suggested by Dr Bleek and is supported by further evidence advanced
by Bertin.
The Hottentot language was regarded by the early travellers and colonists as an uncouth and barbarous tongue. The Portuguese called the native manner of speaking stammering; and the Dutch compared it to the “gobbling of a turkey-cock.” These phonetic characteristics arose from the common use of “clicks,”—sounds produced by applying the tongue to the teeth or to various parts of the gums or roof of the mouth, and suddenly jerking it back. Three-fourths of the syllabic elements of the language begin with these clicks, and combined with them are several hard and deep gutturals and nasal accompaniments. The difficulty a European has in acquiring an accurate pronunciation is not so much in producing the clicking sound singly as in following it immediately with another letter or syllable. The four recognized clicks, with the symbols generally adopted to denote them, are as follows: dental = |; palatal = ♯; lateral = ||; cerebral = !. According to Tindall, one of the best grammarians of the language, the dental click (similar to a sound of surprise or indignation) is produced by pressing the top of the tongue against the upper front teeth, and then suddenly and forcibly withdrawing it. The palatal click (like the crack of a whip) is produced by pressing the tongue with as flat a surface as possible against the termination of the palate at the gums, so that the top of the tongue touches the upper front teeth and the back of the tongue lies towards the palate, and then forcibly withdrawing the tongue. The cerebral click (compared to the popping of the cork of a bottle of champagne) is produced by curling up the tip of the tongue against the roof of the palate, and withdrawing it suddenly and forcibly. The lateral click (similar to the sound used in stimulating a horse to action) is articulated by covering with the tongue the whole of the palate and producing the sound as far back as possible; Europeans imitate it by placing the tongue against the side teeth and then withdrawing it. The easiest Hottentot clicks, the dental and cerebral, have been adopted by the Kaffirs; and it is a striking circumstance, in evidence of the past Hottentot influence upon the Kaffir languages, that the clicking decreases amongst these tribes almost in proportion to their distance from the former Hottentot domain.
The language in its grammatical structure is beautiful and regular. Dr Bleek describes it as having the distinctive features of the suffix-pronominal order or higher form of languages, in which the pronouns are identical with and borrowed from the derivative suffixes of the nouns. The words are mostly monosyllables, always ending, with two exceptions, in a vowel or nasal sound. Among the consonants neither l, nor f nor v is found. There are two g’s, g hard and g guttural, and a deeper guttural kh. Diphthongs abound. There is no article, but the definite or indefinite sense of a noun is determined by the gender. In the fullest known dialect (that spoken by the Namaqua) nouns are formed with eight different suffixes, which in nouns designating persons distinguish masc. sing. (-b), masc. plur. (-ku), masc. dual (kha), fem. sing, (-s), fem. plur. (-ti), com. sing. (-i), com. plur. (-u), com. dual (-ra). The adjective is either prefixed to a noun or referred to it by a suffixed pronoun. This grammatical division of the nouns according to gender led to the classification of the language as “sex-denoting,” thus suggesting its relationship, in original structure, with the Galla and others.
There are four dialectical varieties of the language, each with well-marked characteristics: the Nama dialect, spoken by the Namaqua as well as by the Hau-Khoin or Hill Damara; the Kora dialect, spoken by the Koranna, or Koraqua, dwelling about the middle and upper part of the Orange, Vaal and Modder rivers; the Eastern dialect, spoken by the Gona or Gonaqua on the borders of Kaffirland; and the Cape dialect, now no longer spoken but preserved in the records of early voyagers and settlers. Of the Nama dialect there are three grammars: Wallmann’s (1857) and Hahn’s in German, and Tindall’s (1871) in English, the last being the best; and the four Gospels, with a large amount of missionary literature, have been published in it.
The vocabulary is not limited merely to the expression of the rude conceptions that are characteristic of primitive races. It possesses such words as koi, human being; khoi-si, kindly or friendly; koi-si-b, philanthropist; khoi-si-s, humanity; ♯ ei, to think; ♯ ei-s, thought; amo, eternal; amo-si-b, eternity; tsa, to feel; tsa-b, feeling, sentiment; tsa-kha, to condole; ama, true; ama-b, the truth; anu, sacred; anu-si-b, holiness; esa, pretty; anu-xa, full of beauty.
Literature and History.—Much traditionary literature—fables, myths and legends—existed amongst the Hottentots,—a fact first made known by Sir James Alexander, who in his journeyings through Great Namaqualand in 1835 jotted down the stories told him around the camp fire by his Hottentot followers. These Hottentot tales generally have much of the character of fables; some are in many points identical with northern nursery tales, and suggestive of European origin or of contact with the white man; but the majority bear evidence of being true native products. Bleek’s Reynard the Fox in South Africa (1864) contains a translation of a legend written down from the lips of the Namaqua by the Rev. G. Krönlein, which is regarded as an excellent specimen of the national style. Another legend relating to the moon and the hare conveys the idea of an early conception of the hope of immortality. It is found in various versions, and, like many other stories, occurs in Bushman as well as in Hottentot mythology.
The earliest accounts of the Hottentots occur in the narratives of Vasco da Gama’s first voyage to India round the Cape in 1497–1498. In 1510 the Portuguese viceroy, Francisco d’Almeida, count of Abrantes, met his death in a dispute with the natives. Till the 17th century they were believed to be cannibals, but with the occupation of the Cape by the Dutch, in 1652, more accurate knowledge was obtained. A century of Dutch rule resulted in the Hottentots becoming a nation of slaves and in serious danger of extermination, and thus the arrival of the English in 1795 was welcomed by them. In 1828 an ordinance was passed declaring “all Hottentots and other free persons of colour” entitled to all and every right to which any other British subjects were entitled. (See Cape Colony: History; and South Africa.)
Bibliography.—A. de Quatrefages, Les Pygmées (1887); G. W. Stow, The Native Races of South Africa (1905); E. T. Hamy, “Les Races nègres,” in L’Anthropologie (1897), pp. 257 et sqq.; F. Shrubsall, “Crania of African Bush Races,” in Jour. Anthrop. Inst. (November 1897); W. H. J. Bleek, A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages (1862); and “Die Hottentotten Stämme,” in Petermanns Mit. (1858), pp. 49 et sqq.; G. Fritsch, Die Eingebornen Süd-Afrikas (1872), and “Schilderungen der Hottentotten,” in Globus (1875), pp. 374 et sqq.; G. Bertin, “The Bushmen and their Language,” in Jour. R. Asiat. Soc. xviii., part i., and reprint; P. Kolbe or Kolben, Present State of the Cape of Good Hope; Sir John Barrow, Travels in South Africa (1801–1804).
HOTTINGER, JOHANN HEINRICH (1620–1667), Swiss philologist and theologian, was born at Zürich on the 10th of March 1620. He studied at Geneva, Groningen and Leiden, and after visiting France and England was in 1642 appointed professor of church history in his native town. The chair of Hebrew at the Carolinum was added in 1643, and in 1653 he was appointed professor ordinarius of logic, rhetoric and theology. He gained such a reputation as an Oriental scholar that the elector palatine in 1655 appointed him professor of Oriental languages and biblical criticism at Heidelberg. In 1661, however, he returned to Zürich, where in 1662 he was chosen principal of the university. In 1667 he accepted an invitation to succeed Johann Hoornbeck (1617–1666) as professor in the university of Leiden, but he was drowned with three of his children by the upsetting of a boat while crossing the river Limmat. His chief works are Historia ecclesiastica Nov. Test. (1651–1667); Thesaurus philologicus seu clavis scripturae (1649; 3rd ed. 1698); Etymologicon orientale, sive lexicon harmonicum heptaglotton (1661). He also wrote a Hebrew and an Aramaic grammar.
His son, Johann Jakob Hottinger (1652–1735), who became professor of theology at Zürich in 1698, was the author of a work against Roman Catholicism, Helvetische Kirchengeschichte (4 vols., 1698–1729); and his grandson, Johann Heinrich Hottinger (1681–1750), who in 1721 was appointed professor of theology at Heidelberg, wrote a work on dogmatics, Typus doctrinae christianae (1714).
HOUBRAKEN, JACOBUS (1698–1780), Dutch engraver, was born at Dort, on the 25th of December 1698. All that his father, Arnold Houbraken (1660–1719), bequeathed to him was a fine constitution and a pure love for work. In 1707 he came to reside at Amsterdam, where for years he had to struggle incessantly against difficulties. He commenced the art of engraving by studying the works of Cornelis Cort, Suyderhoef, Edelinck and the Visschers. He devoted himself almost entirely to portraiture. Among his best works are scenes from the comedy of De Ontdekte Schijndeugd, executed in his eightieth year, after Cornelis Troost, who was called by his countrymen the Dutch Hogarth. He died on the 14th of November 1780.
See A. Ver Hull, Jacobus Houbraken et son œuvre (Arnhem, 1875), where 120 engraved works are fully described.
HOUDENC (or Houdan), RAOUL DE, 12th-century French trouvère, takes his name from his native place, generally identified with Houdain (Artois), though there are twelve places bearing the name in one or other of its numerous variants. It has been suggested that he was a monk, but from the scattered hints in his writings it seems more probable that he followed the trade of jongleur and recited his chansons, with small success apparently, in the houses of the great. He was well acquainted with Paris, and probably spent a great part of his life there. His undoubted works are: Le Songe d’enfer, La Voie de paradis, Le Roman des eles (pr. by A. Scheler in Trouvères belges, New
