Overview

Articles on Xhosa language and folklore Robert Godfrey's major contribution to Xhosa-language studies is his revised and expanded edition, published in 1915, of Albert Kropf's classic Kafir-English Dictionary (1899). As a member of the staff of the Blythswood Institution, Godfrey edited the Blythswood Review, and in 1924, in preparation for a third edition of the Dictionary, he commenced an extended series of articles under the title Lexicography. Through these columns he invited his readers to supply him with the Xhosa names for birds and animals. The scope and range of the articles expanded, and he increasingly incorporated into his column quotations from pupils' essays on Xhosa lore and language. Selections from these articles comprise Godfrey's Bird-lore of the Eastern Cape Province (1941), now long out of print, and an article that Godfrey wrote on John Bennie (1934), but the articles as originally printed and as assembled here contain considerably more information, on a wider range of topics, and demonstrate the development of his knowledge. Godfrey's contributions to the Blythswood Review contain invaluable knowledge on aspects of the domestic lives and language of the Xhosa-speaking peoples, much of it expressed in the Xhosa words of his informants, information on proverbs and riddles and taboos, on children's games and bird-lore, on hlonipha words and the Xhosa words for flora and fauna, on the months of the year and place names, on Xhosa grammar and the linguistic achievements of John Bennie, whose transcription of the Xhosa language became the earliest standard spelling system. Also included in this volume is an extensive collated list of lexical definitions intended for inclusion in the third edition of the Dictionary, which in the event was never published. Altogether, this collection of Godfrey's articles constitutes a significant source of information on the folklore of the Xhosa-speaking peoples and the state of their language in the early decades of the twentieth century. University of KwaZulu-Natal Press: Southern African Development Community

Full Product Details

Author:   Jeff Opland
Publisher:   James Currey
Imprint:   James Currey
ISBN:  

9781847014542

ISBN 10:   1847014542
Pages:   392
Publication Date:   09 December 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Foreword by Pamela Maseko Introduction Preparatory to ""Lexicography"" Lore Prefatory note Bird names and bird lore Children's games Riddles Proverbs Taboos Language Historical sketch of Xosa lexicography Notes on vocabulary: additions to the Dictionary Hlonipa words Flora and fauna The year Place names John Bennie Grammar Reviews and reminiscences The Phonetics of the Zulu Language by Clement M. Doke, M.A., D.Litt. The late Rev. H.N. Bonar Reminiscences of Blythswood Bantu Studies for March Appendices Albert Kropf, ""Preface to A Kaffir-English Dictionary"" (1899) Robert Godfrey, ""Preface to the Second Edition"" (1915) W.G.B[ennie], ""The revision of Kropf's Kafir Dictionary"" (1916) J.L., ""A Kafir-English Dictionary, by Rev. Albert Kropf, D.D. Second Edition by Rev. Robert Godfrey, M.A. Lovedale Mission Press, pp. xxxii. and 525"" (1916) Bibliography Index

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Author Information

JEFF OPLAND held appointments at the University of Cape Town, University of Durban-Westville and Rhodes University and taught at the Universities of Toronto, Yale, and Leipzig as well as Vassar College before his retirement.

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