The damaging effects of romantic mythopoeia on Khoesan linguistics
Date
2014-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Abstract
The article outlines some basic guidelines that should inform studies in comparative linguistics,
and notes a tendency in contemporary Khoesan linguistics for these to be neglected, while
pre-theoretical assumptions of ‘ancientness’ and ‘otherness’ take their place. The article
demonstrates the damaging effects of this romanticism through two brief case studies – one
concerning the supposedly primordial stratum made up of the JU and !UI-TAA languages,
and the other concerning a conjectured intermediate stratum made up of the KHOE (or ‘Khoe-
Kwadi’) languages. It is concluded that the construction of these linguistic layers, so neatly in
agreement with the layers proposed in certain models of southern African population history,
has been enabled by a willingness to believe that perceptions of otherness have some
absolute and meaningful value, and that they take precedence over fundamental principles.
Description
CITATION: Du Plesis, M. 2014. The damaging effects of romantic mythopoeia on Khoesan linguistics. Critical Arts: A Journal of South-North Cultural Studies, 28(3):569-592, doi:10.1080/02560046.2014.929217.
The original publication is available at http://www.tandfonline.com
The original publication is available at http://www.tandfonline.com
Keywords
Comparative linguistics, Khosan languages -- Grammar, comparative, Bantu languages -- Grammar, comparative, Metatheory -- Grammar, comparative, Demythologization (Literature) -- Khoisan languages -- Grammar, comparative
Citation
Du Plesis, M. 2014. The damaging effects of romantic mythopoeia on Khoesan linguistics. Critical Arts: A Journal of South-North Cultural Studies, 28(3):569-592, doi:10.1080/02560046.2014.929217