ABSTRACT
THE languages of South Africa are divided into two great families, of which the Hottentot and Kafir may be regarded as bases, and presenting the most primitive of all the forms no,v spoken. Dr. Bleek, in his comparative grammar, however, divides them into three classes-Kafir, Hottentot, and Bushman, but states that the last-mentioned is too little known to allow us to assign to it its proper place in general classification of languages. Viewing them thus, the Hottentot language is spoken in perhaps half-a-dozen dialects on the south-western coast, and it seems to find "its nearest relations in northern Mrica," and tIle Rafir language belongs to an extensive family which occupies the whole of the remaining portion of the south Mrican continent-from the Cape Colony to the equator on the east coast, and from lat. 32° south to about lat. 8° north, as also over the whole of central south Africa.
