Appendix B
Phuthi Speech Communities
h h Quthing [!ut i֊] (Phuthi Qûthînî [!ut i ni ]), in the Quthing district, is the largest town in southwest Lesotho. There are considerable numbers of Phuthi speakers living at Makoloane [makolwani]; smaller numbers live at Mosuoe [mosuwe], and in nearby Alwyn’s Kop (literally, sk ѐp]), on the road leading from the Telleگ Alwyn’s head’)—usually just called A’s Kop [e‘ Bridge border to Quthing. I cannot accurately estimate the number of speakers here, but there are possibly a few thousand.
Sinxondo [si ֊|| ѐndѐ] (Phuthi Sigxodo [sig || ѐdѐ], standard Xhosa Zingxondo [zi ֊|| ѐndѐ]), is a village in the far southwest of Lesotho, on the Telle River border with South Africa (that is, formerly a border with the Transkei, now with the Eastern Cape province). The majority of residents are first-language Phuthi speakers, though there are also some households that are primarily Xhosa or Sotho-speaking. Most residents speak Xhosa, Sotho and Phuthi. Very few people cannot speak Phuthi. Many younger children speak Phuthi exclusively. Speakers live in
@ @ h Rooiwal [ròívàl ] (note diphthong and syllabic [l ]), Marantha [márán```t` a], Mmusweni [m```múswènì],` Ngxotshaneni [֊ց⍶ѐ tShánènì], Qoi [!òjí ¶], Mutsapi [mútsàpì ¶], Shoaepane
[Ѐwàìpánì]. Singxondo has been a significant source of language data for this dissertation. Mpapa is an area southwest of the town of Mount Moorosi, on the road leading east from Koali [kwadi], ultimately to Ralebona [ralib çna]. The predominantly Phuthi-speaking villages along this route are: Mafura [mafura], ‘Moso [mm ѐsѐ], Mongoli [mu ֊od i ], Mpapa [mpapa], Daliwe [d aliw ϯ] (SS: Taleoe [taliw ϯ]) and Ralebona [ralib ѐna]; also up the Daliwe River valley
h at Hlaela [ُaϯla] and Mathe [mat ϯ]. Further west there are speakers at Mosifa [musi fa]. Daliwe is widely considered to be the ‘spiritual’ homeland of the Phuthis. People from as far as Sterkspruit and Quthing emphasise that the ‘real’ speakers of Phuthi are those from Daliwe (and environs) 1. I estimate (in only the roughest way possible) that there may be as many as 10 000 1 To illustrate this, it was said to me informed when I arrived in Hlaela, one of the remotest Phuthi villages, totally inaccessible by any sort of vehicle, that I had arrived ekghubwînî h yheSiphûthî [ékx úbwí nì jè síphùthì ], ‘in the navel of Phuthi language/culture’, that is, at the 1038 Phuthi speakers living in the valleys around Mpapa and Daliwe. Mpapa has been the main source of Phuthi language data for this dissertation. There are also a few Phuthi-speaking homesteads at the junction with the tar road at Koali [kwadi] (also called Turnblock [t hEmbl çk]).
Makoae ([makwaji], Ph. [magw -a-ji]) is northeast of the Daliwe villages, across the nearly 3000m Thaba Putsoa peak. Phuthi speakers live at Lethena [lit hena]. I am not able to estimate the size of the Phuthi speech community. Qacha’s Nek (or simply: Qacha) is the largest town in the southeast of Lesotho. Among the villages in the hills and mountains surrounding Qacha (mostly to the north), a ‘majority’ 2 of the inhabitants speak Phuthi at: Mosamaqa [musama!a], Matebeng [matebe֊], Mosenekeng
h [musenekeN], Rothifa [rot i fa], Lebakeng [libake N]; there are ‘some speakers’— it is
reported—living in: Rooijane [ru Zani], Mosuwe [musuwe], Melikane [midi kane]; and a ‘good number’ of speakers at: Qenenelong [!enenelo ֊] and Ramokakatlela [ramukakatl ϯla], including some at Lesala [lisala] and Ts &olo [ts holѐ].
Matatiele (South Africa) is the largest town in the area of the northern Eastern Cape / southern KwaZulu/Natal. Phuthi speakers live north of the town, in Ts &episong [tshepi so֊],
Tsitsong [tsi tso ֊] and Likhetlane [di xϯtlani]. Informants report that there are still considerable numbers of speakers in this area, which should not be surprising, since these areas correspond fairly closely to the ones cited in Mzamane (1949), and in Bourquin (1927). Bourquin declares the Phuthi to be ‘a small tribe, who has its dwelling place in the Drakensberg and right on the border of Basutoland and East-Griqualand in the vicinity of the source of the T[h]inana River’ (1927:279; my translation). This would put the speakers a few kilometres south of the Lesotho-South Africa border post at Ongeluksnek. Mzamane (1949:125) reports the language as spoken chiefly ‘in some part of the districts of Qacha’s Nek and Quthing on either side of the Orange River in Basutoland and in the Cape Province at Ngonyameni, Thinana, Dzakwa’s and Likhetlane locations in the Mt. Fletcher district and in some parts of the very heart of the Phuthi realm. 2 These three categories of information are gleaned from what I judge to be reliable oral sources in Qacha: a high school teacher, and an older, educated man from the community. This information has not yet been verified in person. 1039 Matatiele district’. His consultants were mostly from Ts &episong and Malubelube in Matatiele, but also from Mpalla, Mt. Fletcher. These areas continue to be Phuthi- speaking territory: a Cape Town actuary (Phuthi) is from Mabua , near the source of the Kinira [kinixa] River, just west of Qacha. Phuthi-speaking villages to the south, in the Likhetlane vicinity, include Paballong and Qhobosheaneng ; and just north of the Tinana River: Mahanyaneng and Mangoloaneng . I also collected data from native speakers in the Transkei: there are small numbers of speakers (perhaps a few hundred, all over 50 years in age) at Gcina [g|ina] and Palmietfontein, that is, north of Sterkspruit, towards the Telle Bridge border between South Africa and Lesotho; and also at Mfinci, to the northeast of Sterkspruit. Younger speakers in these areas are all ‘rememberers’ (cf. Sasse (1992), quoted in my Chapter 1 §1.1.1). It is from these areas that the Phuthi data in Msimang (1989) is drawn. In addition to the areas which I visited, I collected reports—which I was unable to verify in person—of Phuthi speakers living in other areas. The degree to which these other communities maintain Phuthi as a native language remains to be investigated. The reported locales are:
! Moqalo [mu al ѐ], at the foot of the ill-fated Mt. Moorosi [moorosi ]—just outside the eponymous town—where the Phuthis were decimated in 1879 (cf. Chapter 1 §1.1.3); and
across the Senqu [si ֊k!u] River (the Lesotho portion of South Africa’s Orange River), in Phamong; in the Mpharane [mp harani] area, northeast of Mohale’s Hoek [muhaliz huk] ‘Mohale’s corner’. Walton (1956:141) reports that pole-and-daga construction occurs ‘among the Phuthi in the Mpharane district’. I must assume he is not referring to the two other, smaller Mpharane settlements, one south of Mohale’s Hoek, and one outside Sehlabathebe in the east. This was been confirmed by Lesotho internet correspondents (p.c., September 1996);
in Mutamong (perhaps ‘Molumong?’) in the Mokhotlong [muxotlo ֊] area (in the Sani foothills). Speakers here provided the data for the 100- and 200-word lists used by Ownby (1985) to examine the historical linguistic relationships among the Nguni languages (1985:279). However, the interviewer for these data, Katherine Demuth (p.c.), 1040 reports only scattered speakers in the area, and not a robust Phuthi speech community. Other Lesotho residents I met indicated there may still be Phuthi speakers in this vicinity.
Lesotho-based internet correspondents (p.c., September 1996) confirmed the information on Phuthi people in the Qacha area, and added that there are some speakers in Mphaki, Matsaile and Sehonghong. This list of Phuthi-speaking locales is certainly incomplete, and awaits further detailed research, particularly in the areas around Qacha and Matatiele.
1041