CONSERVATION

Roots and Words

SEP 28, 2020 | Written by Camilla Christie. Photo by Greg Nicholson.

Languages are like plants in more ways than one. Like plants adapting to environmental conditions over time, all languages are engaged in slow but regular processes of change. Like the spectacular variety that characterises South African flora, astounding natural diversity occurs across the South African linguistic landscape. Like spring flowers, languages are both very beautiful and very practical. The West Coast bursting into bloom this September after a long and lonely quarantine has been profoundly moving for many of us, even though bright colours and sweet scents are just efficient mechanisms that get the pollination job done. Similarly, language is just a tool of communication, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t appreciate the rich poetry of isiXhosa praise names and the witty charm of Afrikaans place names, especially on Heritage Day.

And, like 16% of South Africa’s plant species, thousands of languages worldwide are endangered. Some experts predict that up to 90% of the world’s languages will vanish within the next century. Among these are the Khoekhoe-branch languages of the KHOE family. Historically, at least four Khoekhoe-branch languages were used in South Africa, including Nama, Kora, Cape Khoekhoe, and Eastern Khoekhoe. These speech communities were mostly pastoral, leading seasonally nomadic lifestyles as they sought grazing opportunities for their livestock. In addition to keeping sheep, goats, and small numbers of cattle, they also used local plants as a foodsource. Indigenous plant usage in South Africa is deeply rooted in Khoekhoe history, and is also intimately bound up with language history.

Interviews with Kora-speakers conducted during the 1930s offer insight into the historical Khoekhoe practice of harvesting !’okua, or edible wild bulbs – uintjies, in Afrikaans. The following excerpt suggests that the harvesting of uintjies was both seasonal and gendered, and also makes it clear that specialised terminology was associated with the practice.

Sida !Orada ǁkx’aeku xa, tarakhoedē, tje na sao ǂ’ũb, !’aoba !oa !ũba. ǁNa ǂ’ũb |’onni !’okua. Haide |xa tje na khaoe, !am!ã tama ǂhai kx’aisa. ǁNa haidē |’onni |kx’akhaodē.

In our old Korana times, in order to collect winter food, the women went out into the veld. The name for this food was !’okua. The !’okua were dug up with sticks, if they were deep and not visible on the surface of the ground. The name for these sticks was |kx’akhaodē [lit.,‘sharp-diggers’].

Interview with Benjamin Kats, also called !Hamarib, from Meinhof, 1930: 63 – 64. Translation adapted from Du Plessis 2019: 203.

Once gathered, the !’okua were usually roasted in ash (just like spuddies at a braai). References to certain plants using multiple names, including compound names like |xuimũ !’odakua (literally ‘the small-eyed uintjie’), would suggest the existence of an extensive botanical taxonomy that is now lost. Connections have been drawn between the name ǁabib and Lapeirousia anceps, but this is uncertain.

I tje na kei |’aeb khau, tsĩ |’aeb ta khabu toa o, ǂkx’umma xoraǂkx’oasi tsĩ na, ǂkx’ummi !na !’okua thoro-ǂaa…. |Xuimũ !’odakua tje na ǁabib di ǂei. ǁNa !’odakua tje na |on |uina tje na khaubae.

Then they made a big fire, and once it had completely burnt down, the hot ash was gathered up, and the uintjies shaken out into it…. The small-eyed uintjie also had the name ǁabib. This uintjie was only dug up for the children.

Interview with Andries Bitterbos, also called ǁGob, from Engelbrecht, 1936: 214. Translation adapted from Engelbrecht 1936: 215.

During the colonial period, deliberate language extirpation saw the loss of both Cape Khoekhoe and Eastern Khoekhoe before proper documentation could be carried out, and little is known of these languages today. Kora survived in small towns along the Gariep well into the 20^th century, but the last fluent speakers passed away during the early 2010s.  Although 200 000 speakers of standardised Khoekhoegowab remain in Namibia, the use of Nama in South Africa has decreased dramatically over the past century, in large part because of Apartheid-era efforts to suppress its usage.

Like plants, however, languages can be surprisingly resilient. Many residents of Namaqualand still use Nama words in daily Afrikaans conversation. Often, these words are plant names, borrowed into localised varieties of Cape Dutch because of their usefulness in describing indigenous plants, then taking root in Afrikaans as loanwords. If you’ve ever used any of these plant names, you’ve been speaking Nama without even knowing it.

These old Nama words both preserve historical botanical knowledge and contribute to the wonderful variation that characterises South African language usage. Conservation efforts are required to ensure that these fragile and beautiful words survive – including rigorously documenting their usage, educating the public on language history, and taking care to respect the standardised Khoekhoegowab spelling system. Through careful maintenance, both endangered languages and the plants they name can survive.

References & Sources

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Christie, C. R. 2020. Khoekhoe Lexical Borrowing in Namaqualand Afrikaans. Rhodes University. MA thesis.

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