Cover not available

In:Investigating West Germanic Languages: Studies in honor of Robert B. Howell
Edited by Jennifer Hendriks and B. Richard Page
[Studies in Germanic Linguistics 8] 2024
► pp. 131–162

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Lexicalizing vernacular architecture in the Cape Dutch Vernacular

 | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Published online: 16 May 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sigl.8.08rob
Abstract
Afrikaans has hybrid compounds that pair Khoekhoe and Dutch roots to denote indigenous flora and cultural items, e.g., ghwarrieboom ‘guarri tree’. Afrikaans hart(e)beeshuis ‘wattle and daub house’ falls within this compound type, even though it looks straightforwardly Dutch hart(e)bees(t) ‘species of African antelope’ + huis ‘house’. Lexicalization of hybrid harbeeshuis took place in the Cape Dutch Pidgin as a term for a shelter or dwelling with water-resistant roof, with a cognate of Nama xaribe ‘wipe away (water)’ as the first term of the compound. White pastoralists adopted this style of vernacular architecture along with the term for it, whence the creation of hart(e)beeshuis by folk etymology.
Article outline
  • 1.The formation of a contact language at the Cape of Good Hope
  • 2.Lexification of the Cape Dutch Pidgin
  • 3.“You may ask yourself: ‘What is that beautiful house?’”
  • 4.“Same as it ever was”
  • Notes
  • References
References (84)
References
Alexander, Mogamat. 2022. Dictionary of loanwords in the Cape Muslim vernacular. Cape Town: privately published.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Backhouse, James. 1844. A narrative of a visit to the Mauritius and South Africa. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co.; New York: John L. Linney.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, Philip. 2000. Theories of creolization and the degree and nature of restructuring. In Neumann-Holzschuh, Ingrid & Edgar W. Schneider (eds.), Degrees of restructuring in creole languages, 41–63. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bana Maie (M. C. V. Scholtz). 1928. Voortrekkerslewe in donker Afrika. Pretoria: J. H. de Bussy.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bogaert, Abraham. 1711. Historische reizen door d’oostersche deelen van Asia. Amsterdam: Nicolaas ten Hoorn.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boshoff, S. P. E. 1921. Volk en taal van Suid-Afrika. Pretoria: J. H. de Bussy.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bosman, D. B. & H. B. Thom (eds.). 1952–1957. Daghregister gehouden by den oppercoopman Jan Anthonisz van Riebeeck. 3 vols. Cape Town: A. A. Balkema.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boyle, Frederick. 1873. To the Cape for diamonds: A story of digging experiences in South Africa. London: Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Burchell, William J. 1822–1824. Travels in the interior of Southern Africa. 2 vols. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
CJ = Crimineele Justitieën (Criminal Judicatures of the Raad van Justitie [Council of Justice] of the VOC, which are preserved in the Cape Archives Depot in Cape Town and from which material is collected in van Oordt (ed.) 1959–1962).
Coetzee, Abel. 1940. Die verhaalskat van “Ons Klyntji” (1896–1905). Johannesburg: Voortrekkerpers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dapper, Olfert. 1668. Kaffrarie of lant der Kaffers, anders Hottentots genaemt, from Naukeurige beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche gewesten van Egypten, Barbaryen, Libyen, Biledulgerid, Negroslant, Guinea, Ethiopien, Abyssinie. Amsterdam: Jacob van Meur. (Rpt. in Schapera & Farrington (eds.) 1933: 6–77.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davids, Achmat. 1990. Words the Cape slaves made: A socio-historical-linguistic study. South African Journal of Linguistics 8. 1–24. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1992. Some lexical aspects of Cape Muslim Afrikaans. Lexikos 2. 39–62.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Flacourt, Étienne. 1658. Dictionnaire de la langue de Madagascar. Avec un petit recueil des noms et dictions propres des choses qui sont d’une mesme espece. Plus quelques mots du langage des Sauvages de la Baye de Saldagne au Cap de Bonne Esperance. Paris: Georges Iosse.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
den Besten, Hans. 1987. Review of Raidt 1983. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 2. 67–92. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. Roots of Afrikaans: Selected writings of Hans den Besten. Edited by Ton van der Wouden. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
den Besten, Hans, Carla Luijks & Paul T. Roberge. 2003. Reduplication in Afrikaans. In Kouwenberg, Silvia (ed.), Twice as meaningful: Reduplication in pidgins, creoles and other contact languages, 271–287. London: Battlebridge. (Rpt. in den Besten 2012:195–219.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
du Plessis, Menán. 2018. Kora: A lost Khoisan language of the early Cape and the Gariep. Pretoria: University of South Africa Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Elphick, Richard & V. C. Malherbe. 1989. The Khoisan to 1828. In Elphick, Richard & Hermann Giliomee (eds.), The shaping of South African society, 3–65. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Elphick, Richard & Robert Shell. 1989. Intergroup relations: Khoikhoi, settlers, slaves and free blacks, 1652–1795. In Elphick, Richard & Hermann Giliomee (eds.), The shaping of South African society, 184–239. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Elphick, Richard & Hermann Giliomee. 1989. The origins and entrenchment of European dominance at the Cape, 1652 – c. 1840. In Elphick, Richard & Hermann Giliomee (eds.), The shaping of South African society, 521–566. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Feist, Sigmund. 1939. Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotsichen Sprache. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Franken, J. L. M. 1953a. Taalhistoriese bydraes. Cape Town and Amsterdam: A. A. Balkema.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1953b. Tentatiewe etimologieë. (Annale van die Universiteit van Stellenbosch, reeks B, jaargang 27, no, 1.) Cape Town: Nasionale Pers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Godée Molsbergen, E. C. (ed.). 1916. Reizen in Zuid-Afrika in de Hollandse tijd. Vol. 1. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hazaël-Massieux, Marie-Christine. 2009. Change in the possessive system of French Caribbean creole languages. In Selbach, Rachel, Hugo C. Cardoso & Margot van den Berg (eds.), Gradual creolization: Studies celebrating Jacques Arends, 113–128. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hondius, Jodocus. 1652. Klare besgryving van Cabo de Bona Esperança. Amsterdam. (Facsimile rpt. 1952. With an English translation by L. C. van Oordt and introduction and notes by Prof. P. Serton. Cape Town: Book Exhibition Committee, Van Riebeeck Festival.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kolbe, Peter. 1719. Caput Bonae Spei hodiernum. Das ist: Vollständige Beschreibung des africanischen Vorgebürges der Guten Hofnung. Nuremberg: Peter Conrad Monath.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
KT = Kaapse taalargief. See van Oordt 1947–1956.
Latrobe, C. I. 1818. Journal of a visit to South Africa in 1815 and 1816. New York: James Eastburn and Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Legassick, Martin. 1989. The Northern Frontier to c. 1840: The rise and decline of the Griqua people. In Elphick, Richard & Hermann Giliomee (eds.), The shaping of South African society, 358–420. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
le Roux, T. H. (ed.). 1964. Die dagboek van Louis Trigardt. Pretoria: J. L. van Schaik.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lichtenstein, Hinrich. 1811–1812. Reisen im südlichen Afrika in den Jahren 1803, 1804, 1805 und 1806. 2 vols. Berlin: C. Salfeld. (Facsimile rpt. 1967. Stuttgart: F. A. Brockhaus.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mansvelt, N. 1884. Proeve van een Kaapsch-Hollandsch idioticon. Utrecht: A. J. van Huffel; Cape Town: Cyrus J. Martin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mason, John Edwin. 2003. Social death and resurrection: Slavery and emancipation in South Africa. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meinhof, Carl. 1930. Der Koranadialekt des Hottentottischen. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen); Hamburg: C. Boysen.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mossop, E. E. (ed.). 1935. The journals of Wikar, Coetsé and van Reenen. Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mühlhäusler, Peter. 1997. Pidgin and creole linguistics. 2nd edn. London: University of Westminster Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. More on non-canonical creoles. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 14. 121–130. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nienaber, G. S. 1952. Twee Afrikaanse woorde. Tydskrif vir Wetenskap en Kuns 12. 18–25.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1953. Oor Afrikaans. Vol. 2. Johannesburg: Afrikaanse Pers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1963. Hottentots. Pretoria: J. L. van Schaik.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1964. Raakpunte met Hottentots. In Van der Merwe, H. J. J. M. (ed.), Studierigtings in die taalkunde, 192–207. Pretoria: J. L. van Schaik.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1989. Sonde met hartbees in hartbeeshuis. Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe 29. 180–190.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1994. Khoekhoe en Afrikaans in gesprek. (South African Journal of Linguistics. Supplement 21.) n.p.: Linguistic Society of Southern Africa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nienaber, P. J. (ed.). 1968. Dr. Arnoldus Pannevis: Vader van die Afrikaanse taal. Cape Town: Nasionale Boekhandel.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peires. J. B. 1989. The British and the Cape, 1814–1834. In Elphick, Richard & Hermann Giliomee (eds.), The shaping of South African society, 472–518. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Penn, Nigel. 2012. Soldiers and Cape Town society. In Worden, Nigel (ed.), Cape Town between East and West, 176–193. Hilversum: Uitgeverij Verloren.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pettman, Charles. 1913. Africanderisms: A glossary of South African colloquial words and phrases and of place and other names. London: Longmans, Green and Co. (Rpt. 1968. Detroit: Gale Research Company.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Raath, Hannes. 2004. Oorsprong van die term “hartbeeshuis”. Suid-Afrikaanse Tydskrif vir Kultuurgeskiedenis 17(2). 78–94. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Raath, Johannes Jacobus. 2001. Oorsprong en manifestasie van die Suid-Afrikaanse hartbees- of dakhuis: ‘n Kultuurhistoriese studie. MA thesis, University of Pretoria.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Raidt, Edith H. 1983. Einführung in Geschichte und Struktur des Afrikaans. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1991. Afrikaans en sy Europese verlede. 3rd edn. Cape Town: Nasou.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1994. Historiese taalkunde: Studies oor die geskiedenis van Afrikaans. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roberge, Paul T. 2024. Afrikaans and creolization. In Carstens, W. A. M., Nerina Bosman & Theresa Biberauer (eds.), Afrikaans linguistics: Contemporary perspectives. Stellenbosch: African SUN Media. (In press.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rust, F. 1965. Praktische Namagrammatik. Cape Town and Amsterdam: A. A. Balkema.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1969. Nama Wörterbuch (Krönlein redivivus). Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schapera, I. & B. Farrington (eds.). 1933. The early Cape Hottentots, described in the writings of Olfert Dapper (1668), Willem ten Rhyne (1686), and Johannes Gulielmus de Grevenbroek (1695). Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schoonees, P. C., D. J. Van Schalkwyk, F. J. Snijman, D. C. Hauptfleisch & Willem Botha (eds.). 1970–present. Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse taal. 16 vols. to date. Stellenbosch: Buro van die WAT.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scholtz, J. du Plessis. 1965. Afrikaans uit die vroeë tyd. Cape Town: Nasou.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1972. Afrikaans-Hollands in die agtiende eeu. Cape Town: Nasou.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schutte, G. J. (ed.). 1982. Briefwisseling van Hendrik Swellengrebel Jr oor Kaapse sake, 1778–1792. Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schutte, Gerrit. 1989. Company and colonists at the Cape, 1652–1795. In Elphick, Richard & Hermann Giliomee (eds.), The shaping of South African society, 283–323. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shell, Robert. 1994. Children of bondage: A social history of the slave society at the Cape of Good Hope, 1652–1838. Hanover, CT: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Silva, Penny M., Wendy Dore, Dorothea Mantzel, Colin Muller & Madeleine Wright (eds.). 1996. A dictionary of South African English on historical principles. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smith, Norval. 2006. Very rapid creolization in the framework of the restricted motivation hypothesis. In Lefebvre, Claire, Lydia White & Christine Jourdan (eds.), L2 acquisition and creole genesis: Dialogues, 49–65. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sparrman, Anders. 1783. Resa till Goda Hopps-Udden. Stockholm: A. J. Nordström. (English translation 1785–86. A voyage to the Cape of Good Hope. London: G. G. J. and J. Robinson. Revised English translation 1975–1977. Ed. by V. S. Forbes; translation from the Swedish revised by J. Rudner and I. Rudner. 2 vols. Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
ten Rhyne, Willem. 1686. Schediasma de Promontorio Bonae Spei. Schaffhausen. (Rpt. in Schapera & Farrington (eds.) 1933:78–157.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ulrich, Nicole. 2011. Abolition from below: The 1808 revolt in the Cape Colony. In van der Linden, Marcel (ed.), Humanitarian intervention and changing labor relations: The long-term consequences of the abolition of the slave trade, 193–222. Leiden: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Deventer, Heidi, Lindie Smith-Adao, Nacelle Collins, Michael Grenfell, A. Grundling, Piet-Louis Grundling, Dean Impson, Nancy Job, M.C. Lötter, Dean Ollis, Chantel Petersen, Patsy Scherman, Erwin Sieben, Kate Snaddon, Farai Tererai & Dewindine van der Colff. 2019. South African national biodiversity assessment 2018: Technical report. Volume 2b: Inland aquatic (freshwater) realm. Pretoria: South African National Biodiversity Institute.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Oordt, L. C. (ed.). 1947–1956. Die Kaapse taalargief. Parts 1–4 privately published, Cape Town; parts 5–10 in Tydskrif vir Wetenskap en Kuns 10. 65–88, 11. 55–75, 12. 73–101, 13. 45–73, 14. 33–56, 16. 97–124.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(ed.). 1959–1962. Cape archival materials. Stellenbosch University Library, Special Collections, no. 139.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Rensburg, M. C. J. (ed.). 1984. Die Afrikaans van die Griekwas van die tagtigerjare. 2 vols. Bloemfontein: University of the Orange Free State.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Rijn, C. J. 1914. Het zeer nauwe verband tussen het Afrikaans en het Nederlands. Cape Town: privately published.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vlach, John Michael. 1977. Shotgun houses. Natural History 86. 50–57.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vlach, John Michael. 1986. The shotgun house: An African architectural legacy. In Upton, Dell & John Michael Vlach (eds.), Common places: Readings in American vernacular architecture, 58–78. Athens: The University of Georgia Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Walton, James. 1961. Homes of the trekboers: The vernacular architecture of South Africa. Lantern: Journal of Knowledge and Culture 11(1). 8–21.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
WAT = Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse taal. See Schoonees et al. 1970–present.
Wat is die oorsprong van die naam hartebeeshuis? 2015. Maroelamedia, goeie goed ([URL]) (Accessed 9 August 2023.)
WNT = Woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal. 1882–1998. 29 vols. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff; Leiden: A. W. Sijthoff; The Hague: SDU Uitgewerij.
Worden, Nigel. 1985. Slavery in Dutch South Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. Revolt in Cape slave society. In Alpers, Edward A., Gwyn Campbell & Michael Salman (eds.), Resisting bondage in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia, 10–23. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue