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ArchivesSouth African given names and meanings
Some while ago, there was a query about a name and part of the thread dealt with the meanings of African given names. Sorry I'm so vague, but I've been having major computer issues and text flickers on and off like strobe lights.
In South Africa we have eleven official languages, of which I know two - English and Afrikaans. The others are Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu.
Previous web searches I've done have not come up with anything useful, but today I had more luck. I found one print book which has had favourable reviews, and two web sites, one which I know to be scholarly and the other which looks pretty good.
For your information, here are the details. I can't guarantee anything, but this is a whole lot better than anything else I've found, so I hope some of you will find it useful. I've included the Tshivenda list from the salanguages.com site, just to show the kind of data that's available; and also because Tshivenda is a comparatively small and atypical language group. Unfortunately, it seems that the print text (from Kalahari.com and no doubt other distributors) is not available as an e-book at present, though this might change of course.
http://www.sesotho.web.za/names.htm
http://salanguages.com/names/tshivenda.htm
http://salanguages.com/names/index.htm
http://www.kalahari.com/Books/Jabulani-a-Dictionary-of-South-African-Names_p_45928078#pdp_more_info
All the best
Anneza
In South Africa we have eleven official languages, of which I know two - English and Afrikaans. The others are Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu.
Previous web searches I've done have not come up with anything useful, but today I had more luck. I found one print book which has had favourable reviews, and two web sites, one which I know to be scholarly and the other which looks pretty good.
For your information, here are the details. I can't guarantee anything, but this is a whole lot better than anything else I've found, so I hope some of you will find it useful. I've included the Tshivenda list from the salanguages.com site, just to show the kind of data that's available; and also because Tshivenda is a comparatively small and atypical language group. Unfortunately, it seems that the print text (from Kalahari.com and no doubt other distributors) is not available as an e-book at present, though this might change of course.
http://www.sesotho.web.za/names.htm
http://salanguages.com/names/tshivenda.htm
http://salanguages.com/names/index.htm
http://www.kalahari.com/Books/Jabulani-a-Dictionary-of-South-African-Names_p_45928078#pdp_more_info
All the best
Anneza
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