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Professor Ernst OswaldJohannes Westphal(1919–1990)David RycroftPublished online: 21 Mar 2007.

To cite this article: David Rycroft (1992) Professor Ernst Oswald JohannesWestphal (1919–1990), African Languages and Cultures, 5:1, 91-95, DOI:10.1080/09544169208717746

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Professor Ernst Oswald Johannes Westphal (1919-1990)

E.O.J. Westphal died at Bredasdorp, near Cape Town, South Africa, onNovember 27, 1990, aged 72. Before being appointed to the Chair of AfricanLanguages at the University of Cape Town (which he held from 1962 until hisretirement in 1984), Westphal had served for thirteen years at SOAS, London,as a Lecturer in Bantu Languages, from 1949 to 1962. Those who knew himwill recall that he was a remarkably versatile linguist: although primarilyteaching Zulu and Sotho at SOAS, he was actually fluent in more than a dozenSouthern African languages, and later became an acknowledged worldauthority on the Khoi ('Hottentot') and San ('Bushman') languages.Westphal married twice and has three surviving sons from his first marriage.

Born at his father's German Lutheran mission station at Khalava inVendaland, Northern Transvaal in 1919, Ernst Westphal became fluent inGerman, English, Afrikaans and Venda from early childhood. He was deeplysteeped in Venda culture, and in fact always claimed that he felt more at easewith Venda music - or with any African performing arts - than with those ofEurope. While I was a colleague of his at SOAS (1952-62), I was alwaysimpressed by his intimate knowledge and experience of African music anddrumming: though totally illiterate musically, he had a wide repertoire ofindigenous songs and intricate drumming patterns which he delighted inperforming for anyone who was interested. His London University doctoralthesis 'The sentence in Venda' (1955) was unique, in that it was based entirelyon his own competence in that language, without recourse to any informantbut himself.

With his Venda background, and having studied Zulu and Southern Sothofor his honours degree under C. M. Doke at the University of Witwatersrand,Westphal subsequently went on to master a great many more Southern Africanlanguages with alacrity during extensive field work. He had an excellent earfor speech-tones and was also a very able phonetician, having studiedphonetics under the Hamburg-trained Professor P. de V. Pienaar. Aftergraduating from the University of Witwatersrand, Westphal was appointed toa lectureship there in Bantu Languages in 1942, a position he held until 1947.As it happens, I was one of his first students there. One extra-mural eventwhich remains vividly implanted in my memory was a performance of theVenda national flute dance, the Tshikona, which Ernst Westphal organised,one evening, in the grounds of his home on the outskirts of Johannesburg,having invited a number of delighted Venda municipal workers to come andparticipate (and to partake liberally of genuine Venda beer and refreshmentssupplied by his Venda retainers). His house, incidentally, a double-storeythatched dwelling, had been designed and built almost entirely by Westphalhimself.

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After resigning from his lectureship at 'Wits' in 1947, Westphalaccompanied the late Dr Hugh Tracey as language adviser on severalpioneering field-trips for the recording of African music. Thereafter, heworked for short time in the Non-European Welfare Branch of theJohannesburg City Council, before taking up a lectureship at SOAS.

Three years after leaving South Africa for London, Westphal broadenedhis field and began his researches into little-known Bantu and non-Bantulanguages in Angola, Botswana and Namibia. It was in 1952 that heundertook a long spell of arduous study-leave in those parts, equipped with anearly Soundmirror tape recorder (using paper tape), powered by a cumbrousportable generator. After his return, I recall his recounting how he once hadthe misfortune to get stabbed in the stomach, accidentally, when trying toarbitrate between two quarrelling Bushmen (or was it Hottentots?) in theKalahari Desert. The gaping wound required stitching, but no medicalfacilities were at hand. Taking local advice, however, he managed to close thewound quite successfully by getting several large termites to stitch it for himby sinking in their fangs and leaving them behind (their bodies being thendetached and disposed of). He always took a delight in showing the scar toanyone interested.

Westphal's research findings, from that expedition and later ones, led himto differentiate Khoi and San languages into totally separate families, and hedeclared himself strongly averse to the accepted notion of a so-called 'Khoisanlanguage family'. While Westphal's convictions on this matter have neverbeen universally accepted, it is generally acknowledged that nobody has yetbeen able to definitely refute them.

While living in England (1949-62), Ernst Westphal never really felt fully athome there. His heart always remained firmly rooted in southern Africa, so hewas very happy at the opportunity of leaving England in 1962, with hissecond wife, Althea, to settle in Cape Town, where he immediately acquired aLandrover for frequent and extensive field work expeditions. Though I didmeet Ernst Westphal from time to time after he had left SOAS, regrettably I amnot fully appraised of his subsequent life and work after he returned to SouthAfrica; but this has been covered to some extent in an earlier obituary, by J.A. Louw, in Newsletter no.l (1991) of the African Language Association ofSouthern Africa. Louw mentions that Westphal 'was the first head of anAfrican Language department who succeeded in the sixties in getting Blacklecturers appointed with a full academic status'.

A posthumous Westphal Festschrift has recently been published, edited byDerek F. Gowlett {African Linguistic Contributions. Pretoria: Via Afrika,1992). Though his health had suffered in recent years, Ernst Westphal'suntimely death came as a great shock to many of us and it is indeed sad that hedid not live to see his Festschrift in print. His talents, his friendly nature and

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his warm personality are sorely missed by a very wide circle of colleagues, ex-students, friends and acquaintances.

[David Rycroft]

E.O.J. Westphal's publications1

1945. The indicative mood and its classification in Southern Bantu. African Studies4(4): 189-192.

1946a. The unification of Bantu languages. African Studies 5(1): 54-6.1946b. Obituary: Dr. P.E. Schwellnus. African Studies 5(2): 140-1.1948. Linguistics and the African music research. Music Society Newsletter

[Johannesburg], 1(1): 15-21.1950. The stative conjugation in Zulu, Sotho and Venda. African Studies 9: 125-37.1951. The tone of verb stems in Xhosa. African Studies 10(3): 107-12.1955. The sentence in Venda. PhD thesis, University of London.1956. The non-Bantu Languages of Southern Africa. Supplement to The non-Bantu

Languages of North-Eastern Africa by A.N. Tucker & M.A. Bryan, pp. 158-73& 210-3. (Handbook of African Languages, Part III.) London: OxfordUniversity Press for the International African Institute.

1957. On linguistic relationship. Zaire 11(5): 513-24. [Reply to A.E. Meeussen:Hamietisch en Nilotisch, Zaire 11(3): 263-79.]

1958a. An introductory comparative study of negation in Bantu. Mitteilungen desInstitutsfur Orientforschung [Berlin] 6(2): 284-320.

1958b. Kwangari: an Index of Lexical Types. London: SOAS. ix+109p.1961. Olurjhkumbi vocabulary (a pre-lexicographical study). African Language

Studies 2: 49-63.1962a. A reclassification of southern African non-Bantu languages. Journal of

African Languages 1(1): 1-8.1962b. Venda: tonal structure and intonation. African Studies 21(2): 49-69; (3/4):

123-73.1962c. On classifying Bushman and Hottentot languages. African Language Studies

3: 30-48.1963. The linguistic prehistory of Southern Africa: Bush, Kwadi, Hottentot and

Bantu linguistic relationships. Africa 33(3): 237-265.1964a (with M. Notshweleka). Tonal Profiles of Xhosa Nominals. Cape Town.1964b. An example of complex language contacts in Ngamiland, B.P. In Colloque

sur le Multilinguisme I Symposium on Multilingualism (Brazzaville, 1962), pp.205-10. London: Commission de Cooperation Technique en Afrique & ConseilScientifique pour 1'Afrique.

1966. Linguistic research in Southwest Africa and Angola. In Die EthnischeGruppen in Siidwestafrika, pp. 125-144. [Paper presented to Congress ofSouthwest Africa Scientific Society, Windhoek, 17-19 April 1965.](Wissenschaftliche Forschung in SiidwestAfrika, 3. Folge.) Windhuk: JohnMeinert.

1 This bibliography is as complete as resources allow; the author would appreciatenote of any additions or corrections. Acknowledgement is made to Michael Mannfor help in its preparation.

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1967 (with M. Notshweleka & S.M. Tindleni). Tonal Profiles ofXhosa Nominalsand Verbo-nominals. New and enlarged version of [Westphal & Notshweleka1964]. (Communications from the School of African Studies, New Series, 32.)Rondebosch: University of Cape Town. 54p, bibl.

1968a. Foreword to A Preliminary List of Publications Referring to the non-BantuClick Languages, compiled by Leah Levy; also Part II: Linguistic Publicationson the Click Languages arranged Chronologically According to the Languagesand their Groups, with notes by E.O.J. Westphal. (Communications from theSchool of African Studies: new series, 33.) [Cape Town:] Department of AfricanLanguages, School of African Studies, University of Cape Town. iii+21p; 14p.

1968b. Sentence analysis, word categories, and identification in Southern Africanlanguages. Taalfasette 6.

1970. Analysing, describing and teaching Bantu languages. African LanguageStudies 11: 383-390.

1971a. The click languages of Southern and Eastern Africa. In Current Trends inLinguistics 7: Linguistics in Sub-Saharan Africa, ed. by T.A. Sebeok, pp. 367-420. The Hague: Mouton.

1971b. Verbal auxiliaries in Southern Bantu. In Afrikanische Sprachen undKulturen: ein Querschnitt (Johannes Lukas zum 70. Geburtstag gewidmet), ed.by Veronika Six et al., pp. 162-169. (Hamburger Beitrage zur Afrika-Kunde: 4.)Hamburg: Deutsches Institut fur Afrika-Forschung.

1971c. Vowel Systems and X-Ray Photography: an Assessment of the CardinalVowel Chart. (Communications from the School of African Studies, Universityof Cape Town: 36). Cape Town: School of African Studies and UCT Libraries.ii+32p.

1973a. African language models in the classroom. In Papers presented to the AfricanLanguages Congress, Pretoria, 1973, pp. 191-202. Pretoria: UNISA.

1973b. Syllable and sound change in Southern Bantu languages. Journal of theSouth African Speech and Hearing Association 20(1): 22-44.

1974a. Notes on A. Traill: *N4 or S7'. African Studies 33(4): 243-247. [Reply toA. Traill, ' "N4 or S7": another Bushman language', African Studies 32, 1973,25-32. Cf. A. Traill, 'Westphal on "N4 or S7": a reply', African Studies 33,1974, 249-55.]

1974b (with J.R. Masiea, S.M. Tindleni, H.M. Jimba, I.V. Mzileni & M.T.Matiela). The verbal extensions in Southern Bantu languages: a descriptive andcomparative classification. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies37(1): 213-222.

1975. Notes on the Babirwa. Botswana Notes and Records 7: 191-4.1978. Observations on current Bushman and Hottentot musical practices. Review of

Ethnology 5(2/3): 9-15.1979a. Languages of southern Africa. In Perspectives on the Southern African Past,

pp. 37-68. (Occasional papers: 2.) University of Cape Town, Centre for AfricanStudies.

1979b. Comments on the van der Westhuizen proposals. In Khoisan LinguisticStudies 5, ed. A. Traill, pp. 45-7. Johannesburg: Department of Linguistics,University of the Witwatersrand. [Reply to P.J.W.S. van der Westhuizen,'Voorgestelde Ortografie vir !Xu (Qgun)', ibid. 30-45.]

1980a. The age of 'Bushman' languages in Southern African prehistory. InBushman and Hottentot Linguistic Studies [papers of seminar held on 27.7.79],

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ed. by J.W. Snyman, pp. 59-79. (Miscellanea Congregalia: 16.) Pretoria:UNISA.

1980b. Conference on the iron-age Bantu-speaking peoples of Southern Africabefore about 1800: [review]. Humanitas 6(1): 69-70.

1984. Recent work of SANCCOB [South African National Foundation for theConservation of Coastal Birds]. Bokmakierie 36: 57-9.

1985. Iranian cows in Namibia. ALASA Khoisan Special Interest Group Newsletter3: 7-9.

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