem common.

I cannot think of any. Dabu'ka, with its many variants, is interesting.

The original word, Dabu'ka, appears to have a general signification,

including most of the special meanings, while the variants have

special meanings only.

25. Conclusions as to the survival of " hlonipa " words.-It is clear

that the chances are against a hlonipa word entirely usurping the place

of the original word, and surviving alone. In the first place, either it

must be a hlonipa variant of a universally tabooed word-such words

77-6 C. U. FAYEare

very few (to the best of my knowledge there has been only one such,

Shaka, during the last hundred years)-or it must, for some reason or

other, be more convenient than the original word. In the second place,

besides ousting the original word, it has also to drive off the field all

other competing hlonipa variants. Again, though a hlonipa word may

be easy for the speaker-to pronounce, it may be hard for the hearer to

understand: it may be understood only in a certain locality; the

original word is understood everywhere by everybody. The only

hlonipa words, which, as it were, carry their meaning with them, are

onomatopoeic ones (? 23 (b)) and words which, owing to an accidental

resemblance, are connected with a stem of a similar meaning, of

i-nDali and um-Miliso (? 18). It must also be remembered that the

hlonipa variant, besides being confined to certain persons (to a sex,

a family, or a tribe), is also confined in time : the married daughter's

set of hlonipa words only partially coincides with her mother's set.

For every generation there is a new adjustment of the hlonipa

vocabulary. While the hlonipa vocabularies undergo changes from

generation to generation, the original words stand relatively firm.

Finally, the " hlonipa " word itself may have to be hlonipa'ed, then, if

the original word has not entirely disappeared, it is very often

resuscitated as a hlonipa word, and from the hlonipa vocabulary steps

into its original place (? 22). Bt, in his list of hlonipa words, has marked

several with a star to indicate that they are " genuine Zulu words "

(Bt D., p. 738). Ili-Qiniso appears to have superseded i-Nyaniso,

which seems to be coming to life again.

It is reasonable, then, to assume that the hlonipa custom-is

responsible for the death of no words in the Z. language, or very few.

The probabilities for the survival of hlonipa words with differentiated

meanings are greater.

While not exaggerating the importance of the hlonipa custom (for

it is unlikely to have caused the death of more than an extremely small

number of Z. words), still we must not ignore its influence in increasing

the vocabulary, for it is responsible for the formation of new words,

some of which survive, with differentiated meanings, in the language.

26. Was the contact of the Zulus with the H.-B. direct or indirect ?-

It is generally assumed that the clicks came into the Hottentot language

by being borrowed from the Bushmen,' and that the Bantu languages

which have the clicks got them from the Hottentot-and perhaps a

1 See Pettman, Africanderisms, p. 5; Meinhof, HLW., p. 727 ; Theal, South Africa

(Story of the Nations Series), p. 7.

THE INFLUENCE OF " HLONIPA ON THE ZULU CLICKS 777

few Bushman-women captured in war. It may be that other Bantu,

not Zulus, came first into contact with the H.-B. and passed the clicks

on to the Zulus, without the Zulus coming into direct contact with the

H.-B. Several facts support this idea. The Tekeza inhabited Zululand

before the Zulus. Since the Bantu drove the H.-B. southward and westward,

it seems reasonable to assume that the Tekeza, who were in

Zululand before the Zulus, got into closer contact with the H.-B.

than the Zulus did. It has been shown that the clicks must have been

in the Zulu language certainly before 1560,1 and that direct H.-B.

influence on Zulu must have ceased not later than 1650. It would then,

at the present time, be hard or impossible to prove anything from click

words, borrowed by Zulu from other Bantu languages. It could not

be shown that the clicks were brought into the language through

the adoption of these words, for the clicks have been in the language

for centuries, and it is not easy to determine the date of the adoption

of the click words in question. When the Tekeza click word, Qeda,

for instance, came into the Zulu language, is not known (? 15). Several

click words have been adopted from Xosa in modern times, i-nQola,

" wagon," a corruption of the Xosa i-nQwelo, is an instance.

The geographical position of the Z. language to-day is that it is

surrounded by other B. languages, and it has been so surrounded since

1650 at the latest. It may well be that the Zulus have never been in the

van of the B. who drove the H.-B. before them, it may be that they

have always had some other B. between them and the H.-B.

It is remarkable that there is no Z. word for Hottentot-I have

found none. If the Zulus had come into direct contact with the

Hottentots, one would expect that they would at least have had a

word in their language to designate them. Ili-Law~u, which is not a

Zulu word, but borrowed from the Xosa, is used to denote " Hottentot,

or similar yellow coloured half-breed, as Griquas " (Bt D.). The

Hottentots in the Cape Province, whether of mixed or of pure bloodif

there are any of pure blood left--now speak Dutch, and are separated

from the Zulus by other B. The Nama Hottentots in what used to

be German South-West Africa are too far away to have any influence

on Z. The word ili-Hhotentoti (from Du. Hottentot) is now coming into

the Z. language through being used in-the schools, that is through the

use of English textbooks on history, which mention the Hottentots.

1 The name of Qwabe (who, according to Zulu tradition, must have been born

before 1560) proves that Zulus must already have been able to pronounce clicks. It

is also certain that, by 1650, other Bantu tribes occupied the country between the

Zulus and the nearest section of the Hottentots.

There is a Z. word for Bushman, umu-Thwa, pl. aba-Thwa. Of this word Bt D. says: ". .. The name aba-Thwa, or its cognates, is the almost universal designation among the Bantu tribes for the Bushmen and Pygmy-Bushmen .. ." Mf L., p. 251, gives as the " Ur- Bantu " form umu-tua. The aba-Thwa have a place in Z. folk-lore, as presumably they do in the folk-lore of other B. We cannot from the presence of this word, umu-Thwa, in Z., argue that the Zulus borrowed the clicks directly from the Bushmen. Many B. languages have the word umu-Twa, but have no clicks. [The Pokomo use the name Wa-hwa (the phonetic equivalent of Aba-twa) for the Wasanye-a people in some respects similar to the Bushmen. Cf. the Batwa in Urundi and Ruanda, who, if not exactly Pygmies, are probably descended from them.]

27. Which foreign sounds in Z. are to be ascribed to 1H.-B. influence  In addition to the clicks, I think the sound rr 1 must be ascribed to H.-B. influence, for, as far as I can make out, it is not found in any languages remote from this influence.

Wr LF., p. 126 : " ... three of them "-the clicks--" (the ' dental ', 'cerebral', and 'lateral') have passed from either Bushman or Hottentot into Zulu and Xosa .. ." p. 55 : " The 'laterals' (usually written hl, dhl, tl, tlh) are also peculiar to the southern group of languages, and there are a few other sounds of limited range which need not be discussed here ... "

In this paper I confine myself to a discussion of how the clicks (c, q, x) and rr came into the language. I have not made any investigations with regard to the laterals.

28. How did the clicks and rr come into the language ?-The words borrowed from H.-B. present little difficulty.2 The B. who were in direct contact with the H.-B. borrowed them directly, and those who were not in direct contact with them must have got them through the B. between them and the H.-B.

What has been puzzling is to account for the clicks in B. words. I think the examples given above (? 8 f.) throw some light on the question.

It is reasonable to suppose that, among the B. in direct contact with the H.-B., the first persons to substitute clicks for other consonants in Bantu words were H.-B. women captured in war. If they were not the first, they must have taught their children H.-B. click words, and then the children, having learned to pronounce the

clicks, were the first to use them as substitutes for consonants in B. words. I am inclined to think that women first made use of this substitution. Why women ? Women are more affected than men by the hlonipa custom, see ? 21. When it was desirable to hlonipa words, the clicks came in handy for the formation of hlonipa variants of the third category. A native consonant might change the word into another word already in the language, while the click, being a foreign sound, would not do so. This would apply also to such Bantu as have the clicks without having been in direct contact with the H.-B.-as, perhaps, the Zulus. They would, through intermarriage and other contact with neighbouring click-using B., come to use the clicks as their neighbours did-for hlonipa purposes.

Which click (or clicks) would be used for hlonipa purposes, and why that particular click (or those particular clicks) ? I cannot answer this definitely.

Turning to the examples given above, we find:-

(a) That all the clicks have been used as substitutes (? 20);

(b) That, in Z., c is a common substitute for a non-click, and x for

another click; and

(c) That, in Lala, we find c and q substituted respectively for the

Z. q and c (Wg. KG., p. 643). In Xosa the same substitution sometimes takes place, see examples above in ? 10, for instance: isi-Catulo for Xosa isi-Qatulo, and also Mf HLW., p. 729.

To cover these facts I assume the following. At a certain time and in a certain locality a certain click would be the regular hlonipa substitute for one or more consonants-at other times and places other clicks might be the regular substitutes. All this would be going on among people who spoke the same language. Finally, in this language, one click would become the regular substitute, but vestiges of the former state of affairs would appear in words surviving with other click substitutes. This is what appears to have happened in Zulu: c being the regular substitute for non-clicks, and x for clicks.

There are to be found words with other click substitutes; these words may be survivals from a time before the supremacy of the present  regular click substitute, or they may be loan words from another B. language or dialect.

Further investigation of B. words containing clicks may necessitate modification of my theory, but I venture to think it might provide a reasonable explanation of some of the facts; and that, at least, it would not prove fruitless to use it as a working hypothesis.

I have been unable to investigate words with a medial click and onomatopoeic click words. The latter would seem to be selfexplanatory in most cases. For onomatopoeic click substitutes, see ? 23 b.

29. The present condition of" hlonipa " as it affects the Z. language.- The influence of Christian civilization is seen in the religious poem Lilya by the Icelandic monk Eystein Asgrimsson (died 1361). In this poem there appear to be no kenningar, though they were lavishly employed in earlier Norse poetry. Heiti and Kenningar may be likened to hlonipa variants of the first and second categories. Here may also  be mentioned-though not exactly of the same nature-descriptive titles or added names, such as: (John) Lackland, (Frederick) Barbarossa, (Svein) Tjugeskjaeg, (Scipio) Africanus, etc.

The chief function of the Zulu bards was to make poems praising their kings and great men. After their death these poems would be used in worshipping these heroes. The praise-poems would be full of substitutions of the same nature as the Kenningar were, and would have as their aim to give a poetical picture of the hero's character and great deeds.' Often a striking phrase in these praises, separated from its context, would become an added name and be used like Lackland, Barbarossa, etc.

Converted Christians have even attempted to make praise-poems in' honour of the Saviour, Jesus Christ. Christian sentiment has, however, rightly or wrongly, frowned upon poetic outbursts of this nature-and Christian Zulu poetry is either translation or imitation of European hymns.

The civilization brought by the whites has also had a disintegrating effect upon the hlonipa custom proper. Europeans, unwittingly or wittingly, continually break the custom--horses and dogs, for instance, have been given the names of Zulu kings. School teachers demand that lessons shall be repeated in ipsissirnis verbis, even when this entails a breach of hlonipa. The same is sometimes demanded in law courts, in the case of witnesses who have to repeat conversations they have heard. The custom, once broken, steadily loses its peculiar power over the person breaking it.

1 Wg. KG., pp. 651-2, gives the praise-poems (or praise-names) of Ndaba and Senzangakona, and Sa. D., pp. x-xxii, those of Cetshwayo, Dinuzulu, and Solomonall members of the Zulu Royal Family; see genealogy in Wg. KG., p. vi. [A number of these are also given in Mr. J. Stuart's Zulu Readers.]

From the summary already given we see that-

(a) rr seems to have ceased being used as a hlonipa substitute;

(b) q is seldom used as a hlonipa substitute;

(c) c is the regular click substitute for non-click consonants;

(d) x is the regular click substitute for click consonants.

From this it may be deduced that if the hlonipa custom should  continue developing unchecked, only two clicks, c and x, would remain, and ultimately x would supersede c and be the sole surviving clicks. Since n can be substituted for clicks (?? 11, 20), it would not be impossible for the clicks eventually to be hlonipa'ed out of the language. In Jn CS., i, p. 38, we read: " Zulu-Kafir will become the second language of South Africa if its exponents are wise enough to eliminate the silly clicks which at present mar its phonology . . ." This tempts one to remark that English, which employs, as interjections, the click c (usually spelled tut-tut) and the click x (used in urging a horse), is, nevertheless, probably the most widely used language in the world; and the English th (voiced and unvoiced), though a comparatively peculiar sound, has not hindered the spread of English over the earth.

Whether the clicks would be hlonipa'ed out of the language if the whites had not come is difficult to decide. Now that they have come, it seems certain that it will not happen. The language is reduced to writing-the written word changes less than the spoken. The influence of the still active hlonipa custom, though even to-day great, is steadily decreasing.

The language must find new words for new ideas. New hlonipa words (as shown above, ? 14) often supplied the desired words. New words can still be made in the same manner as hlonipcav ariants of the first category (synonyms) and of the second category (words formed by derivation and composition), but the number of such words coming into the language, through hlonipa, is decreasing. As words of the thirdcategory are made for hlonipa purposes only, they will cease coming into the language if hlonipt dies-this source of new words appears to be gradually drying up. It seems a legitimate conclusion, then, that the influence of European civilization, by decreasing the number of new words of the third category of hlonipa variants, is correspondingly increasing the number of new words from other sources: words formed by derivation, composition, onomatopoeia, and words borrowed from other languages. It must be noted that this is happening at a time when the contact with European civilization has produced a great demand for new words.

REFERENCES

For Taboo in general :-

Encyc. Brit., under Taboo.

Hasting's Encyc. of Religion and Ethics, under Tabu.

Frazer, The Golden Bough, v. iii, Taboo and the Perils of the Soul; use also the Index for all the volumes. The work is also published in a one volume edition.

For the influence of Taboo on language :-

Max Miiller, The Science of Language, v. ii: " Te-pi" (= Taboo), p. 38 f.; "ukuhlonipa," p. 43 f.

Gabelentz, Die Sprachwissenschaft, look up Tabuwesen in the Index.

Oertel, Lectures on the Study of Language, p. 304.

J. L., p. 239 f. and p. 431.

Frazer, see above, v. iii, chapter vi. In the one volume edition, chapter xxii.

Portengen, De Oudgermaansche dichtertaal in haer ethnologisch verband, p. 78 f.

For the influence of Taboo (or hlonipa) on the Bantu languages in general and Zulu in particular :-

Mf Die moderne Sprachforschung in Afrika, p. 120.

Jn CS., v. i, p. 29 ; v. ii, p. 120.

Frazer, see above, v. iii, pp. 376-7. In the one volume edition, pp. 257-8.

Th. HE., v. i, p. 72.

Th. The Yellow and Dark-skinned People of Africa South of the Zambesi, pp. 170, 255.

Bt D., pp. 8-9 of the Preface, under Hlonipa in the body of the Dictionary. On p. 738 f. there is a " Vocabulary of the Hlonipa Language of the Zulu Women ".

Wanger, Konversations-Grammatik der Zulu-Sprache (look up " Hlonipa-Wesen "

in the Index).

ABBREVIATIONS

B. = Bantu.

Bt D. = Bryant, Zulu Dictionary.

Du. = Dutch (i.e. " Afrikaans ").

H.-B. = Hottentot-Bushman.

J. L. = Jespersen, Language (1923).

Jn CS. = Sir H. H. Johnston, Comparative Study of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu

Languages.

Mf HLW. = Meinhof, Hottentottische Laute u. Lehnworte im Kafir (ZDMG., lviii, lix).

Mf L. = ,, Lautlehre der Bantusprachen.

Mf VG. = ,, Vergleichende Grammatik der Bantusprachen.

Sa. D = Samuelson, Zulu Dictionary.

Th. SSA. = Theal, South Africa (Story of the Nations Series).

Wg. KG. = Wanger, Konversations-Grammatik der Zulu-Sprache.

Wr LF. = Werner, Language-Families of Africa.

Z. = Zulu, Zulus.

Footnote

1. The spelling used throughout this paper is that adopted by Bryant in his Zulu Dictionary. Hlonipa should properly be written hlonipha (the p being aspirated), but the word being already in some degree familiar to English readers, I have thought it better to retain the more usual form.

2. See the Literary Digest, 19th August, 1916, p. 424, under the heading " Do you speak ' Yeg' ?"

3.Bryant.(p.738) explicitly state3 that his vocabulary of hlonipa words is not complete. It is, however, quite complete enough to exhibit the characteristics of the three categories of hlonipa words. In the lists, herewith appended, it has been attempted to include all words of the third category to be found in Bt's vocabulary. Some I may have omitted, because the phonetic change in the hlonipa form may have so modified it that I did not recognize it as being a mere phonetic variant of the word to be tabooed; an example of a disguised form is Qeda, which is etymologically identical with Feza (? 15). Again, it is possible that I have included in my lists synonyms (? 3) whose form, happening to be similar to that of the tabooed word, has deluded me into thinking that they were formed according to the third method (? 5). The word i-nDali, for instance, sometimes used as the hlonipa variant of i-M.ali, is not formed from i-Mali, but is derived from Du. vendutie (or vendusie), see under i-nDali. The proportion of error, however, should not be so great as to prevent the lists from correctly exhibiting the general characteristics of the third category of hlonipa words ; hence, such errors as there may be, should not vitiate the value of the lists as being, on the whole, a tolerably stable foundation for the conclusions drawn at the end of this paper.

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