A Query concerning the Language of the Hottentots

I just found a transcription, sent by Nicolaes Witsen to G. W. Leibniz in 1698, of the Lord's Prayer written 'in lingua hottentotica', with interlinear Dutch translations. It is sent along with translations in Samoyed, Mongol, and Circassian, which all make a great deal of sense, given that Witsen is returning from a diplomatic mission to Moscow, and Leibniz has requested of him that he acquire samples of as many languages of the Tsar's empire as he is able. How 'Hottentot' came to be a part of this is not clear to me.

I've spent a bit of time trying to track down a copy of the Lord's Prayer in San, but have not been able so far. If there are any specialists in Khoisan linguistics among my readers (as I trust there are), I would be thankful if you could help me to identify the language precisely. I'll copy out the prayer here, just as Witsen sent it:

Cita bô, t? homme ingá t'siha, t? sa di kamink ouna, hem kouqueent see, dani hinqua t'sa inhee K? chou ki, quiquo t? homm' ingá, maa cita heci cita kóua sequa bree, k? hom cita, cita hiahinghee quiquo cita k? hom, cita dóua kôuna, tire cita k? choá t? authummá -- k'hamta cita hi aquei hee k? dou auna, --- t? aats kouqueetta, hique t? aats diaha, hique occisa ha, nauwi.

I wonder in particular whether the question marks are meant to signal the famous, and no doubt overemphasized, Bushman 'clicks'? In any case the transliteration scheme will no doubt look very unfamiliar to anyone who is able to read Khoisan languages today. By comparison, here is Witsen's transliteration of Luke 21:25 from the 'Russica vulgaris':

I budut snaki wo solntse, i vo mesetsie i wo swiesdach, i na semlie Tugo, (tiesno) poganom ot cot tschajania, schuma, morskogo i wosmuschenia Kogda tschelovieki budut isdichati ot stracha i doschidania tiech weschtschei, kotorie budut bywati wosem suiete.

Now, modernizing the transliteration scheme while leaving the lexical archaisms intact, we would get something like this:

I budut znaki vo solntse, i vo mesiatse i vo zvezdakh, i na zemle tugo (tesno) poganom ot tsot chaianiia, shuma, morskogo i vozmushcheniia kogda cheloveki budut izdikhat' ot strakha i dozhidaniia tekh veshchei, kotorie budut byvat' vo vsem svete.

 I'd imagine that the 'Hottentot' text is even more deviant from current rules governing Khoisan literacy (Saul Bellow would not have liked that phrase).

Comments

[DT]

Hottentottententententoonstelling!

[Neillie]

Yes, the question marks are supposed to represent clicks, of course. I think that's a really brave attempt at !ora (Koranna).

Here's a really old version of the Lord's Prayer in the !ora language, one of the Khoe languages of what's today south west Namibia and the Northern Cape.

If you voice the clicks, this version starts off identically to yours (look at the 't? homme' and the 'Tomie', where the 't?' and the 'T' are I think the dental click.)

Sita ienp Tomie nakap
tsa onee thaa tgy tgy
tsa chaoop koo ha
tsa tymp aapie
ie hom na kgboma aie hoop
maadaa hoowaa tzee koo breep
tnooo baa daa
tghaa tre sita taa whie kgho...

The 'ts' would be a | in Bleek's orthography for the dental click, I supposed. The 'tg' would be a ≠, for the palatal click.

The first standardised orthography for Khoe and San clicks was probably that of Lepsius: |, ||, !, ≠, later adapted by Wilhelm Bleek (do you know his 'Specimens of Bushman Folklore'? I think it might blow your mind.) The modern orthography for Nguni clicks uses the letters c q and x instead.

[Neillie]

Oh. That's from John Campbell's Travels in South Africa of 1815.

I'm sure I've got a Lord's Prayer in one of the extinct Cape Khoe languages and definitely a 'Bushman' one somewhere.

[Justin]

Thank you so much, Neil. This is what I call effective crowdsourcing! I am delighted to get a reply on this question from someone who clearly is in a position to hold forth.

[Neillie]

It's a pleasure.

I like it here very much.