magical sounds

The sounds inherent in the language of the Khoi-San are unique and wonderful.

Early travellers from Europe named the people of the Cape "Hottentots", (a word that was later misused to describe people as subservient and inferior.) There are two possible origins for this word: one describing a dance and the other describing the language:

Augustin de Beaulieu, 1620: "They speak from the throat, and seem to sob and sigh when speaking. Their usual greeting on meeting us is to dance a song, of which the beginning, the middle, and the end is 'hautitou'."
Vasco da Gama, 1497: "..small in stature, ugly of face, and when they speak it seems as if they hiccup."
Cornelis de Houtman, 1595: "I could learn no more from them but that they speak very clumsily, like the folk in Germany .. who suffer from goitre..."
Edward Terry, 1616: " ... their speech it seemed to us inarticulate noise, rather than language, like the clucking of hens, or the gabbling of turkeys..."
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, 1649: "When they speak they fart with their tongues in their mouths, yet, although their speech is almost without seperation of word from word, they understand each other very readily .... they have no knowledge of gold or silver, and properly speaking know nothing of religion..."

AiKhona!!!
There are many Khoikhoi words common in everyday Afrikaans and English speech in South Africa. There are the geographical place names such as OuteniQua, Karoo, Gamka, Namaqualand and Keiskamma.

There are animal names - gogga, koedoe, kwagga, geitjie - and plant names - boegoe, dagga, koekemakranka, karree, and the names of things such as karos and kierie. The words refer not only to things and places but also include adorable words such as abba, kamma, eina and aitsa. And many more... We use these words every day but we do not always know or acknowledge their origin. So, in our small way we pay tribute to the lost people of the West Coast.
By Avril Brand
http://www.sawestcoast.com/history.html