Some Missionary-Influenced Early Borrowed Words and Names in Xhosa

Some Missionary-Influenced Early Borrowed Words and Names in Xhosa

The contemporary proliferation of borrowed words in Xhosa must be seen as part of a historical process of borrowing, each stage in the process representing a particular orthographic development and contact situation. Research indicates that a large proportion of words that entered the Xhosa lexicon...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Language matters (Pretoria, South Africa) Vol. 55; no. 1-2; pp. 47 - 69
Main Authors: Futuse, Liziwe, Dowling, Tessa
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Pretoria Routledge 03-05-2024
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects:
Advertisements
Bible
borrowed words
Christianity
Eastern Cape
Ityala Lamawele
Literary translation
Loanwords
Missionaries
Novels
Orthography
S. E. K. Mqhayi
Xhosa
Xhosa advertisements
Xhosa language
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Summary:The contemporary proliferation of borrowed words in Xhosa must be seen as part of a historical process of borrowing, each stage in the process representing a particular orthographic development and contact situation. Research indicates that a large proportion of words that entered the Xhosa lexicon in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries did so because of missionary influence in the fields of Western commodities and conventions, institutionalised Christianity, the translation of the Bible, the creation of a standard orthography, and mission education. In addition to referencing borrowed words in an early Xhosa dictionary, we illustrate their use for clothes with two advertisements appearing in Xhosa newspapers in the mid-nineteenth century and follow this with a discussion on mission-inspired words and biblical names in a classic 1914 Xhosa novel.
ISSN:1022-8195
1753-5395
DOI:10.1080/10228195.2024.2366797