756 ABORIGINAL PLACE NAMES. 



only when I realised that the Dutch name, W'ildebeeste. v^as a 

 translation of the aboriginal name, the Hottentot name for the 

 Wildebeeste being the i-Nqu. Probably, then, many other of the 

 existing Dutch names are smiple translation.s of the original name. 

 In this way Koedoe's Kloof, the Koodoo's Kloof in Ladismith 

 District, is named after the Hottentot iqudu ; and the name 

 Wildebeeste, translated from i-N(|U, also Hottentot, gives us the 

 English word Gnu; and sundry names associated with our word 

 Ouagga come through the Dutch from the Hottentot iqwaia. 



Perhaps our greatest authorit}'. Dr. Skeat, tells us in his 

 Concise Etymological Dictionary that " Quagga is a quadruped 

 (Kaffir). A Xosa-Kaffir word. — Kaffir iqivara (W. J. Davis) ; 

 where the r is guttural." This, however, is not the case, for both 

 the q and the r are non-Bantu sounds. exce])t by much later 

 assimilation, and the Kaffir word for Quagga, as a matter of fact, 

 i;- Idube, the other form being the H.-B. word, and perhaps more 

 likely Hottentot than Bushman, if we accept f as Tlottentot, and 

 r as Bushman. Personally, however. I am not prepared to draw 

 the line there so definitely as to determine on the strength of that 

 alone the ultimate origin of the word. 



We are thus confronted witli the difficulty of determining 

 the exact significance of the r sound, and so, as a basis for the 

 discussion of this interesting ])oini, it is necessary to draw atten- 

 tion to the valuer of the letter, which represents no less than 

 four distinct sounds in modern Kaffir. In the first place, the 

 ordinary English sound is found only in foreign words assimi- 

 lated into the language — and then in ]:)ractice it is usually changed 

 to 1, as in orange, which the native usually contrives to call 

 i-olingc. Perhaps better examples are found in Scripture names, 

 such as u-Petros for Peter. Martini's Hush in Tsomo. and other 

 proper names. 



The ordinary Kaffir sound i> e(|ui\alent to ch in the Scottish 

 loch, -or as we have already seen, the Dutch g ; but there is a 

 slightly different, though quite distinct, sound produced by strong 

 out-breathing-, written with an aspirate over the r. The final 

 form is r. the sound being formed shar])ly at the back of the 

 throat, the breath being expelled. An example of the former is 

 u-rano, suspicion ; and of the latter, rapcla, to throw water at. 



With these considerations, then, in mind, we proceed to a 

 detailed and critical study of the selected names. Certain names 

 in which the conflict of the languages are best illustrated should, 

 perhaps, be considered together, namely. Coega, Kareiga, Ka- 

 .'^ouga, and Kenegha ; and the questions raised concern the follow- 

 ing two ])oints : — 



( i) Does the initial k stanfl for a click? 



(2) Is the -ga suffix e(|uivalent to -ka or -fa? 



In the first place, then, we are i)uzzled over the significance 

 of the initial letter of the word. A golden rule, which settles 

 many difficulties, is to follow the ordinary pronunciation in the 



