Excerpt from A Grammar and Vocabulary of the Namaqua-Hottentot Language A few Missionaries, however, have taken an interest in the Hottentot language, and have published several small works in it. These might have sufficed but for two reasons. First, Several tribes of the Hottentot race, and some others who speak the same language, are so remotely situated from the Colony, that it is highly probable a considerable time will elapse before they shall have formed a sufficient acquaintance with either the English or the Dutch language to enable them to dispense with their own, however certain its ultimate extinction may appear to be. For these it is necessary to provide transla tions of Scripture, in order to instruct them in the truths of Christianity. Secondly, It will be interesting to pre serve some additional record of the language spoken by a people so peculiar and once numerous, as it may assist in tracing their descent, and removing the obscurity in which' their origin is at present involved. These two reasons have induced me to compile a sketch of the Grammar of the Namaqua Hottentot dialect. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Originally published in 1956, this volume presents a survey of the non-Bantu languages in the area extending south of the Sahara from Lake Chad to the Indian Ocean, together withj those of South Africa. The arrangement is primarily linguistic, in as much as larger units which show some indisputable affinities are where possible treated contiguously. Languages in the centre of the total area are discussed first, followed by thos ein the west, north, east and finally south.