ABSTRACT
The presence of the European in South Africa has been produƸtive of profound and far-reaching changes in the linguistic and literary habits of the Bantu-speaking peoples of this country. The nature, degree, and rate of progress of these changes, moreover, besides forming in their complexity a most fascinating problem for the linguist, afford in addition a most useful index and guide to the problems of contaƸt-influences in other departments of Bantu life. Without wishing to go so far as to echo the words of the Dutch author that “ a language is a nation all in all ”, we may yet claim that a language can be, and most often is, an extremely accurate refleƸtion of a people’s life—material, intelleƸtual, and spiritual—and, furthermore, that all changes in a people’s life are usually, sooner or later, direƸtly or indireƸtly, faintly or clearly, shown in the changing face of its language, in the changing content and workmanship of its literature. For such reasons, then, it is hoped that the following brief and necessarily incomplete outline of the changes that have taken place and that are proceeding in the languages and literature of the South African Bantu may be found interesting and useful, not only in itself, but also to some degree as a measure of the changes that are happening and that have happened in other spheres of these peoples’ lives.
